Russell Brown voted out as Executive Director of HDBID

16Sep11

The Downtown News reports that Russell Brown has been replaced as Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District by Roberto Saldaña, former in-house counsel for Broadway property owner Joseph Hellen. This vote follows soon after the formation of a city Task Force to deal with crowd control and public safety at the Downtown Art Walk. It was Mr. Brown’s interference in the management of the Art Walk non-profit which led us to create this blog.

UPDATE 9/30/11: Under pressure from Councilman Huizar, who refuses to meet with the new Executive Director Roberto Saldaña, the BID has reversed its vote to replace Russell Brown “to protect the panel from any lawsuits.”

UPDATE 10/20/11: The Los Angeles Times reports “Huizar’s office accused of blackballing appointment… What followed, critics assert, was an unusually public and petty use of City Hall power to punish an adversary’s ally.” Note that is reported that “Jessica Wethington McLean, who runs a Huizar initiative to improve downtown’s Broadway business corridor, told board members that they were in danger of being investigated by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.” Note the similarity to the baseless legal threats made by former BID Executive Director Russell Brown against the Art Walk volunteers.

Important links for new visitors seeking a quick introduction:

• What Russell Brown did to prevent the Art Walk non-profit from functioning, and how he smeared the reputations of the non-profit’s volunteers with false claims of incompetence (summer/fall 2009).

• Russell Brown’s 3:40AM emailed threat to sue the Art Walk volunteers who filed an ethics complaint against him for abusing his position in the Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council (January 2010).

• Video of Russell Brown’s DLANC ethics hearing, during which he admits to sabotaging the Art Walk non-profit (March 2010).

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