For eight years, James Fuhrman has been a pesty watchdog eyeing West Hollywood 's city hall. His newsletter and half-hour spot on public access cable, "The Complainers Variety Show," shed light on officials' mis-spending and other foibles they preferred stay in the dark. Now giving up the game and moving to France, he won't get a plaque from West Hollywood but he goes out with a front page feature story by Bob Pool in the Times.

"I kind of think I've made my point. I exposed them for what they are," Fuhrman said of the city's leaders. "I've tamed them."

He once had an exchange with then-mayor John Heilman over a $500 contribution from the Body Shop, a bottomless club, that ended with His Honor exploding, "Well, it's better than you: completely headless...Get out of my face, you loser."