No Backroom Deals for Home Depot

Cynics often complain that lobbyists own City Hall, and on Tuesday they acted like it.

During the council meeting Tuesday morning, some council members were surprised to find lobbyists for Home Depot encamped in the backroom of the City Council chambers, talking with council staffers and summoning council members and staffers to meet with them.

Councilwoman Jan Perry saw the lobbyist meeting and asked them to leave, adding that it seemed rather inappropriate.

The City Council is set to consider Wednesday whether to let Home Depot continue construction on its new Sunland-Tujunga store or revoke the building permit and order the company to spend up to a year studying the traffic and environmental impacts of the new location.

In the first half of the year Home Depot spent nearly $600,000 lobbying City Hall. On Tuesday the company had as many as six lobbyist wandering the third and fourth floors (where council members meet and have their offices.)

Also lobbying this week, is the Do-It-Center, a competitor in Sunland-Tujunga that has sought to block the big-box store from moving into the neighborhood.