"Race And Change" Town Hall Follows Tense Month In Calabasas

CALABASAS, CA —Does Calabasas have a “serious problem with racism,” as Councilmember Fred Gaines alleged during a June 10 council meeting?

Following a month that put race front and center in this normally sleepy town, Calabasas is hosting a Zoom town hall called “Race & Change: A Conversation with the Community” on Monday at 4 p.m.

The conference is hosted by the Mayor’s Youth Council and will be moderated by Mayor Alicia Weintraub, Councilmember David J. Shapiro, and Mayor’s Youth Council Board Chair Adam Jaysen.

Panelists include Lost Hills Sheriff’s Captain Chuck Becerra, Las Virgenes Unified School District Superintendent Dan Stepenosky, a number of high-profile Calabasas residents, including actor Laila Drew, actor Anehita Okojie, and Calabasas business owner and Olympic boxing champion Audley Harrison.

The public has until Thursday to submit any questions they’d like to ask to City Clerk Maricela Hernandez at mhernandez@cityofcalabasas.com.

The panel comes after a racially-charged month that led Mayor Weintraub to write in a June 2 letter signed by all four city councilmembers that, “Talking about racism is hard, but as your Mayor I want to be able to have that conversation with our community. There are people in our community hurting. To them George Floyd is not just a name, but could have been their husband, son or brother.”

Weintraub first announced the Zoom panel on June 19, or Juneteenth, the anniversary of the date in 1865 when the last slaves were freed. “I made a commitment to our community that we would speak about these difficult issues and we are taking our first step in doing that,” Weintraub announced on Facebook.

There will be much to discuss.

Calabasas saw three large protests in response to the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police. On June 3, 4, and 7, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of Trader Joe’s on Calabasas Road before marching a few blocks to City Hall, where the crowd knelt in silence for eight minutes, 46 seconds to memorialize Floyd and other African-Americans killed in police custody.

That same week, outrage followed the discovery of a TikTok video of two Calabasas High School teenagers dancing to the lyrics, “I don’t like n----s.”

At a June 10 City Council meeting, Councilmember Fred Gaines said that, “We have a serioius problem with racism in Calabasas.”

Gaines alleged that former City Manager Gary Lysik, who was forced to resign his post in May, was the victim of “horrifying and overt racism” because he is married to a Black woman. Gaines said that he had overheard several racist comments directed against Lysik.

Gaines also alleged that he heard racially charged comments about football players at games.

“Unfortunately when it comes to institutional racism, Calabasas could be a poster child,”Gaines said. “All of us who live in Calabasas—and when I say us I of course include myself—have chosen to live in one of California’s most segregated cities: 84% white. 1.6% Black. We’ve chosen to have our kids attend segregated schools: 78% white, 1.8% black*. Many of us went to great L.A. public schools, but when we found the quality of those schools to be lacking for our own kids, we didn’t fix those schools, we moved to Calabasas.

Two-thirds of our residents live behind guarded gates. The fundamental principle that seems to have the broadest support throughout our city is nimby-ism. Not in my backyard. Keeping others out. Not exactly a message of racial, social, or economic justice.”

Community leaders have denied Gaines’allegations. Weintraub told The Acorn that she had never witnessed any racism at City Hall, and that “our embodies very strong values and those values are representative of our community.”

Calabasas High School Principal CJ Foss and LVUSD Superintendent both told The Acorn they had not witnessed any racist language at school sporting events.

*2010 U.S. Census data says that Calabasas's African-American population was only 0.8 percent.