Eric Preven, one among L.A. County’s most outstanding citizen watchdogs, has died at 63, in line with his household.
Preven, a well known authorities transparency advocate, garnered a fame as an eagle-eyed observer of native conferences, a savvy wielder of the state’s public information act, and a dependable thorn within the sides of his authorities.
Relations stated Preven died Saturday in his Studio Metropolis house of a suspected coronary heart assault.
The time period “gadfly” typically is bandied about native authorities to explain those that by no means miss a public assembly. However politicians and his household say the time period doesn’t fairly do Preven justice.
“You could not agree with him, but it surely wasn’t similar to [he was] capturing from the hip. He would do his analysis,” stated Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who watched Preven testify for greater than a decade. “He would let the details converse for themselves.”
In 2016, Preven and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California took a lawsuit all the best way to the California Supreme Court docket, which dominated in his favor, discovering the general public had a proper to understand how a lot the county was paying exterior attorneys in closed circumstances. Three years later he efficiently compelled town to develop its guidelines round public testimony after he argued he’d been unlawfully barred from weighing in on a Studio Metropolis growth.
Many attendees of native public conferences are inclined to drift into offensive diatribes which have little to do with the matter at hand. Preven by no means did.
As a substitute he fine-tuned the artwork of presenting minute-long, logical arguments on every little thing from funds shortfalls to seemingly extreme settlements. He might be slicing however he at all times had a degree to make.
And he by no means missed a gathering.
“Thanks for this exhausting dressing down of the probation division,” Preven stated final Tuesday after the supervisors wrapped up rebuking officers for paltry programming inside juvenile halls. “The concept we’re paying for these applications, these applications are scheduled, and nothing is going on is horrible.”
A New York native, Preven moved to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood, touchdown TV writing gigs on reveals together with “Well-liked” and “Reba.” His path into native activism started 15 years in the past after his mom’s two chocolate labs have been eliminated by the county’s animal management division following a struggle with an off-leash canine, in line with his household.
Preven, a canine lover identified to throw events with members of his native canine park, discovered the elimination of the labs unjustifiable. He went to the Board of Supervisors assembly to inform them so. Then he went once more. And once more. And once more.
Lengthy after the canines have been returned, Preven stored going again.
“He began listening to the assembly and looking out on the agenda, and he turned simply appalled at so many issues that he noticed,” stated his brother, Joshua Preven. “He turned so incensed by it.”
Preven turned a fierce advocate for the general public’s proper to know what was taking place in native conferences and stored shut observe of workers adjustments at Metropolis Corridor. He was identified to textual content native authorities reporters early on weekend mornings to ask why somebody had stepped down from a metropolis company, or self-deprecatingly share his newest weblog submit on CityWatch, a neighborhood information web site.
“My newest deep dive into my very own navel,” he texted two weeks in the past together with his new article on the famed architect behind his historic house in Studio Metropolis’s foothills.
He typically despatched Instances editors and reporters weekly emails on successes and shortcomings of their protection. The county’s politicians and officers acquired comparable messages about their governance.
“He might be irascible,” his brother stated. “When he got here and encountered the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, it turned a extremely good use of that stubbornness.”
Preven was a dogged person of the California Public Data Act, discovering gems of information buried in seldom-scrutinized companies. He filed so many report requests to the Animal Care and Management division that the county assigned an legal professional simply to cope with them, in line with Dawyn Harrison, the county’s prime lawyer.
“Eric was the epitome of an engaged constituent and critic of native authorities, persistently questioning and difficult authorities officers,” Harrison stated. “As his curiosity in County authorities grew, so did the vary of his requests; so, my workplace decentralized the dealing with of his requests as a result of nobody particular person may cowl all the topics he regarded into. He was a real watchdog.”
Supervisor Janice Hahn stated Preven had been scrutinizing her and her colleagues ever since she was a councilmember at Metropolis Corridor.
“Eric Preven by no means let these with energy in authorities overlook who we work for. … He pushed us, he challenged us, and he had an opinion on every little thing — from the most important challenge of the day to the extra routine contract votes that too typically go missed,” she stated. “Whereas some individuals wrote him off, I believed there was at all times fact in what he needed to say.”
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district contains elements of Studio Metropolis, stated he “took significantly the function of citizen, religiously collaborating in County conferences.”
Along with his brother, Preven is survived by his sister, Anne Preven, his mom, Ruth Preven, his father, David Preven, and two youngsters, 28-year-old Isaac Rooks Preven and 26-year-old Reva Jay Preven.
Preven ran a number of occasions for public workplace, launching idiosyncratic campaigns for mayor, metropolis council and county supervisor. He barely fundraised and wasn’t allowed in most of the debates, stated his brother, who helped out as his marketing campaign supervisor.
“We didn’t know what the hell we have been doing in any respect,” Joshua Preven stated. “However he stored exhibiting up.”
Instances reporters Dakota Smith and David Zahniser contributed to this report.
