After two decades of city council meetings being held in the evening, Inglewood held its first daytime meeting on Tuesday, February 5.

Two busloads of senior citizens were herded in from Westchester Villa on 220 W. Manchester Boulevard. The senior citizen residence center is located a few short convenient blocks from city hall. The busses and the drivers were graciously donated by the City of Inglewood.

Events soon turned dark, however, as the mayor man- dated that the senior citizens take seats at the rear of the room. Wheelchairs, walkers and canes were crammed in- to the aisles, prompting an Inglewood Police Dept. officer to spend several minutes attempting to clear a significant fire hazard.

Such hazards are not un- heard of during Inglewood city council meetings. In the three years since Butts was made mayor, no fewer than three emergencies have occurred during or immediately prior to city council meetings: a bomb threat, a fire alarm and a hazardous materials threat. All three were deemed false alarms.

Nevertheless, after much ado, the senior citizens and their personal items were allowed to remain as they were.
What was not allowed, however, was an opportunity for the senior citizens to speak. As some of the citizens started to stand, Butts quickly ended the public comments segment. It took ambulatory citizens to make the mayor understand that the people he had bussed in to use for publicity purposes, had a mind to speak and a desire to make their sentiments heard.
Gil Mathieu was one of those who had to rush to the podium speak his mind. “I’m a senior. Don’t use these seniors as pawns,” he said after being impolitely admonished by the mayor, James T. Butts, for daring to speak out.

“They’re crippled just like me, and I resent it.”

Gil Mathieu and others’ comments regarding agenda items appeared to be qualified when at the end of the agendized segment of the meeting, Butts allowed approximately two seconds be- tween announcing the invitation for public comments not related to agenda items and closing the window to that opportunity.

Toward the end of the meeting, a sudden diaspora appeared to occur. The ejection of the senior citizens appeared to be controlled by Westchester Villa’s employee Tricia Crenshaw. The stream of senior citizens was enough to prompt one IPD officer to inform Ms. Crenshaw that “next time [she] needs to bring more help for these people” as the huge crowd of senior citizens were being crammed into the elevators. The con- fusion nearly toppled many people as they attempted to hurry for elevators that Ms. Crenshaw was unable to hold open as she frantically directed people around.

Calls to Crenshaw and to the mayor were not returned.