Larry Block owns WEHOonline, and he is running for City Council. He used his site to publish a false claim about George Nickle, the rival who stood between Block and the ticket he wanted with John Erickson. The City Attorney says it never happened. It is still online.
Larry Block wants a seat on the West Hollywood City Council.
He wanted one in 2024, too. Two seats were open, and one belonged to Councilmember John Erickson. Block asked the Chamber of Commerce’s PAC to back him and Erickson together. The Chamber picked George Nickle and Zekiah Wright instead.
Block co-owns WEHOonline, and his site went after them both. It told readers Nickle’s conduct was “illegal.” It reported Wright “arrested on felony charges” before, according to Wright’s attorney, Wright had even been told of the case. The complaint against Wright came from Erickson. Erickson and his running mate won both seats.
Block did not stop when the election ended. In August 2025 he published that Nickle had been “reprimanded” by the City Attorney. The City Attorney says in writing that she did no such thing. The same op-ed defended Erickson, leaned on emails Erickson handed Block, put the meeting on the wrong date and gave Nickle’s neighborhood group the wrong name.
It is still online, uncorrected. WEHOonline now has a managing editor who says Block has no say over its coverage. If that is true, the paper should retract it.
At our request, George Nickle provided the following documents: his correspondence with the City Attorney, and the emails Larry Block sent him during the 2024 race. They are published in full at the end of this article. Everything else here is public record: WEHOonline’s own archive, City minutes and video, and campaign filings.
The false claim
On Aug. 7, 2025, WEHOonline published “OpEd: The Politics behind National Night Out” under Larry Block’s byline. It was an attack on Nickle and a defense of Erickson. Its central claim:
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- 1False as to Nickle: he asked for the meeting, the Clerk was not involved, and the City Attorney says it was not a reprimand.
- 2Nickle had stopped communicating with Block in 2024, by his account after Block's July 2024 email. The op-ed does not say so.
Nickle wrote to the City Attorney the day the op-ed ran. It “includes the lie,” he told her, and “the story is filled with other lies.” Every one of those that can be checked against the record comes out his way.
The reprimand. Nickle asked the City Attorney, Lauren Langer, to confirm the facts. She did, in writing. Nickle requested the meeting; the City did not contact him. The City Clerk “was not involved in those conversations/emails at all.” And: “I would not characterize our conversation as a reprimand.” Langer then sent Nickle the record itself: the redacted public record the City had released about her contact with him. It is three pages. Nickle reaches out, a call is scheduled, and afterward he thanks her for her advice. It contains no clerk and no reprimand.
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- 1Nickle, after the call: "As always, I appreciate your advice."
- 2Langer offers times for a Zoom call. Earlier pages show Nickle asking to meet and Langer thanking him "for reaching out."
That matters because Block’s claim rests on public records. “Public records show,” he wrote. He never said which ones. The City Attorney identified one released record about her contact with Nickle: this one. In all likelihood it is the record Block was citing, and it says the opposite of what he wrote.
The meeting. The op-ed sets the confrontation between Nickle and Erickson at an “April 5th City Council meeting.” April 5, 2025 was a Saturday. The City’s minutes place Nickle’s public comment at the meeting of March 3, 2025. The op-ed also strips that meeting of context. Nickle went to the podium that night to correct Erickson, who, in Block’s own telling, had said “he was not sure anymore” whether there was a neighborhood watch group on the east side. Watch it for yourself:
The group. The op-ed calls Nickle a “Gardner watch captain” and refers to a “Gardner Eastside Neighborhood Watch Group.” The group is the WeHo East Neighborhood Watch, which is what WEHOonline itself called it in September 2024.
“Declined comment.” The op-ed says Nickle “declined comment.” It does not tell readers what Nickle told the City Attorney the next day: that he had “long ago blocked Larry” from his phone and did not communicate with him at all.
