Antoinette wants to give the Power to the People
The Van Nuys activist turned politician is from the first Black municipality in America
Antoinette Scully opens the door of her apartment in Van Nuys with a huge smile. As is customary for many of our interviews, she receives a box of Girl Scout cookies as a thank you for granting us an hour of her time. She sets them down next to a stack of other Girl Scout cookies on the kitchen counter. As it turns out, one of her daughters is in scouting and… well, her cup overfloweth.
Antoinette is idealistic, kind, and thoughtful with her answers but not shy to tell you what she really believes and wants for the Valley neighborhoods she is vying to represent.
The council district seat in her neighborhood was most recently held by the now-infamous Nury Martinez who resigned after a damaging secret recording was released. Since there are just two years remaining in Nury’s term, even if Antoinette wins, she will have to run again soon for a full, six-year term.
Because of its abbreviated length, some are not taking this race as seriously as others. Several of the organizations who would endorse candidates have chosen to just see how it all shakes out. And also, because it’s “just the Valley,” others are ignoring it entirely. But we love the Valley and we love when unique ideologoues get in the ring.
So when Katherine from our Chatsworth episode connected us with Antoinette, we gladly made our way to the 818. So thank you Katherine!
To listen to the entire conversation, click the play button below. Or to read the highlights, just keep scrolling.
Tony Pierce: Hey, we’re in your apartment, which is fantastic. This is my ideal way to interview people: in the comfort of their own home.
Everybody’s different and everybody’s a reflection of what’s in their house. [Looking around like a nosy person] I see a beautiful Black Lives Matter flag over here.
What do you call this one?
Antoinette Scully: This is a Progress flag
A Progress flag?
Yes. So it takes the traditional Rainbow flag — I want to say this is from the early-to-mid 2000s — and then it adds a black stripe for Black people, it adds a brown stripe for Brown people; and then it has a blue, pink and white stripe to indicate Trans people.
I love it. I love it. Progress flag!
I’m hearing an accent. Where are you from, Antoinette?
I grew up in a small town called Eatonville, Florida. It’s about 15 miles north of downtown Orlando.
I am from the first Black municipality in America. It was established in 1887. It is not the first freedom town. There were other all-Black towns before this. But it was the first one to gain township. I grew up with Black mayors and real city representation.
I moved to LA in late 2008.
What brought you out here?
At the time it was to start a family. The person I was dating had came into the industry here — the entertainment industry — and proposed to me. I moved across the country — 3,000 miles — to get married and start a family and I’ve stayed. I love it here.
That’s so good to hear. Did you guys move to the valley right away?
Yes. I have almost always lived in the Valley, for the exception of a few months stint in Santa Monica, and a few months stint in Glendale.
But for the most part, I’ve lived in the Valley — in and around Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks.
One of the reasons we’re talking to you specifically today is you’re running for city council. CD-6.
There’s a vacancy because Nury Martinez, who was the LA City Council President resigned, kind of in shame. But also she did the right thing by resigning because she messed up.
She took accountability, which I don’t think a lot of people give her credit for. But I will say that if you have to take accountability on hateful language, yes, move out of the way.
And we say that because there is a current City Council person, Kevin de Leon, who refuses to take real accountability for what he said and his participation in it. He’s just kind of waiting for the end of his term, where he’s gonna get slaughtered in the election if he actually does run again.
I don’t think he would run again, right?
I would have thought he would have quit once the President of United States told him to quit. Didn’t the governor also tell him to quit, too?
I think everybody did. This became a national story.
I don’t know of anybody who was like, “I don’t know, maybe he should just hang out a little bit longer.”
I remember, oh my God, this is the funny thing. I remember him being on CNN and explicitly being like, “this is not me. I don’t know what y’all are talking about.”
And then, behind him, there is a video of him pushing an activist.
With a Santa hat on.
I thought that would be the moment. I thought that was the end. And obviously, we’re still here.
It feels like there’s not rules in place yet. Just like when we had our last Sheriff — obviously, somebody who should not be the Sheriff of LA — and yet, there was no way to kick him out.
