The prosecutor who recently took over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others said in a court filing Wednesday that he has decided not to pursue the case further.Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is president. But 14 other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. Skandalakis said last month that he reached out to several prosecutors, but they all declined to take on the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Nov. 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than allowing the case to be dismissed.
ATLANTA —
The prosecutor who recently took over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others said in a court filing Wednesday that he has decided not to pursue the case further.
Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.
After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.
It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is president. But 14 other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. Skandalakis said last month that he reached out to several prosecutors, but they all declined to take on the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Nov. 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than allowing the case to be dismissed.
The revelers who packed Tuesday’s election night party in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood were roughly 2,500 miles from the concert hall where New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani celebrated his historic win.
Yet despite that sprawling distance, the crowd, heavily populated with members of the L.A. chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, had no trouble finishing the applause lines delivered by Mamdani, himself a DSA member, during his victory speech.
“New York!” Mamdani bellowed on the oversized television screens hung throughout the Greyhound Bar & Grill. “We’re going to make buses fast and — “
“Free!” the crowd inside the bar yelled back in response.
In Los Angeles, activists with the Democratic Socialists of America have already fired up their campaigns for the June election, sending out canvassing teams and scheduling postcard-writing events for their chosen candidates. But they’re also taking fresh inspiration from Mamdani’s win, pointing to his inclusive, unapologetic campaign and his relentless focus on pocketbook issues, particularly among working-class voters.
The message that propelled Mamdani to victory resonates just as much in L.A., said City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who won her seat in 2022 with logistical support from the DSA.
“What New York City is saying is that the rent is too damn high, that affordability is a huge issue not just on housing, but when it comes to grocery shopping, when it comes to daycare,” she said. “These are the things that we’re also experiencing here in Los Angeles.”
City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, appearing at a rally in Lincoln Heights last year, said New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s message will resonate in L.A.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
DSA-LA, which is a membership organization and not a political party, has elected four of its endorsed candidates to the council since 2020, ousting incumbents in each of the last three election cycles. They’ve done so in large part by knocking on doors and working to increase turnout among renters and lower-income households.
The chapter hopes to win two additional seats in June. Organizers have begun contemplating a full-on socialist City Council — possibly by the end of 2028 — with DSA members holding eight of the council’s 15 seats.
“We would like a socialist City Council majority,” said Benina Stern, co-chair of DSA’s Los Angeles chapter. “Because clearly that is the logical progression, to keep growing the bloc.”
Despite those lofty ambitions, it could take at least five years before the L.A. chapter matches this week’s breakthrough in New York City.
Mayor Karen Bass, a high-profile leader within the Democratic Party with few ties to the DSA, is now running for a second term. Her only major opponent is former schools superintendent Austin Beutner, who occupies the center of the political spectrum in L.A. Real estate developer Rick Caruso, a longtime Republican who is now a Democrat, has not disclosed his intentions but has long been at odds with DSA‘s progressive policies.
In L.A., DSA organizers have put their emphasis on identifying and campaigning for candidates in down-ballot races, not citywide contests. Part of that is due to the fact that L.A. has a weak-mayor system, particularly when compared with New York City, where the mayor has responsibility not just for city services but also public schools and even judicial appointments.
L.A. council members propose and approve legislation, rework the budgets submitted by the mayor and represent districts with more than a quarter of a million people. As a result, DSA organizers have chosen the council as their path to power at City Hall, Stern said.
“The conditions in Los Angeles and New York I think are very different,” she said.
Since 2020, DSA-LA has been highly selective about its endorsement choices. The all-volunteer organization sends applicants a lengthy questionnaire with dozens of litmus test questions: Do they support diverting funds away from law enforcement? Do they oppose L.A.’s decision to host the Olympics? Do they support a repeal of L.A.’s ban on homeless encampments near schools?
Once a candidate secures an endorsement, DSA-LA turns to its formidable pool of volunteers, sending them out to help candidates knock on doors, staff phone banks and stage fundraising events.
During Tuesday’s party, DSA-LA organizers recruited new members to assist with the reelection campaigns of Hernandez and Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, a former labor organizer. They distributed postcard-sized fliers with the message, “Hate Capitalism? So do we.”
Standing nearby was Estuardo Mazariegos, a tenant rights advocate now running to replace Councilmember Curren Price in a South L.A. district. Mazariegos, 40, said he first became interested in the DSA in the seventh grade, when his middle school civics teacher displayed a DSA flag in her classroom.