Block and Erickson
The op-ed did not just attack Nickle. It took Erickson’s side. “Council member Erickson was not wrong,” Block wrote, in questioning whether Nickle’s watch group was what it claimed to be. Block wrote that “Erickson produced email correspondence” to back up his version and that “Nickle did not reply.” He described Erickson as having “generously offered to meet George for coffee.”
That was not new. Block’s own columns describe a long effort to align himself with Erickson:
- A two-man ticket. West Hollywood had two council seats open in 2024. Erickson held one. Block wrote that he sent the Chamber of Commerce’s PAC a letter asking it “to consider working with John and myself.” When the Chamber chose others, Block complained that he had been punished “for trying to work with Erickson” and “by saying, give John Erickson a chance.”
- “Protecting John Erickson.” In a December 2024 column, Block wrote that the Chamber’s leadership demanded to know “why am I protecting John Erickson?” and that he “would not cooperate” with efforts against Erickson. He called it “a working relationship with John Erickson.”
- Money. State records show Block gave $100 to John Erickson for State Senate 2026 on June 14, 2025: his only contribution made directly to a state candidate in the records.1
- Flock. Erickson voted against keeping the City’s Flock license-plate cameras. Block now opposes the contract too. “I was Pro-Flock,” he told the Los Angeles Blade this week, but “I’ve changed my mind on this topic after a loud backlash.”
Block’s position changed quickly. On July 21, 2024, he told Nickle in an email that “the goal was to make sure the Erickson Hang team and Unite Here does not sweep the seats.” By September he was telling readers he had asked the Chamber to back him alongside Erickson. And every attack his site made in that race landed on the two candidates the Chamber had chosen to run against Erickson and his running mate, Danny Hang.
The support has run one way. Block gave to Erickson’s State Senate campaign. Block’s own campaign filings, for 2024 and for 2026, show nothing from Erickson in return.2
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- 1The filer: John Erickson for State Senate 2026.
- 2Larry Block, West Hollywood, June 14, 2025.
- 3$100.
2024: the warning, and the story that followed
Shortly before 1 a.m. on July 21, 2024, Block emailed Nickle. He was angry that Nickle’s supporters were urging residents to cast only one of their two votes, for Nickle. Then he turned to his publication. An op-ed had come in, he wrote, about “Nickledeon and his daddy the professor,” a jab at Nickle and his husband. “We didn’t print it. Ive earned my keep with you.” And then the condition: if Nickle’s people kept telling voters how to use their votes, “Im going to do a story on it.”
A minute later Block sent a second note. He supported Nickle, he wrote, “The unite here is the target,” and he was not sure the end of his first note “accurately reflects” what he meant. He added that he was “taking the exit” from the publication.
He did not take the exit. Two days later, on July 23, WEHOonline published Block’s op-ed “Why bullet voting is probably a bad idea.” In the comments, a user called “hot2trot” piled on a reader who complained about an east side meet and greet. The comment carried the site’s “Author” badge, the one that marks the writer of the article.
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- 1Block's byline, two days after his July 21 email warning he would "do a story" on Nickle's supporters' voting advice.
- 2"hot2trot": an anonymous complaint to the City Attorney said hovering over this name linked to Block's author page. Block denied writing it and said someone had impersonated him.
- 3The site's "Author" badge, which marks the writer of the article.
An anonymous complaint to the City Attorney, published by WEHO Times on Aug. 3, 2024, said hovering over “hot2trot” linked to Block’s author page, and accused him of commenting under assumed names. Block told WEHO Times he had never used any name but his own and blamed someone who he said had impersonated him. In the same interview he said he had “zero involvement” with WEHOonline and was “merely a ‘contributor.'”
Accusing opponents of crimes
This is the most troubling part of the record. The day after that interview, Aug. 4, WEHOonline published a piece under Block’s byline: “Duran’s sleazy politics tarnish George Nickle campaign.” It was built on one photo of Nickle on Santa Monica Boulevard with a consultant to the Chamber of Commerce’s PAC. On that alone, Block told readers that the coordination between Nickle and the consultant “is illegal.” He did not tell readers he was running against Nickle.
