Jan Perry Quits as L.A.'s Council President Pro Tem After Backroom Deals Leave Her in The Cold

Jan Perry.

Strange. Jan Perry has had no trouble with the backroom planning leading up to the L.A. City Council's rubber-spine stance on a proposed stadium that would be plopped down onto taxpayer property. She's as gung-ho as they come, even if the process has been less than transparent.

But today the downtown councilwoman says she's aghast at the shady deals behind council redistricting in L.A.

She expressed "disgust." All of a sudden she cares about political processes being exposed to you, the taxpayer? Oh, there's one more thing:

She's also miffed that Councilman Herb Wesson will probably get the council president's gig after Eric Garcetti gives it up to run for mayor. Apparently there was some backroom dealing there as well. And she didn't end up with the spoils in this case.

Herb Wesson is the council's ripper pro tem.

And ... Perry is running for mayor against Garcetti. So she won't be able to have "council president" on her resume when Garcetti will.

Perry is the next in command, the council's president pro tem. She quit the gig today in protest.

Now you see why she cares so much. Trash is piling up in her district, the city's budget perpetually underwater, and L.A. consistently has some of the worst streets in the nation. But titles are important.

Funny aside: Wesson's response to her concerns was that anyone could purchase a computer program and calculate their own district maps as they like. Really. He told KNX 1070 Newsradio that the council members were simply voicing their input regarding those hypothetical maps, as anyone theoretically could, even though it wasn't being done in public.

Just the other day we were thinking, dang, we gotta get that council redistricting map app and just play around with it, you know.

This is what passes for a crisis at the L.A. City Council. Perry wrote this to her fellow council members:

In recent months, I have felt that we have drifted away from the kind of openness and frank discussion that has characterized this council. These important issues should be discussed in the public record.

Really, Jan? Like letting a billionaire-controlled corporation take over a huge hunk of the L.A. Convention Center and borrow $300 million with the taxpayers as cosigners to build a stadium of dubious economic impact? Is that an important issue that should be discussed in the public record too?

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]