The crowd at the Greyhound in Highland Park reacts to results on Tuesday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Mazariegos hailed the results from New York and California, saying voters are “taking back America for the working people of America.” He sounded somewhat less excited about Bass, a former community organizer who has pursued some middle-of-the-road positions, such as hiring more police officers.
Asked if he supports Bass’ bid for a second term, Mazariegos responded: “If she’s up against a billionaire, yes.”
“If she’s up against another comrade, maybe not,” he added, laughing.
When Bass ran in November 2022, DSA-LA grudgingly recommended a vote for her in its popular voter guide, describing her as a “status quo politician.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who represents a Hollywood Hills district, is far more enthusiastic. Raman has worked closely with Bass on efforts to move homeless Angelenos indoors, while also seeking fixes to the larger systems that serve L.A.’s unhoused population.
“Karen Bass is the most progressive mayor we’ve ever had in L.A,” said Raman, who co-hosted the election night party with the other three DSA-aligned council members, DSA-LA and others.
Raman was the first of the DSA-backed candidates to win a council seat in L.A., running in 2020 as a reformer who would bring stronger renter protections and a network of community access centers to assist homeless residents.
Two years later, voters elected labor organizer Soto-Martínez and Hernandez. Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado became the fourth last year, ousting Councilmember Kevin de León.
Stern, the DSA-LA co-chair, said she believes the four council members have brought a “sea change” to City Hall, working with their progressive colleagues to expand the city’s teams of unarmed responders, who are viewed as an alternative to gun-carrying police officers.
The DSA voting bloc also shaped this year’s city budget, voting to reduce the number of new recruits at the Los Angeles Police Department and preserve other city jobs, Stern said.
To be clear, the four-member bloc has pursued those efforts by working with other progressives on the council who are not affiliated with the DSA but more moderate on other issues. Beyond that, the group has plenty of detractors.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said DSA-backed council members are making the city worse, by pushing for a $30 per hour hotel minimum wage and a $32.35 minimum wage for construction workers.
“No one is ever going to build a hotel in this city again, and DSA were a part of that,” he said. “Pretty soon no one will build housing, and the DSA is a part of that too.”
The union that represents LAPD officers vowed to fight the DSA’s effort to expand its reach, saying it would work to ensure that “Angelenos are not bamboozled by the socialist bait and switch.”
“Socialists want to bait Angelenos into talking about affordability, oppression and fairness, get their candidates elected, and then switch to enact their platform that states ‘Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets … while cutting [police] budgets annually towards zero,’” the union’s board of directors said in a statement.
In New York City, Mamdani has proposed a series of measures to make the city more affordable, including free bus fares, city-run grocery stores and a four-year freeze on rent increases inside rent stabilized apartment units.
Some of those ideas have already been tried in L.A.
In 2020, weeks into the COVID-19 shutdown, Mayor Eric Garcetti placed a moratorium on rent hikes for more than 600,000 rent-stabilized apartments. The council kept that measure in place for four years.
Around the same time, L.A. County’s transit agency suspended mandatory collection of bus fares. The agency started charging bus passengers again in 2022.
City Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Eunisses Hernandez celebrate at the election night party they co-hosted with Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter and two other council members.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
In recent months, the DSA-LA has pushed for new limits on rent increases inside L.A.’s rent-stabilized apartments. Raman, who chairs the council’s housing committee, is backing a yearly cap of 3% in those buildings, most of which were built before October 1978.
Hernandez, whose district stretches from working-class Westlake to rapidly gentrifying Highland Park, is a believer in shifting the Overton Window at City Hall — moving the political debate left and “putting people over profits.”
Like others at the election party, Hernandez is hoping the council will eventually have eight DSA-aligned members in the coming years, saying such a shift would be a “game changer.” With a clear majority, she said, the council would not face a huge battle to approve new tenant protections, expand the network of unarmed response teams and place “accountability measures” on corporations that are “making money off our city.”
“There’s so many things … that we could do easier for the people of the city of Los Angeles if we had a majority,” she said.
A California district attorney reposted on social media 9/11 images along with comments blasting the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Despite the gory images and strong denunciation of Mamdani, Dan Dow insists that he has no issues with the Muslim community in San Luis Obispo County, where he is the top prosecutor.
He has “strong ties” with the community, Dow said in an emailed statement Thursday to The Times.
But his posts have drawn backlash, and a Muslim advocacy organization is demanding an apology and an investigation.
On Wednesday, Dow retweeted a post on X from a popular right-wing account that appeared to show a snapshot moments after flames jutted from the South Tower, the second of the twin towers struck by a plane on Sept. 11, 2001.