The accusation was wrong on its own terms. Block cited “Federal Election Laws,” which do not govern a West Hollywood council race. California’s rules on coordination do not make it a crime for a candidate to stand next to a political consultant. They govern spending: under the state’s regulation on coordinated expenditures, money a committee spends in coordination with a candidate is treated as a contribution to that candidate rather than as independent spending. On Aug. 4 there was no spending to coordinate. By Block’s own account in the same article, the Chamber PAC “has yet to make any endorsements,” and the PAC’s first reported expenditure supporting Nickle came on Sept. 20, 2024, seven weeks later. In December he returned to it, writing in a WEHOonline column that the episode had “resulted in a formal complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission from an unknown party.” He did not say what became of it.
The state’s records do. The FPPC’s public portal shows one complaint ever filed against George Nickle, received Sept. 5, 2024, the same day the Chamber endorsed him. The FPPC rejected it. It never opened a case. Block told readers Nickle’s conduct “is illegal.” The agency that enforces California’s campaign laws never found that it was. It is one more accusation Block published as fact that the record does not support.
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- 1One complaint, ever.
- 2Received Sept. 5, 2024, the day the Chamber PAC endorsed Nickle. Status: rejected, so the FPPC never opened a case. The only respondent is George Nickle.
On Sept. 5, 2024, the Chamber PAC endorsed two candidates: Nickle and Zekiah Wright. Block was passed over. In his Sept. 10 column he called Wright “a liar.” Two days later he wrote this:
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- 1"Arrested today on felony charges." The statement from Wright's attorney, printed further down the same article, says a citation had been issued and "no formal criminal charges have yet to be filed."
- 2Block's own label for what follows: "an unsubstantiated report of the allegations."
- 3WEHOonline knew of "the impending arrest earlier in the week." Wright's attorney says Wright was not told until Sept. 11.
- 4The Chamber endorsement Block had lost five days earlier, again.
Block called his own account “an unsubstantiated report of the allegations” and said WEHOonline had known of “the impending arrest earlier in the week.” The statement from Wright’s attorney, printed in the same article, said Wright had been issued a citation, that “no formal criminal charges have yet to be filed,” and that “certain journalists were leaked information about the investigation and potential charges before Zekiah had ever been informed.” The next day a second WEHOonline piece told readers Wright had been “charged Thursday with felony fraud and identity theft,” citing “our sources.” That piece has since been deleted from WEHOonline. It survives in the Internet Archive.
The complaint against Wright, Block’s story said, came from Erickson. Who told WEHOonline about an arrest before the person being arrested knew? This publication put that question to Erickson in August 2025, including whether he or his office had communicated with Block about it. He has not answered.
In November, Erickson and Hang won both seats. The two candidates the Chamber had backed against them, Nickle and Wright, were the two Block’s site had accused of crimes.
Who was running the paper
Block called himself “merely a contributor” in August 2024. Two months earlier he had announced, under his own byline, the officers of Boystown Media Inc., WEHOonline’s parent company: Brandon Ross Garcia as the editor “who oversees the day-to-day operations of the publication,” and Brian Hibbard as director of marketing. The company’s office moved into BlockParty, Block’s store.
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- 1Brandon Ross Garcia: company director and "the current editor who oversees the day-to-day operations of the publication."
- 2Brian Hibbard: Director of Marketing.
- 3From July 1, 2024, the publication's offices sit inside BlockParty, Block's store.
Block’s own campaign then paid them. His 2024 committee reported paying Brandon Garcia $1,500 and Brian Hibbard $7,370 in campaign wages. It paid $6,500 for digital ads to Stewart Digital of Riverside, the same name, city and ZIP code as the “independent polling and data company” whose June 2024 poll, commissioned by Block’s company, WEHOonline had published showing Block in first place and Nickle in last.3
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- 1WEHOonline calls the pollster "an independent polling and data company." Block's campaign paid a Stewart Digital at the same Riverside ZIP code $6,500 over the race.
