Yes, yes and more yes: How Inglewood City Council votes

Members of the Inglewood City Council almost always agree with each other and rarely hear from the public during the meetings in which they make some of the most consequential decisions related to the city’s future.

At a recent meeting, one resident said she watched others make public comments and leave the chambers, as if they already knew the council wasn’t going to further consider their opinions.

“My concern here is that a decision has already been made,” Jessica Lesley told the council.

The five elected officials entrusted to manage the “City of Champions” have voted unanimously to approve all but three of the 583 items on their council agendas over the last two years, according to an analysis by The LA Local of publicly available, city-approved minutes and videos of meetings.

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And they’ve been doing it in about 30-minute increments. For most of the last two years, council meetings averaged 34 minutes — though some sessions lasted only 15 minutes, 13 minutes, or even one minute — rarely adjourning later than 3:30 p.m.

City council meeting lengths and timing vary from city to city, but they are typically scheduled after the conventional 9-5 workday to allow both elected officials and the public to participate conveniently.

The city of Hawthorne holds council meetings at 6 p.m., and Culver City meets at 7 p.m. The city councils in Pasadena and Torrance averaged three-hour meetings in 2025. One Pasadena meeting went until midnight, and in Torrance, a meeting went until 1 a.m.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts, now in his fourth term, said in a call with The LA Local after publication that the city’s meetings reflect a business-like efficiency. He said that council members are expected to have reviewed the scheduled items before the meeting and come prepared to vote.

“These are not town hall meetings, they’re business meetings of the city,” Butts said.

Inglewood used to have evening meetings

In 2015, the Inglewood council voted to move its meetings from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m., a change made under Butts.

Nearly 85% of Inglewood meetings since 2024 have gone without anyone from the public commenting on the council’s scheduled business. Some people submit comments by email, but they are not read aloud during meetings for the consideration of those present. Others provide comments on nonagenda items at the end of the meeting, but those are not tied to any vote made.

But videos of past meetings and statements from the public — made either during public comment or to reporters present at meetings — tell a different story.

Meetings weren’t always this way

In the early 2010s, Inglewood city council meetings were regularly tense and sometimes adversarial, according to videos posted by the city.

On Jan. 22, 2013, the council was scheduled to consider convening two of its monthly meetings at 2 p.m. Butts and Council member Eloy Morales Jr. said the change would help more people attend.

Early accusations flew between council members that the city clerk had conspired to trick elderly residents into signing a petition demanding the change, making the meeting characteristically combative.

The city clerk at the time said she took offense to the accusation, which came from then-Council member Mike Stevens, who refused to support the change.

Council member Judy Dunlap, who lost a bid to challenge Butts for mayor in 2014, reminded members that the city had tried a similar experiment about a decade earlier. It failed, she said, and they soon returned the meetings to around 7 p.m.

“Nighttime meetings are what make our government accessible to the highest number of individuals,” she said.

And the members of the public who spoke at the meeting echoed that opposition.

Anita Savage said doing so would make it difficult for working people to participate, adding, “You have to give the opportunity to the working force.”

“You have no respect for people that’s working,” Gil Mathieu said. “They have no way to attend no 2 o’clock meeting.”

“It’s not right,” Ethel Austin said.

Butts eventually steered the meeting to a 3-2 vote to approve the change.

It would only be for two of the four or five meetings a month, he and Morales said.

But by November 2015, with neither of the two dissenting members still in office, the city council further approved moving all of the council meetings to 2 p.m. in a unanimous vote.

Then-City Manager Artie Fields defended the change in a report presented to the council in advance of the vote, saying city workers regularly had to stay late for meetings and that the public was confused by meeting times that changed from week to week.

Eight people spoke during public comment about the change, but the meeting minutes did not provide further details of what they said. The city did not post the video of that council meeting, and the city clerk did not make it available to The LA Local when requested for this story.

Why accessibility and public discourse matters

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, said that the Brown Act, the state law that guarantees the public’s right to access government proceedings, provides city councils the discretion to set their own schedules.

But the spirit of the law, he added, is to facilitate the public’s ability to attend and meaningfully take part in local government.

“As a matter of policy and principle, it’s best practice to be as accessible for people as possible,” Loy said. “If a city government is making it practically impossible for people to show up or for only a small number of people to show up, that creates significant equity and accountability concerns.”

When people did speak during Inglewood’s public comment over the last two years, they weighed in on some of the more controversial decisions and challenges facing residents: a motion to increase the number of digital billboards in the city, options for public transportation for the scheduled major sporting events, new businesses that might pose health risks to neighbors.

Frustration about a nearly unanimous governing body holding meetings early in the afternoon was on full display during the Dec. 16, 2025, meeting in which the Inglewood council voted to increase residents’ water and sewage rates.

Several people told reporters they had difficulty getting to the meeting and were frustrated with how the city was being managed. The increased cost for water was the latest in a string of changes that have made living in the rapidly developing city more difficult for them.

Jessica Lesley, who opposed the cost increase, said that her husband couldn’t come to the meeting “at 2 o’clock in the afternoon because he is working to pay for our bills that are high.”

After Elijah Woodson expressed his opposition to the rate hike, he added: “We need the 7 o’clock meetings again.” He was interrupted by Butts saying: “We don’t do that.”

How to get involved with Inglewood City Council

You can check out the Inglewood City Council for yourself. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. You can attend in person at: 1 Manchester Blvd., Inglewood 90301, or watch the meeting live on the city of Inglewood’s Facebook page.

There are three ways people provide public comment during these meetings:

1. At the beginning of a meeting on items on the general agenda
2. During a public hearing for an item pulled for consideration
3. At the end of the meeting for any item not on the agenda

Can’t make the Tuesday afternoon meeting? Don’t worry, an LA Documenter will be there to record meeting audio and publish notes here on the discussion and decisions that took place.

Isaiah Murtaugh contributed reporting.