A second visual tweet, more graphic than the first, displayed footage from two angles of a plane barreling into one of the towers. That was posted by the leader of an activist organization, described as a hate group by some, that claims to “combat the threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies.”
Each was posted in the aftermath of the New York City mayoral election won by 34-year-old democratic socialist Mamdani.
The posts were retweeted and subtweeted days later and 3,000 miles away by Dow, drawing rebuke from some locals, in a story first broken by the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
“I shared the posts because, in my opinion, Mamdani is going to destroy New York being a self-proclaimed socialist,” Dow responded. “I support the Muslim community and have strong ties to our Muslim community in San Luis Obispo.”
The first post Dow retweeted came from the account @EndWokeness, which vows to its nearly 4 million followers that it’s “fighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness.”
The second post came from Amy Mekelburg, founder of Rise, Align, Ignite and Reclaim (RAIR) Foundation, which is listed as a hate organization by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The council’s Los Angeles office demanded Thursday evening that Dow apologize and “retract his recent anti-Muslim social media posts.” CAIR-LA is also asking for an independent investigation into Dow’s conduct and “his fitness to continue to serve as DA.”
The organization is incensed at his retweeting of Mekelburg, whom they describe as “a known anti-Muslim extremist.”
Mekelburg wrote a sizable message on the video post, saying she’d “given my entire self” to warn the world “about the threat of Islam after 9/11.”
“And now … to see New York — my city — stand in this moment, where someone like Zohran Mamdani could even be elected,” she wrote. “My God, New York, what have you done?”
CAIR-LA said that Mekelburg “falsely equated the election of Mamdani with 9/11, reinforcing the harmful stereotype that Muslims are inherently tied to terrorism simply because of their faith.”
Dow subtweeted that specific post with a message that began by highlighting his 32 years of service in the U.S. Army and his four tours overseas.
“I remember like it was yesterday our nation being attacked by Islamic extremists on 9/11/2001,” he wrote. “I love this country and I do not in any way share the same views as the 33-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani.”
He added in the tweet: “I am very sad to see the Big Apple torn apart by electing an un-American socialist who wants to trample on the values and freedoms that millions of Americans have fought and died for.”
“Dow’s decision to repost content that weaponizes bigotry and baselessly ties an elected Muslim official to terrorism is appalling and reflects the deeply rooted dehumanization and fearmongering in this country that American Muslims have had to endure for decades,” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in a statement.
Dow’s posts also struck a nerve with one of his Muslim allies in San Luis Obispo, Dr. Rushdi Cader, who referred to the district attorney as “a personal friend” to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Cader told the Tribune the posts were “highly incendiary and puts Muslims at risk for harm, especially hijab-wearing Muslim women like my wife Nisha, whom Dan has himself described as ‘a kind and gentle lady’ who he ‘prayed would be blessed with peace.’”
Cader added he thought Dow’s “ugly post” was borne “out of disagreement with Mamdani’s politics” rather than any direct attack on Islam.”
Dow’s tweets drew other rebukes.
San Luis Obispo County Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson called Dow a “Christian nationalist.”
He “occupies a powerful public office that requires decency and discipline,” Gibson said of Dow. “This post is yet another example that he has neither.”
San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart emailed The Times to say that the city was welcoming to all community members.
“Dan Dow, as the county’s District Attorney, by definition, should be objective and fair,” she wrote. “For someone in his position to express racism is unacceptable.”
Dow had his defenders too.
Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer serves with Dow on the California District Attorneys Assn. Spitzer is the organization’s secretary-treasurer while Dow is the president.
Spitzer found no fault with Dow’s social media posts.
“Elected officials have a platform to share their views and be judged by their constituents,” he wrote in an email. “It is heartbreaking to see someone who has expressed such anti-public safety and anti-Semitic sentiments elected as mayor of New York, and we as the elected protectors of public safety have a right to express that.”
On her first day in office, Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness.
The declaration allowed the city to cut through red tape, including through no-bid contracts, and to start Inside Safe, Bass’ signature program focused on moving homeless people off the streets and into interim housing.
On Tuesday, nearly three years after she took the helm, and with homelessness trending down two years in a row for the first time in recent years, the mayor announced that she will lift the state of emergency on Nov. 18.
“We have begun a real shift in our city’s decades-long trend of rising homelessness,” Bass said in a memorandum to the City Council.
Still, the mayor said, there is much work to do.
“The crisis remains, and so does our urgency,” she said.
The mayor’s announcement followed months of City Council pushback on the lengthy duration of the state of emergency, which the council had initially approved.
Some council members argued that the state of emergency allowed the mayor’s office to operate out of public view and that contracts and leases should once again be presented before them with public testimony and a vote.
