Incumbents lose in WeHo

Longest- serving members of West Hollywood council lose reelection bids.

Two longtime West Hollywood City Council members have lost their bids to retain their seats.

West Hollywood residents have ushered in a new era by voting out the two longest- serving members of the City Council.

John Heilman, a councilman since the city incorporated in 1984, and John Duran, a colorful figure who has been dogged by sexual harassment allegations, lost to two newcomers who promised a fresh perspective for a board once dominated by longtime incumbents.

Sepi Shyne, a 43- year- old attorney who runs a holistic healing business for humans and pets, and John Erickson, the 35- year- old director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood L. A., were the top two vote- getters among 11 candidates on the ballot in the Nov. 3 at- large election.

In an election that had high turnout and many voters cast ballots early because of the contentious presidential race and the COVID- 19 pandemic, Shyne came in first with 7,850 votes.

Erickson came in second with 7,118 votes and Heilman was third. Duran, who has been on the council since 2001, came in fifth behind retail store owner Larry Block, according to unofficial results from the Los Angeles County registrar- recorder.

Both incoming council members said they would prioritize economic recovery amid the pandemic and would increase protections for renters. Shyne said she didn’t take any donations from developers.

Shyne, who is Iranian American and lesbian, is the f irst queer woman of color ever elected to the West Hollywood City Council and was one of only two women on the ballot. When she takes office next month — joining Erickson, Lindsey Horvath, Lauren Meister and John D’Amico — the council will be majority female for the first time in the city’s history.

When West Hollywood was incorporated in 1984, it grabbed headlines with the nation’s f irst gay- majority City Council, including Heilman, who is gay. One of its f irst acts was an ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“Politics was never something I thought I was going to do, honestly,” said Shyne, who unsuccessfully ran for the council last year.

“But in November 2018, after the blue wave, the rainbow wave, the women’s wave, for the first time ever I started seeing myself in office. As a queer Iranian woman, I had never seen myself [ ref lected].”

A longtime advocate for women’s and LGBTQ rights, Shyne serves on the West Hollywood Business License Commission and previously was on the city’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory board. She and her wife, actress and director Ashlei Shyne, live with their three rescue cats and mixedbreed rescue dog, Chloe the Queen of WeHo.

Erickson, who ran for off ice for the f irst time, will be the youngest member of the City Council. He said he represents “new leadership for new times. It was time for people who look like me, people my age, to run for office.”

Erickson, a gay man and LGBTQ advocate who has lived in West Hollywood since 2010, got his start as an intern for the City Council and later worked as a deputy to former Councilwoman Abbe Land. He is a member of the West Hollywood Planning Commission.

He said it is bittersweet replacing Heilman, who appointed him to the Planning Commission and is “a personal hero of mine.”