Citing disruptions, Downey Clergy Council goes private

Members of the Downey Clergy Council at a 2020 meeting.

DOWNEY - The Downey Clergy Council will dissolve under the city’s jurisdiction, reforming under the banner of former mayor Rick Rodriguez and the Living Tree Foundation.

The City Council decided to dissolve the volunteer group with a 4-0 vote at their meeting Tuesday, with Councilwoman Claudia M. Frometa absent.

The Clergy Council was originally created by Rodriguez during his time on the city council, as a way to tackle some of Downey’s toughest issues through the collaboration of Downey’s religious community.

“I got all denominations to the same room to discuss how we could be of service to the city and volunteer to take away the burden of homelessness, children not graduating, hunger for young kids in our city. How could we do that by using our clergy and not using taxpayer dollars,” said Rodriguez. “They came, they met, and they were a solution.”

However, Rodriguez says that the council has been virtually “destroyed” as of late, pinning blame on a group of aggressively vulgar usual city critiques that have recently expanded their activity beyond city council meetings.

“Very few people come anymore, because the three terrorists that like to go and visit our city council, they’ve showed up at our clergy council with their cameras, with their vulgarity, with their insults,” said Rodriguez. “These church people don’t want to deal with it. No one talks to them like that, no one uses the ‘f-word’ three or four times in one sentence, nobody does that to them, so they leave.”

Rodriguez added that a similar situation has occurred with the Downey Care Collaborative.

In response, Rodriguez says he spoke to City Manager Gilbert Livas and members of the City Council about taking over the Clergy Council himself as part of his already established non-profit, the Living Tree Foundation.

“That way these protestors can’t come; it’s a closed meeting by invited guest only,” said Rodriguez. “We’re a 501c3, and we invite who we want to invite.”

In a statement to the Downey Patriot, Councilwoman Frometa – who oversaw the council before its dissolution – echoed many of the sentiments by Rodriguez.

“The Clergy Council brought together faith-based leaders from throughout our community representing all faiths, with the goal to strengthen City-Clergy relationships and form collaborations to address issues facing our residents. Over the last several years, we were successful. The Clergy Council was looked at as a best practice in other cities and a similar model was created.

Unfortunately, known city gadflies and agitators invaded the meetings with the goal of causing disruption and disrespecting our clergy leaders in the name of ‘free speech.’ I call those instigators local terrorists whose sole purpose is to disrupt our meetings and create havoc.

By dissolving the Clergy Council, these agitators will no longer be able to bring their hate and disruption and important work will continue, separate from the city.

I thank my friend and former Mayor Rick Rodriguez for his vision and I look forward to continuing to support the clergy group in a different capacity.”

Rodriguez hopes to eventually take over the Downey Care Collaborative and the Pets for Troops program from the city as well.