West Hollywood outlines community-safety functions, trainings and public tours

City of West Hollywood officials and contracted partners on Saturday briefed attendees on how the city’s community safety functions work together, described emergency preparedness offerings and invited the public to tours of the West Hollywood Sheriff Station and Fire Station 7.

Director Danny Rivas opened the presentation by summarizing the day’s agenda—presentations, a brief Q&A and tours—and explaining that West Hollywood is a contract city that purchases police and fire services from county agencies and contracted vendors.

The city’s code enforcement team, represented by Alyssa Lopez, described its structure and operations, including two supervisor positions, eight enforcement officers, two administrative staff and a code-enforcement technician. Lopez said the division enforces vacant-property rules, multifamily inspection pilots, property-maintenance complaints, noise, short-term rental rules and construction-hour limits.

Yessica Benitez outlined business-licensing and permitting responsibilities, saying there are 34 business-license categories and that the Business License Commission reviews extended-hour and cannabis licenses. Benitez said the city processed 466 special-event permits last year and handled roughly 8,000 service requests through the code unit.

Public Safety Manager Anita Shandy described emergency-preparedness efforts and community training resources. She urged residents to sign up for Everbridge/Nixle alerts by texting their ZIP code to 888777 so the city and partners can reach them directly during incidents. Shandy also highlighted CERT training (the next session begins Nov. 4 at Plumber Park) and free active-shooter training planned for Dec. 6.

The session concluded with a short Q&A and logistical instructions for the scheduled tours of the Sheriff Station and Fire Station 7.