OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Sal Guarriello

Sal Guarriello, 90, a longtime West Hollywood city councilman who was elected in 1990, died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a sudden illness, West Hollywood Mayor Jeff Prang announced.

A former insurance agent, Guarriello and his wife, Rita, moved to West Hollywood in 1964, 20 years before the city incorporated.

He joined the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenant-rights group, in 1983 and three years later became part of its steering committee. An advocate for rent control and affordable housing, Guarriello also was named to the West Hollywood Community Housing Corp.’s board of directors in 1986.

After his initial election to the City Council, Guarriello was reelected four times, most recently in 2007. He was instrumental in the creation of the city’s veterans memorial at Holloway Park in 2003.

Salvatore J. Guarriello was born March 2, 1919, in New York and grew up in the city’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. He served as an Army medic during World War II.

His wife, who served on the West Hollywood Planning Commission, died in 1997.