EASTSIDER - Angela Gonzales-Torres is running for California’s 34th Congressional District seat against incumbent Jimmy Gomez. She points to her tenure as president of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council as evidence of her community leadership.
Caroline Aguirre, who served alongside her as the council’s Public Safety Committee chair, offers a more critical assessment. Her concerns stem from her council service, correspondence with Gonzales-Torres and city officials, and a confrontation she later reported to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Neighborhood councils are supposed to give residents a voice. Aguirre contends that Gonzales-Torres’s leadership too often made that more difficult.
According to Aguirre, residents from East Avenues 43, 44 and 45 attended council meetings on more than two occasions seeking help with encampments near their homes. Aguirre says she witnessed residents being denied an opportunity to explain their concerns. On one occasion, she recalls, a homeowner called out, asking why they were not being allowed to speak when they had come to ask for help.
These homeowners wanted council members to understand their fears about fires and other conditions near their properties. According to Aguirre, they reported that firefighters had responded repeatedly to encampment fires close to their homes.
Supporting homeless residents and listening to homeowners should not be competing responsibilities. A neighborhood council should make room for both.
At a Northeast Business Association meeting Aguirre attended, she says Gonzales-Torres criticized an employee of the LA Alliance for Human Rights, saying the organization was criminalizing homelessness. The Alliance had sued the city and county over their response to homelessness.
Gonzales-Torres was entitled to disagree with the organization. Aguirre’s concern was that the discussion did not adequately acknowledge residents and businesses seeking help with unsafe conditions.
Their disagreements also extended to Aguirre’s work as Public Safety Committee chair.
In a January 17, 2024 email, Gonzales-Torres raised concerns about council meeting materials distributed alongside LA Alliance flyers. She said the distribution had caused confusion about whether there was a board-approved collaboration. She also alleged that photographs used in the materials had been sent to the council confidentially.
Gonzales-Torres instructed Aguirre not to create or distribute further meeting flyers without clearance from the outreach chair or committee. She added that the executive committee needed to be prepared to seek a new committee chair if Aguirre deliberately failed to follow those requests.
Aguirre disputed that account. In a written response, she explained that she had distributed what she understood to be approved Public Safety meeting announcements and that the Alliance had prepared its own flyers. She requested an executive committee investigation.
This was a substantive disagreement about council communications and a volunteer’s conduct. Aguirre believed it deserved a fair examination.
A separate dispute over an April 23, 2024 Land Use gathering raises a more specific question about how council procedures were being applied.
The published agenda identified the gathering as a “SPECIAL Land Use Committee Meeting.” It included a roll call, certification of a quorum, public comment and discussion items.
Yet in an email that day, Gonzales-Torres invited board members to a Land Use “event.” She wrote that she had confirmed it could operate as an event and that council board members would be able to engage in conversation with the invited participants.
Aguirre subsequently asked the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, also known as EmpowerLA, about that representation.
In a May 13, 2024 email to Aguirre, department representative Gibson Nyambura wrote: “I did not give the advice nor permission to change the Land Use meeting into an event.”
He also explained that, in the situation Aguirre had described, board members who were not committee members could attend but not participate.
That correspondence does not establish a formal finding of a Brown Act violation. It does, however, document a discrepancy between Gonzales-Torres’s message and the department’s explanation. Residents deserve to know how that discrepancy arose and what guidance she relied upon.
Aguirre’s concerns were also personal.
At a November 15, 2023 Public Safety Committee meeting, Gonzales-Torres challenged whether the meeting could proceed without a quorum. Aguirre disagreed with her interpretation of the council’s requirements at the time. The applicable bylaws and committee rules should resolve that question.
What troubled Aguirre most, however, was Gonzales-Torres’s conduct during and after the meeting.
According to Aguirre, Gonzales-Torres interrupted the proceedings and afterward approached her in a raised voice, telling her the meeting was illegal. Aguirre says she asked Gonzales-Torres to lower her voice and discuss her concerns privately rather than in front of the residents who had attended.
In Aguirre’s account, Gonzales-Torres briefly stepped away, then returned and pointed her finger toward Aguirre’s face. Aguirre says she stepped back because she feared being poked in the eye, then walked away to avoid further argument.
On June 11, 2024, Aguirre reported that confrontation to the LAPD.
The resulting report records Aguirre’s allegation. It does not establish that police independently substantiated an assault. The officer reported being unable to reach the two witnesses Aguirre identified, and the report lists no arrest, injury, recordings or other evidence.
Those limitations matter. Readers should understand both what Aguirre reported and what the police document establishes.
Nevertheless, Aguirre says the experience contributed to her concerns about Gonzales-Torres’s temperament and approach to disagreement.
Highland Park residents have different views about homelessness, development, public safety and neighborhood change. Those differences make patient, respectful leadership essential.
A council president should welcome difficult questions, take residents’ concerns seriously and apply meeting procedures consistently. Volunteers should be able to disagree without disputes becoming personal confrontations.
Gonzales-Torres is now asking voters to entrust her with a seat in Congress. Her neighborhood council service is part of the record she offers in support of that request. It should also be open to scrutiny.
Aguirre’s experience has left her with serious reservations about Gonzales-Torres’s leadership. Voters should examine that record, consider the supporting documents and seek Gonzales-Torres’s explanation of the decisions and incidents described here.
(Tony Butka is a veteran Eastside community activist with decades of experience in Los Angeles civic life. He has served on a neighborhood council and worked extensively within local government, bringing deep knowledge of policy, budgeting, and urban planning to his advocacy. As a regular contributor to CityWatchLA, Butka offers sharp commentary on city politics, development, and grassroots issues. His writing reflects a commitment to transparency, accountability, and amplifying the voices of historically underserved communities.)