Councilmember Tim McOsker has been arguing for months that it was time to return to business as usual.
“Emergency powers are designed to allow the government to suspend rules and respond rapidly when the situation demands it, but at some point those powers must conclude,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
McOsker said the move will allow the council to “formalize” some of the programs started during the emergency, while incorporating more transparency.
Council members had been concerned that the state of emergency would end without first codifying Executive Directive 1, which expedites approvals for homeless shelters as well as for developments that are 100% affordable and was issued by Bass shortly after she took office.
On Oct. 28, the council voted for the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would enshrine the executive directive into law.
The mayor’s announcement follows positive reports about the state of homelessness in the city.
As of September, the mayor’s Inside Safe program had moved more than 5,000 people into interim housing since its inception at the end of 2022. Of those people, more than 1,243 have moved into permanent housing, while another 1,636 remained in interim housing.
This year, the number of homeless people living in shelters or on the streets of the city dropped 3.4%, according to the annual count conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The number of unsheltered homeless people in the city dropped by an even steeper margin of 7.9%.
The count, however, has its detractors. A study by Rand found that the annual survey missed nearly a third of homeless people in Hollywood, Venice and Skid Row — primarily those sleeping without tents or vehicles.
In June, a federal judge decided not to put Los Angeles’ homelessness programs into receivership, while saying that the city had failed to meet some of the terms of a settlement agreement with the nonprofit LA Alliance for Human Rights.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, said the end of the emergency does not mean the crisis is over.
“It only means that we must build fiscally sustainable systems that can respond effectively,” she said. “By transitioning from emergency measures to long-term, institutional frameworks, we’re ensuring consistent, accountable support for people experiencing homelessness.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
The Senate has approved one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers for a seat on the Federal Reserve’s governing board, giving the White House greater influence over the central bank just two days before it is expected to vote in favor of reducing its key interest rate.The vote to confirm Stephen Miran was largely along party lines, 48-47. He was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last week with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposed.Miran’s nomination has sparked concerns about the Fed’s longtime independence from day-to-day politics after he said during a committee hearing earlier this month that he would keep his job as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, though would take unpaid leave. Senate Democrats have said such an approach is incompatible with an independent Fed.Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote that Miran “has no independence” and would be “nothing more than Donald Trump’s mouthpiece at the Fed.”The vote was along party lines, with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski the only Republican to vote against Miran.Miran is completing an unexpired term that ends in January, after Adriana Kugler unexpectedly stepped down from the board Aug. 1. He said if he is appointed to a longer term he would resign from his White House job. Previous presidents have appointed advisers to the Fed, including former chair Ben Bernanke, who served in president George W. Bush’s administration. But Bernanke and others left their White House jobs when joining the board.Miran said during his Sept. 4 hearing that, if confirmed, “I will act independently, as the Federal Reserve always does, based on my own personal analysis of economic data.”Last year, Miran criticized what he called the “revolving door” of officials between the White House and the Fed, in a paper he co-wrote with Daniel Katz for the conservative Manhattan Institute. Katz is now chief of staff at the Treasury Department.Miran’s approval arrives as Trump’s efforts to shape the Fed have been dealt a setback elsewhere. He has sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden to a term that ends in 2038. Cook sued to block the firing and won a first round in federal court, after a judge ruled the Trump administration did not have proper cause to remove her.The administration appealed the ruling, but an appeals court rejected that request late Monday. Members of the Fed’s board vote on all its interest rate decisions, and also oversee the nation’s financial system.The jockeying around the Fed is occurring as the economy is entering an uncertain and difficult period. Inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target, though it hasn’t risen as much as many economists feared when Trump first imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports. The Fed typically would raise borrowing costs, or at least keep them elevated, to combat worsening inflation.At the same time, hiring has weakened considerably and the unemployment rate rose last month to a still-low 4.3%. The central bank often takes the opposite approach when unemployment rises, cutting rates to spur more borrowing, spending and growth.Economists forecast the Fed will reduce its key rate after its two-day meeting ends Wednesday, to about 4.1% from 4.3%. Trump has demanded much deeper cuts.
WASHINGTON —
The Senate has approved one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers for a seat on the Federal Reserve’s governing board, giving the White House greater influence over the central bank just two days before it is expected to vote in favor of reducing its key interest rate.
The vote to confirm Stephen Miran was largely along party lines, 48-47. He was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last week with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposed.
