During citizen participation at the Aug. 19 Hollywood Park City Council meeting, resident Dwayne Hall said he obtained a permit for tree work, posted it on his porch and asked police to confirm the activity. He said police saw the permit and left, but six days later he received a summons to appear in municipal court and felt pressured to pay a fine rather than contest the matter.
“I was given a summons to appear in court… and was verbally attacked, lied to about I would have a criminal record if I would not pay the fine instead of taking this to court and bullied until I agreed to pay the fine,” Hall said.
Hall said he checked neighborhoods and recorded addresses where brush was collected but no permits appeared to have been pulled. He said he filed multiple open-records requests seeking lease agreements, litigation costs and payroll changes and that responses he received did not address his questions. On open-records responses related to leases he said the documents provided did not match his request; on lawsuits he said he was told there were two matters dating from 2021 to 2025 but questioned the completeness of the response.
He also asked why the council had held numerous executive sessions and why public notices (GetConnected) were not being sent as frequently since budget meetings began.
The council did not take action on the speaker’s complaints during the meeting; no staff response or follow-up action was recorded on the public record at the meeting time.