- 2Paid for by Boystown Media Inc., Block's company.
- 3"It is not the property of any campaign."
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- 1The filer: Larry Block's own 2024 campaign committee.
- 2Stewart Digital, Riverside, CA 92508, paid for digital ads. WEHOonline called the firm behind its June 2024 poll an independent polling company.
- 3Brandon Garcia, paid under code SAL, campaign workers' salaries. Block had announced Garcia in June 2024 as the editor overseeing WEHOonline's day-to-day operations.
The money now
Block has lent his own 2026 campaign $100,000. Of the $122,053 his campaign has taken in through Sept. 19, $22,053 came from other people.4
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- 1The filer: Block's 2026 campaign committee.
- 2Monetary contributions this year: $22,053.
- 3Loans received this year: $100,000, all from Block.
- 4Outstanding debts: $100,000, owed by the campaign to Block.
Why now, and what WEHOonline should do
Larry Block is on the ballot for City Council in November. Voters deserve to know how he used his publication the last time he ran, and the false statement about Nickle is still on it.
WEHOonline has changed since then. Its managing editor, Brian Holt, has run the newsroom since November 2025, and the site now tells readers that Block “has stepped away from all work with WEHOonline for the duration of the 2026 campaign and has no role in assigning, editing, headlining or deciding coverage.” If that is true, WEHOonline is free to do what a newsroom does when it publishes something false: correct it.
If you agree, reach out respectfully to WEHOonline and Brian Holt and ask them to review the record and set it straight.
Notes
1. California Secretary of State, Power Search, contributor “Block, Larry,” data current as of Sept. 26, 2026; confirmed against Erickson for State Senate 2026, Form 460 filing 3071420 (amendment 2), Schedule A. Two further contributions from Block, of $100 (June 15, 2025) and $120 (Sept. 6, 2026), went through the ActBlue California platform; the state records do not show the final recipient.
2. Larry Block for West Hollywood City Council 2024, Form 460 filings 212373272, 212396332 and 212621994; Larry Block for City Council 2026, Form 460 filings 217103515 and 217530819, and Form 497 reports through Oct. 1, 2026. None lists a contribution from John Erickson or a committee he controls. Form 460 itemizes contributions of $100 or more.
3. Larry Block for West Hollywood City Council 2024, Form 460 filings 212373272 (amended first pre-election statement), 212396332 and 212621994, Schedule E. Payments are summed across the three statements; the original first pre-election statement (212163376) was superseded by its amendment and is not counted twice. Code SAL is the Form 460 code for campaign workers’ salaries. The 2024 committee reported no nonmonetary contributions and no polling expense.
4. Larry Block for City Council 2026, Form 460 filing 217530819 (period July 1 to Sept. 19, 2026), Summary Page, calendar-year column: monetary contributions $22,053; loans received $100,000, all from the candidate, itemized on Schedule B. Block’s five Form 497 late-contribution reports (May 11, June 3, June 17, July 29 and Sept. 5, 2026) describe the same $100,000 as contributions; his Form 460s book it as loans to himself. 2024 vote totals in this article are from WEHOonline’s “Final City Council race totals,” Nov. 14, 2024. Independent expenditure figures are from the City’s 2024 Form 496 filings.
The documents
Provided by George Nickle at our request, and reproduced here as originals: each email is shown as Nickle sent it to us, and his public comment is the City’s own copy. Email addresses, phone numbers and one name are covered with gray boxes. Nothing else has been changed.
1. Larry Block to George Nickle, July 21, 2024
123456
- 112:54 a.m.: Block's follow-up, one minute after the first email.
- 2He says he is leaving the publication. Two days later WEHOonline ran his op-ed.
- 3July 2024: Block says the goal is to stop an Erickson-Hang sweep. By September he was asking the Chamber to back him with Erickson.