But over time, the supervisors figured out, “okay, let’s change the rules, because who knew that we were going to have this kind of a man as Sheriff? So we need a way to hit a panic button.” And they created Measure A.
But there doesn’t seem to be a panic button for city council.
I think about it in this way — the city is so compartmentalized… so that nobody holds too much power.
“We’re all buddies. So if you’re in that office and I’m over there with the supervisors…” or “I’m on the Metro board, we’re all just gonna work together and do it.”
And as our city has grown, and as the hoarding of power has continued, people are like, “well, I just don’t have to leave. I can keep this job. You can’t get rid of me.”
If you win the seat, will you try to put structure in there?
I would. That’s the difference. I haven’t been too explicit about it, but I don’t see myself as a politician.
I’m an activist running for office, so I don’t want more power. A lot of the work that politicians do is to keep the power they have or to hoard new powers so they don’t pick a definite side or so the can kind of skirt around their real answers.
For me, I think it’s really important to be authentic and genuine and to say that I’m not here to hoard power. I want this seat to give the power back to the people who were the constituents.
Which sounds great. However, a city councilperson, I think, lords over like, 200,000 people —
More.
Yeah, even more than that. So there are some proposals out there to expand the city council from, is it 12 now?
It’s 15.
— to like 40, because then it’s far more manageable, and it’s closer to Chicago and New York.
From where to where is CD-6?
CD-6 encompasses all of Lake Balboa, parts of Van Nuys, a tiny sliver of North Hollywood; parts of Sun Valley, Arleta, Panorama City, and North Hills.
But what you’ll find — like, Van Nuys — it is split between two districts. Sun Valley is split between two districts.
You can have the same zip code as somebody and be in a completely different district.
And the needs of each neighborhood are so different. The needs of what people want, or even care about, in Lake Balboa are so different than what people need or care about in Sun Valley because of the way that we’ve not taken care of constituents.
So you’ll talk to someone in Lake Balboa who’s like, “I really wish we were doing more to keep the tree cover cut down,” or that we could make sure the Sepulveda basin doesn’t get bulldozed.
And then you’ll have someone in Sun Valley who’s like, “could we just have a storm drain?”
They were hit so hard by major floods during that first storm.
Every time it storms! I was just in Panorama City last week and it’s the same thing: Panorama City and North Hills are lacking storm drains, so you are driving through rivers to get around.
I get it why the city shuts down, because in some parts of the city, you just can’t get around: you’re standing in ankle-deep water, people’s houses are flooding constantly. And so there is this need of services and care throughout the district.
And we’ve been focusing a lot on the resources that, say Sun Valley or Panorama City needs, and I think that people in Lake Balboa feel left out. But also, how do we manage all of these concerns of almost 300,000 constituents?
Homelessness is a big deal for you. I don’t want to talk a lot about homelessness because it’s exhausting and I don’t see a lot of progress.
And I also see people like — it hurts me when I see young (and I consider you very young) politicians make it into office, like my councilperson Hugo, and they don’t immediately do the thing, like in his case take down The Fence.
This is kind of why he won: that fence. And he won’t take it down?
And it’s like, “wow, in months you’ve turn into the old guy?”
It sounds like you’re gonna make an excuse for him. Please do because I want to feel good about Hugo and I’m having a hard time.
[Note: Just this week Hugo took down the fence]
I think that the piece of campaigning, and then the actual job that we’re asked to do… connecting that bridge takes some time. And how many months has it been since the election? Three? Five?
Okay but you’re an activist. You’re a punk rock.
I mean, I want things immediately, but I know that city council takes years.
But the kids ripped down that fence once he got elected —
They did [laughs].
And he put it back up! That’s not punk rock. Right?
Yeah.
Now granted, he’s got to now be a different person — like what I think you’re saying: Candidate Hugo is different than City Councilperson Hugo. Is that what you’re saying?
Yes.
And you have to kind of be an adult?
Well, I mean, Candidate Hugo, and even for Candidate Antonette, there are certain people who are going to vote you in that are going to be like, “I’m down for you. We’re doing it.”
