Jane Fonda will administer the oath of office to Lindsey Horvath in a mayoral inauguration ceremony on Monday that will be replete with entertainers.
Fonda has been involved in the “One Billion Rising” movement, a global campaign to end violence against women and girls for which Horvath has served as a global coordinator. She is an Academy Award-winning actress who describes herself as both a feminist and environmental activist. The young Rumi Nazemian, who is seven-years-old, will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Gay country music singer/songwriter Chely Wright will perform the national anthem during the ceremony, and there will be video presentations from former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), who is the writer of The Vagina Monologues. The regularly scheduled City Council meeting will follow the installation, and a live DJ set by DJ Asha will conclude the evening.
City Clerk Yvonne Quarker will swear in John Heilman as mayor pro tempore.
The ceremony will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. Monday in a virtual teleconference format. The meeting will be live-streamed on the city website at www.weho.org/wehotv and at www.youtube.com/wehotv.
The installation of the mayor and mayor pro tem is an annual event, with the positions rotating among members of the City Council each Spring. Horvath is succeeding John D’Amico as mayor. Councilmember Lauren Meister was set to become mayor pro tem this time but, citing work pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, deferred to Heilman. The position of mayor is largely an honorary one, although the mayor is the council member who moderates the City Council meetings and signs certain checks. The mayor also is often the public face of the city, with most official city press releases including a quote from the mayor and TV reporters singling out the mayor for a comment on a story involving the city.
With its entertainment talent, Monday’s ceremony is likely to rival the installation of John Duran as mayor in May 2018. It took place was at 1OAK, the nightclub on Sunset Boulevard, rather than the City Council Chambers, the traditional location of such installations.
Duran was sworn into office as mayor by Eddie Money, the legendary rock star, known for songs like “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets to Paradise” and the album Can’t Hold Back. He used the ceremony to proclaim his dedication to reviving the Sunset Strip, citing its “creative, colorful, outlandish, garish, outrageous, extreme, nonconforming, sexual, giddy, joyous feeling.”
Most Council members have had more modest swearing in ceremonies. John Heilman, for example, took the oath of office with City Clerk Quarker in 2017 and in 2016 Lauren Meister was sworn in by Nicklaus Fox, a West Hollywood veterinarian. John D’Amico’s D’Amico’s oath of office was administered by Quarker in 2019.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified Remi Nazemian as an actor who appeared in the “Eastsiders.” The seven-year-old Remi Nazemian who will be leading the Pledge of Allegiance is not the actor who performed in the “Eastsiders.”
Horvath, the weho prom queen and her court.
To be honest I have mixed feelings about this. It’s a somber time when many have lost their jobs or their homes and are suffering. Glamour and pomp should be reserved for celebratory times and i am sure lindsey will have many of those in years to come. But, putting that aside if u recall her first mayorship was all of a sudden after she took office in her first term and this event has probably been in the works for a long time. We should all just enjoy the night and look forward to normalizing our lives and keep… Read more »
Never let a serious crisis go to waste. Many keen folks have expressed this sentiment. Were our city leaders visible during this crisis? Did they roll up their sleeves and stretch their minds? Could they have acted independently without the need to be reinforced by visiting dignitaries Adam Schiff and Richard Bloom? With the exception of the moratorium on residential and commercial rent payments, the city leaders have appeared mildly comatose so far, as if West Hollywood were in some type of a time warp. Folks are always ready for fresh information delivered in an earnest and practical way rather… Read more »
I certainly hope that Horvath will promote more environmentally-responsible policies and practices for our City than she did with her campaign. I deeply resented coming home every night to her incessant campaign mailers in my mailbox; one night alone it was 7 different designs in my mailbox alone, which were duplicated in EVERY other mailbox in West Hollywood. There is no excuse for that kind of waste of paper and environmental irresponsibility in this new, Green era. I think her first act as Mayor should be to renounce her wasteful ways and pledge to campaign differently in the future. If… Read more »
Amen. It has angered me for years that in the “creative city” we can’t find creative politicos who can find less environmentally offensive ways to campaign. There are 35,000 citizens and about 25,000 voters in 1.9 square miles. That’s not a lot of ground to cover through meet and greets and getting to know people outside supermarkets and coffee shops. I save all of the trashy glossy mailers and vote for the candidate with the shortest pile on my dining room table.
The coronation of Mayor Lindsey Horvath. How exciting.
From her past performance as mayor in 2016, we know that President Donald Trump is not invited. She declared that his visit would be verbotten in West Hollywood 4 years ago.
I wonder if she will try the same thing with the Department of Justice and the FBI? Should they take an interest in the heavy pay-for-play actions of WEHO politicians connecting with developers. Like the investigations that are now taking place in Los Angeles.
“Most Council members have had more modest swearing in ceremonies” How quickly we forget the pre-Great Recession Mayoral Inaugurations – fun and fabulous, but also cost thousands of dollars. No harm in mayors using the night to highlight the Sunset Strip (Duran) or kickoff the conversation for WeHO2050 (Heilman). Today’s events have been a fraction of the pre-recession costs and I would imagine a ceremony viewed only online where guests and talent don’t need to travel or be fed would cost even less. I’m glad we’re promoting bold and sexy climate activism while simultaneously lifting up gay artists. These are… Read more »
Sidewalks hosed down- – ? Had to stop and wonder and reread. –
A great missed opportunity to clean all the sidewalks while folks were off the streets. What could be better to open up a re-envisioned community with clean sidewalks? Soap and water….it’s the cheapest thing around.
It starts with the daily quality of life issues and goes from there, not the other way around.
It’s West Hollywood, The Reality (unreality) Show! I love it. looks to me like Horvath has caught the need for attention from Duran. I just hope that during her desperate need for attention and Delusions of Grandeur , she doesn’t loose sight of the needs of the Residents and the business of the City. There is no reason she can’t be the self-appointed Queen of West Hollywood, if that is what she needs for self-affirmation as long as she keeps her feet on the ground and remembers that she is a Public Servant, serving at the pleasure of the Voters.… Read more »
Hats off to John Heilman for maintainIng a sense of seriousness and decorum and not creating an attention- and headline-grabbing moment in front of the cameras.