Action #1 – Stand with Ruth Luevanos Against Simi’s Racist Censure, Monday Evening at Simi Valley City Hall!
(Shared from Indivisible Conejo)
Background: “The hard-right majority on the Simi Valley City Council has finally gotten its ducks in a row to carry out its ridiculous censure of Councilwoman Ruth Luevanos — and it will consider the motion during its meeting on Monday evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. (Here’s Ruth’s uplifting election video)
If you’ve been following this story since it first boiled over in late July/early August, you know that both a censure effort and a recall petition have been touted as responses to the know-your-rights video Ruth made for immigrants concerned about July’s promised ICE raids. The recall is an uphill battle — supporters will need to raise and spend money to gather legitimate signatures on their petition — but censure is a considerably easier lift. And councilman Mike Judge, whose politics fall somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun, clearly has won over at least one of his colleagues in order to get the measure onto the agenda.
You can bet that Simi’s far-right wing, not to mention anti-immigrant racists from across SoCal, will come out to beat the drums for Ruth’s censure. The atmosphere they create won’t be pleasant — but that can’t keep us from showing up and/or weighing in on Ruth’s behalf! Here are two ways you can make yourself heard on-site:
- Participate in the council meeting itself. Wear teal, if you’ve got it (it’s Ruth’s campaign color), and speak if you have a message to send. (Your time might be severely restricted under the council’s new rules, which limit public comment to 45 minutes total on any issue.) The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.
- Protest before the meeting. Even if you can’t stay into the evening, you can join a protest in front of City Hall beginning at 4:45 p.m. and ending when the meeting starts.”
Action #2 – Email the councilmembers! Make sure they know a large audience is watching!
(Shared from Indivisible Conejo)
Make yourself heard online as well!
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Email the councilmembers. You may do so individually or collectively. Their addresses are:
- Keith Mashburn, Mayor: kmashburn@simivalley.org
- Dee Dee Cavanaugh: dcavanaugh@simivalley.org
- Mike Judge: mjudge@simivalley.org
- Elaine Litster: elitster@simivalley.org
- Ruth’s video not only legal, it imparted information that was both truthful under the California Values Act and federal law and useful to her constituents. Several other elected officials in California created similar videos and written messages.
- Judge’s accusation that Ruth lied during a meeting on July 29, when she said she had heard about an ICE raid in the vicinity of Simi’s Vallarta supermarket, is unprovable since Ruth was offering hearsay, not a statement of fact. Additionally, Judge’s insistence that he heard there was no such raid from a person in Vallarta’s corporate offices has no credibility, since he has not identified with whom he spoke, or whether that person is local.
- Simi Valley has no set protocols for censuring a council member, which may open the council to liability on due-process grounds.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 