I’ve been telling people this whole time: I’m someone’s particular type of candidate. But then the councilperson has to be everyone’s councilperson.
And so I can see how there might be a disconnect between who you had to be to get elected and who you have to be to get the job done.
So Hugo kind of ran under Defund the Police. At least that’s what many voters thought he was about. I don’t think that you’re doing that, are you?
I’m not calling it Defund the Police. I’m very explicit as an Abolitionist. And people are like, “ what do we do with that?” especially because the message that we’ve put on everything is to Bring Care to the Valley.
So I show up in places and I’ve got my protest t-shirt on, and I’ve got the flower in my hair.
Is that a daisy?
It’s a sunflower. I love sunflowers.
And so people didn’t know how to reconcile abolition, which is taking money from police and getting rid of police force, and then putting that money into services and resources.
That’s the conversation that I’ve been having.
I don’t say Defund the Police. I don’t say any of the other phrases that we’ve used to abolish the police.
I don’t know what kind of rating you’ve got on your thing.
Say whatever you want.
I don’t go around saying “defund the police,” “fuck the police,” or “fuck 12.” Like, that’s not the language I use, because for me, it is actually less about what the police are doing, and more about building up the structures that will support all of us.
So when I talk about myself as an Abolitionist, it is from a care perspective model.
And I think that when people actually learn that abolition, as far back as slavery, wasn’t just to stop slavery, but to move the idea of capitalism away from harming people’s bodies into a different system, then we can look at, “well, why don’t we do it this way now?”
This is to remove the structure of capitalism and oppression from the bodies of Black and brown folks into a different structure to help more people.
For decades, the city council and the media complained that Angelenos weren’t being involved in city government. Now groups like the People’s City Council and others are getting involved and the LA Times is calling them “idiot protesters.”
Both the City Attorney and the Council President are kicking them out of City Hall meetings and calling them names… looking down at them in many ways.
It’s a case of, “yes, we want your input. No, not like that.”
“Not like that. And not you.”
If those were old ladies, or —
Sometimes they are. I love it when it’s old white ladies who come with White People For Back Lives, and they’re shaking their friggin pennies and quarters in water bottles. Yeah, love that.
Do you follow Film The Police LA on Twitter — my man, William?
I do. But when I say I follow people on Twitter, I’m on it occasionally where I’m like, “oh yeah, I totally agree with that.”
The reason I ask is obviously William can’t be at every stop. But he’s been at a lot of stops. And as he films, there seems to still be an issue with the LAPD inappropriately handcuffing young Black and brown suspects in Hollywood.
Sadly, we only have one William, but I would imagine if there was another William on Victory over here in Van Nuys, it was probably look similar.
I told a white woman yesterday that we need more white women copwatchers.
Why?
Because white women… police….
Karens. You want Karens out there?
I don’t want Karens… I don’t want them to escalate.
You don’t want them to call the police on the police?
I want them to be able to stand there with the phone out and occasionally ask, “why are you arresting this person?” I want a calm and collected white woman somewhere between the ages of 35 and 50 to stand and watch the police.
I mean, be it in her reading glasses and her sun hat, I want there to be a police officer who’s like, “I’m sorry, ma’am. I can’t talk to you right now.”
But enough to say, “okay, I don’t actually have a reason to stop this person. This woman is filming me. She’s gonna put it on the Internet.”
I think that will do so much more good.
An army of Karens?
Yes.
Maybe we’ll call them Kathys.
Tell me something about Van Nuys that you love.
Oh, you know what I love — and I think this is just as a person who didn’t grow up here because other people don’t notice it. I love that every time I’m in my car or on my bike, whatever, I can see the mountains.
I grew up in Florida. Everything is super flat.
It doesn’t matter where I am going, I get to see mountains the moment I leave my apartment.
I’m that person who’s in the car on the 101 saying, “OH THE MOUNTAINS TODAY, IT’S SO CLEAR.”
Read more about Antoinette’s political views on her website and on her linktree.
To hear the entire conversation we had with Antoinette, just click the play button below.
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