Video by Fabiola Esqueda
On Jan. 7, civil rights activist Najee Ali, Justice for Murdered Children founder, Lawanda Hawkins, and Lanaisha Edwards of Trauma Informed LA called for the immediate resignation of Toberman Neighborhood Center’s director of social justice, Sandra Spagnoli on her fifth day on the job.
Ali called for the cutting of Toberman’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development funds if the former Beverly Hills police chief stays. When asked what he thinks would happen if Toberman’s GRYD funding were cut, he said “that’s something we’re hopeful and praying does not happen.”
“But obviously city leaders who I’ve talked to off the record are very disturbed, very troubled about this because they saw her history, in which the city of Beverly Hills had to pay out millions of dollars in lawsuits,” Ali said. “The city doesn’t want to potentially cost the city millions of dollars.”
Ali riffed off Toberman’s executive director Darlene Kiyan’s comments on her belief about second chances in a prior Random Lengths News story.
“I remember reading something that stated that the CEO said she believes in second chances,” Ali said. “Okay. I believe in second chances too, but she had twelve second chances based on the trail of lawsuits that were filed against her in Beverly Hills.”
Spagnoli retired in May 2020 following more than two dozen claims of discrimination, retaliation and harassment filed against herself and the city of Beverly Hills. The city settled the cases rather than fight them in court.
In a 2018 interview with the LA Times, Spagnoli denied allegations of improper relationships with subordinates but stopped short of denying the allegations about the racist remarks.
The civic leaders questioned the decision to hire Spagnoli in the first place given the allegations, and more importantly, questioned why it was thought having a former police chief run a gang intervention program would be effective.
LaNaisha Edwards, policy co-coordinator at Trauma Informed LA in Harbor City, called out Toberman’s tone deafness in Spagnoli’s hiring and the gang intervention program’s general neglect of communities outside of San Pedro.
“We keep asking why we don’t have African American representation in gang intervention workers to work with youth in our community,” Edwards said. “And we still don’t have it. Now we have an issue with your hiring somebody with all of the racial tension we’ve been having over these years to work with our youth.”
This is a deeply personal issue for Edwards, who has worked with the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice as the Los Angeles Chapter Coordinator and as a lead case manager at the Volunteers of America GRYD program.
“‘Why is this important to me,’ you ask? It’s because I have two younger brothers who have been murdered in Harbor City. So if you tell me and my mother that there’s not a need for Black representation to work with the youth, I’m going to tell you, ‘bullshit.’”
“We understand that we have a close relationship with the Latino community, but we need somebody to work with us (African Americans in Harbor City) specifically,” Edwards said.
The VOA GRYD case manager said Toberman continues to ignore that need, but still gets paid for it.
“Now we have someone who is police-centered over a program that’s supposed to work with at-risk youth?” Edwards said incredulously. “We work with at-risk youth. Myself and a few of the brothers standing out here,” Edwards said, gesturing to her companions who attended the press conference with her. “We work with them.”
Edwards said the GRYD program in the mayor’s office understands that there has to be a certain type of relationship that helps to combat and bring down violence and the crime rate.
“You need somebody who is like-minded when it comes to how you run these programs and how resources are divided,” Edwards said. “Me … as somebody who has buried two of their younger brothers would love to see Toberman stand up and provide the representation that Harbor City needs.”
Justice for Murdered Children executive director, Lawanda Hawkins, said she would welcome Spagnoli’s resignation.
“Her resignation would be great,” Hawkins said. “I know there are a number of people of different backgrounds who would be more well suited to run a social justice program and someone with more education.
“She didn’t even have a good record. Why would you bring her down here when there’s enough racial tension [in] the community?” Hawkins said.
Hawkins continued, saying “We’re trying to save our youth out here. We just want somebody who comes with that same mindset. So please support the guys and girls who work with you….I don’t think it’s that hard.”
“We are trying to solve racial problems,” Ali said. “We don’t need someone who has a history of documented racism coming in and being an internal leadership working in a community that is primarily brown and Black. This is the epitome of white supremacy, and also I would say white privilege.”
Before the press conference began, Ali found himself in a heated discussion with one of Toberman’s gang intervention workers who questioned whether Ali’s press conference would affect the change he was calling for, or for that matter be beneficial to the work they are doing out of Toberman. The intervention workers from Toberman didn’t want to be quoted.
Ali in a parting comment to end the press conference noted, “the Toberman employees themselves came out in front of me this morning and said publicly, ‘it’s as bad as it looks.’ Their words. Not mine.”
Ali said a town hall meeting is being organized at a time yet to be determined.