- 4The withheld op-ed about Nickle and his husband.
- 5"We didn't print it. Ive earned my keep with you."
- 6The condition.
Nickle forwarded the first of these messages twice. One forward shows the 12:53 a.m. send time; the other shows 9:14 a.m. the same day. The text is the same.
2. George Nickle and City Attorney Lauren Langer, Aug. 7 to 22, 2025
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- 1Aug. 22, 2025: the City Attorney.
- 2Nickle sought the meeting; the City did not summon him.
- 3The City Clerk was not involved.
- 4Aug. 8, 2025: the City Attorney points Nickle back to Block's own sources.
3. George Nickle, public comment to the City Council on Item F.1, May 18, 2025
Sources
WEHOonline and WEHO Times pages were captured and archived on Oct. 1 to 3, 2026.
- Larry Block, “OpEd: The Politics behind National Night Out,” WEHOonline, Aug. 7, 2025. Archive
- City of West Hollywood, redacted public record of Nickle’s correspondence with the City Attorney, May 25 to June 2, 2025; City Attorney Lauren Langer, emails to George Nickle, Aug. 8 and 22, 2025. Provided by George Nickle.
- City of West Hollywood, City Council minutes and video, March 3, 2025 (Granicus clip 4190).
- WEHOonline, “WeHo East Neighborhood Watch: We never supported bike lanes on Fountain,” Sept. 13, 2024. Original
- Larry Block, “Op-Ed: The Building Block(s) for a Better West Hollywood,” WEHOonline, Aug. 28, 2026, with editor’s note. Archive
- Larry Block, emails to George Nickle, July 21, 2024. Provided by George Nickle.
- Larry Block, “OpEd: Why bullet voting is probably a bad idea,” WEHOonline, July 23, 2024. Archive, July 25, 2024
- Paulo Murillo, “West Hollywood Council Candidate Larry Block Accused of Election Misconduct,” WEHO Times, Aug. 3, 2024. Archive
- Larry Block, “Duran’s sleazy politics tarnish George Nickle campaign,” WEHOonline, Aug. 4, 2024, as it now reads. Archive
- Larry Block, “OpEd: ‘We come in Peace,'” WEHOonline, Dec. 23, 2024. Original
- Larry Block, “OpEd: The Chamber sold me out,” WEHOonline, Sept. 10, 2024. Archive
- Larry Block, “Zekiah Wright, WeHo Chamber endorsed candidate, arrested on felony charges,” WEHOonline, Sept. 12, 2024 (updated Sept. 17). Archive
- WEHOonline, “Zekiah Wright’s arrest linked to messy breakup with Jackie Steele,” Sept. 13, 2024, since deleted. Archive
- WEHOonline, “Who’s running for City Council (so far),” July 18, 2024. Archive
- WEHOonline, “Wright, Nickle receive Chamber PAC’s endorsement,” Sept. 5, 2024. Archive
- Larry Block, “Boystown Media Inc. updates officers and directors,” WEHOonline, June 7, 2024. Original
- WEHOonline, “Weho residents choose Larry Block for WeHo Council in new poll,” June 27, 2024. Archive
- Larry Block for West Hollywood City Council 2024, Form 460 filings 212373272, 212396332, 212621994.
- Larry Block for City Council 2026, Form 460 217530819 and Form 497 filings.
- Stewart Digital Affairs, contact page (Riverside, CA 92508).
- California Secretary of State, Power Search; John Erickson for State Senate 2026, Form 460 filing 3071420.
- WEHOonline, “West Hollywood Keeps Flock Cameras in 3-2 Vote,” March 17, 2026. Original
- Los Angeles Blade, “We asked WeHo City Council candidates your most pressing questions,” Oct. 1, 2026. Original
- Occupied West Hollywood, “Email: Questions for Erickson Regarding 2024 Campaign and Z. Wright,” Aug. 19, 2025.
