Reactions to resignation of Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn vary

City of Inglewood officials are figuring out what to do now that Mayor Roosevelt Dorn has resigned. Dorn pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge on the same day jury selection in his trial was to begin.

Real estate broker and consultant Will Hardy has lived in Inglewood for almost 40 years. Across from his office on Market Street, he said that Roosevelt Dorn arrived in the mayor’s office more than a decade ago with a good vision for the city, but now it’s past time for Dorn to move on.

"You know he had a tremendous following here in the city, I voted for him I think twice," said Hardy. "He’s done some nice things but unfortunately, he just allowed personal involvement to cross lines into political involvement."

Prosecutors filed a case against Roosevelt Dorn a year and a half ago. They accused him of corruption for voting to extend a low-interest loan program to Inglewood elected officials, then borrowing a half-million dollars from that program.

"I actually thought it was a dumb thing for him to do, but it never occurred to me that he would actually have to give up his office" political consultant Kerman Maddox said.

Maddox managed Roosevelt Dorn’s mayoral campaigns. He said Inglewood’s City Attorney had told Dorn that it was legal for him to take out the loan.

"Once he found out from the DA’s office that what they did was wrong, he immediately paid off the loan, so I thought, he did the wrong thing, he rectified it, they would fine him, case closed, let’s move on."

But the judge fined Dorn $1,000, sentenced him to two years probation and barred the 74-year-old from holding public office again. Dorn’s resignation ends a long public career. He served in the United States Air Force, as an L.A. County deputy sheriff, an L.A. assistant city attorney and Superior Court judge.

"When he became Mayor of Inglewood, Inglewood was on the downside," said Maddox. "He brought incredible retail development. All you have to do is drive down Century boulevard between Crenshaw and Prairie and you’ll see the big box retail there"

During a tour of the Village at Century shopping center 3 years ago, Dorn trumpeted the businesses he’d help attract to town.

"Red Lobster, Chili’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshall’s, I mean, these are places that’s unheard of in terms of coming into a predominantly black and brown city," Dorn said, then.

"A lot of people will tell you that Mayor Dorn was very stubborn, very determined to get things done his way. And in a lot of cases, that’s probably true,": said Danny Bakewell Jr.

Bakewell is executive editor of the weekly Los Angeles Sentinel. He credited Dorn with leading Inglewood’s economic revitalization and working to reduce the noise that plagued his city from Los Angeles International Airport. Bakewell said Dorn developed a hard-charging management style from his background in the military and as a Superior Court Judge.

"He was a guy known for being very, very tough on crime, didn’t cut you a lot of breaks, didn’t cut you a lot of slack, probably wouldn’t have given himself the plea bargain that he ended up getting if he would have been the judge sitting on the bench," Bakewell said.

Bakewell said that Dorn’s resignation will cloud his legacy in Inglewood, but that the city will build on its former mayor’s accomplishments.