Los Angeles lost one of its most vocal watchdogs last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eric Preven, a Hollywood writer and producer turned local government activist, died<\/a> of an apparent heart attack at his Studio City home on Saturday Nov. 8 at the age of 62.<\/p>\n As noted<\/a> by Jim Hampton, publisher of CityWatch LA where much of Preven\u2019s work was published<\/a>, Preven\u2019s signature accomplishments were two government accountability cases he was a part of.\u00a0<\/p>\n First was a years-long legal battle he brought with the American Civil Liberties Union to get Los Angeles County to publicly release invoices<\/a> revealing how much the county was paying outside law firms related to the county\u2019s many lawsuits alleging excessive force in the county jail system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Second was his 2019 case successfully challenging<\/a> the city of Los Angeles\u2019s blocking of public comment during certain meetings. \u201cIt\u2019s not a single incident,\u201d he said<\/a> at the time. \u201cThe city has been engaged in a pattern of abuse on the Brown Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Preven\u2019s civic engagement took many forms, from writing to litigation to his own bids for local office<\/a>. In his last run for office in 2018, he received 36,618 votes in his challenge to Sheila Kuehl on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Preven understood well that corruption thrives in darkness and that public engagement was critical to checking the worst instincts of those in power.<\/p>\n I got to publish six commentaries<\/a> from Preven this year in our papers and wish I could\u2019ve run more.\u00a0<\/p>\n His most recent piece, published last month<\/a>, effectively ripped into the city of Los Angeles\u2019 secretive and wasteful approach to litigation: \u201cLos Angeles will spend roughly $320 million this year settling lawsuits \u2014 from police shootings to sidewalk injuries \u2014 without a single trial or moment of public scrutiny. City Hall handles it all behind closed doors. Councilmembers vote in secret, the city attorney announces the amounts after the fact, and by the time the public hears about it, the checks are already in the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n This system, he understood, mainly benefits lawyers (who get much of this money) and politicians (who can avoid accountability).\u00a0<\/p>\n