INGLEWOOD — The city has been left reeling following now-former mayor Roosevelt Dorn’s sudden resignation Sunday, prior to pleading guilty to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge.

Dorn’s plea — entered Monday, and stemming from the 2004 acceptance of a $500,000 home loan through a city housing program — resulted in a sentence of two years probation and a $1,000 fine.

As part of the plea agreement he was barred from holding public office for the rest of his life.

However, the political and financial fallout for the city was just beginning. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, which adjourned at 1 a.m., Councilman Ralph Franklin was appointed mayor pro tem in a closed session, giving him the authority to chair the proceedings.

In a later move, it was decided that the position would be rotated for the time being, meaning that a new mayor pro tem will be appointed next week.

On the counsel of City Attorney Cal Saunders, the council also added an emergency item to the agenda to direct City Clerk Yvonne Horton regarding a possible special election for the vacant office or consolidating it with a county election set for June 8.

“We need a mayor pro tem, not only to serve at the council meeting but to be able to sign contracts on behalf of the city and if necessary, warrants,” said Saunders.

Horton outlined the crucial options facing the council. “If you hold a special election, which we would do ourselves, it has to be done within 120 days [from the resignation],” she said. “[But] if you consolidate, you have to do that within 180 days from the said date. The risk is, if you do it as a special, the election will be at the end of May and the county has an election on June 8 so you will have the voters of Inglewood going to the polls at the end of May and back to the polls within a few days.”

She continued: “If you consolidate with the county, you have to have a resolution and that needs to be in my hands by Feb. 5. The nomination period for June would start Feb. 15 and close March 2. Then, if no one gets the 50 plus one percent, you would have to have a runoff and the nomination period would start at the end of August for a November election.”

Horton noted that the process would be costly. “I’ve held 17 elections in my tenure here,” she said. “[For instance] the April 2009 election cost $145,583.03 and in the June 2009 election we paid $133,890.55.”

After weighing the options, the council unanimously agreed that the city clerk should prepare a resolution to consolidate the election of a new mayor with the county balloting.

Meanwhile, in what could signal the tone of any election to come, council chambers were swelled with residents who wanted to voice opinions on the Dorn affair.

Former interim councilwoman and current Inglewood Unified School District board member Cindy Giardina said she was “proud of Inglewood tonight.”

“The leadership in this city has not been very graceful, but hateful and disrespectful. [It’s been] almost vigilante,” she said. “Tonight is the ending of an era. For too many years this city suffered from stagnation, where you were seen as a maverick if you didn’t go along with the status quo. We had a mayor that had been indicted, arrested and released on bail. [Yet] he came back and was allowed to clown us.”

Another resident, Michael Baitey, also slammed Dorn. “It’s no secret the mayor is dishonest,” he said. “He needed to go to jail for what he did and doesn’t belong anywhere near this building. No one complained at the scorn toward Judy Dunlap.
Whoever runs the city, it needs a cleanout. There’s a lot of dead weight.”

However, Dorn’s longtime friend, Parks and Recreation Commission member Willie Agee, blasted the former mayor’s detractors. “I know the mayor,” he said. “The mayor was railroaded. I was disgusted to see Black people in the court high-fiving the [district attorney]. The information for that [trial] came from this dais.”

In a Monday telephone interview, City Treasurer Wanda Brown, who was also implicated in the loan affair, called Dorn’s resignation “a dark, gloomy day for the city.”

“He will certainly be missed,” she said. “He accomplished more than any mayor in Inglewood history. But I’m optimistic and I’m for progress. Inglewood has a lot to offer no matter who ends up in that chair.”