Miran’s nomination has sparked concerns about the Fed’s longtime independence from day-to-day politics after he said during a committee hearing earlier this month that he would keep his job as chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, though would take unpaid leave. Senate Democrats have said such an approach is incompatible with an independent Fed.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote that Miran “has no independence” and would be “nothing more than Donald Trump’s mouthpiece at the Fed.”
The vote was along party lines, with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski the only Republican to vote against Miran.
Miran is completing an unexpired term that ends in January, after Adriana Kugler unexpectedly stepped down from the board Aug. 1. He said if he is appointed to a longer term he would resign from his White House job. Previous presidents have appointed advisers to the Fed, including former chair Ben Bernanke, who served in president George W. Bush’s administration. But Bernanke and others left their White House jobs when joining the board.
Miran said during his Sept. 4 hearing that, if confirmed, “I will act independently, as the Federal Reserve always does, based on my own personal analysis of economic data.”
Last year, Miran criticized what he called the “revolving door” of officials between the White House and the Fed, in a paper he co-wrote with Daniel Katz for the conservative Manhattan Institute. Katz is now chief of staff at the Treasury Department.
Miran’s approval arrives as Trump’s efforts to shape the Fed have been dealt a setback elsewhere. He has sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden to a term that ends in 2038. Cook sued to block the firing and won a first round in federal court, after a judge ruled the Trump administration did not have proper cause to remove her.
The administration appealed the ruling, but an appeals court rejected that request late Monday.
Members of the Fed’s board vote on all its interest rate decisions, and also oversee the nation’s financial system.
The jockeying around the Fed is occurring as the economy is entering an uncertain and difficult period. Inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target, though it hasn’t risen as much as many economists feared when Trump first imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports. The Fed typically would raise borrowing costs, or at least keep them elevated, to combat worsening inflation.
At the same time, hiring has weakened considerably and the unemployment rate rose last month to a still-low 4.3%. The central bank often takes the opposite approach when unemployment rises, cutting rates to spur more borrowing, spending and growth.
Economists forecast the Fed will reduce its key rate after its two-day meeting ends Wednesday, to about 4.1% from 4.3%. Trump has demanded much deeper cuts.
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to create a new citizen’s commission to look at expanding the size of the council, reducing the number of council meetings and other potential changes to city operations.
The 13-member commission will be charged with developing proposals for the November 2026 ballot that would revise the city charter, which spells out the powers and duties of city departments, offices and elected officials.
The idea of expanding the 15-member council has been circulating for a few years, with several council members signing on to the idea. Council President Paul Krekorian had hoped to send a council expansion measure to L.A. voters in November.
Although a council committee studied the concept over several months, its members never coalesced around a single strategy, leaving the question to the new commission.
Council expansion had drawn support from a number of civic groups, which argued that it would improve community representation at City Hall and diversify the membership of the council.
Godfrey Plata, deputy director of the nonprofit group L.A. Forward, said his organization and others were disappointed by the council’s failure to act.
“We thought it was procrastination to punt it over to a charter commission,” said Plata, whose group argued last year in favor of growing the council to 29 members. “But we’re certainly eager to continue a public conversation around it.”
Krekorian, who faces term limits at the end of the year, has continued to argue in favor of expansion, pointing out that the city of nearly 4 million has the same number of districts as nearly a century ago, when its population was much smaller.
Reducing the size of each district would make the council more responsive to residents, he said, while also reducing the influence of “institutional organized money” in elections.
“I think it even reduces the risk of corruption,” Krekorian said last week during an appearance at the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum.
Krekorian said the new charter reform commission will also look at other issues, including the city’s handling of real estate development, the process of filling vacant council seats and the procedure for censuring or suspending elected officials who have engaged in wrongdoing.
Michael Feinstein, speaking on behalf of the Los Angeles County Green Party, called on the council to make sure the commission also looks at major changes to city elections, including a move to “ranked-choice” voting, which allows voters to rankcandidates in order of preference instead of choosing just one.
This time around, it’s not clear how wide-ranging the commission’s work will be. Although the council can forward topics for study, the commission will also collect input from a wide range of individuals and community groups.
Under the plan approved on Tuesday, Mayor Karen Bass will have the power to appoint four of the commission’s 13 members. Krekorian will select two, as will council President-elect Marqueece Harris-Dawson.
Those eight would be appointed in August and September, according to a timeline created for the commission. Once they convene, they would then spend three months developing a work plan and selecting five additional commissioners.
The commission’s schedule calls for it to spend much of 2025 deliberating and collecting public input. In January 2026, its proposals would be submitted to the council, which would then decide which ones would appear on the November 2026 ballot.
Feinstein, a former mayor of Santa Monica, criticized that arrangement, warning that the council will have the power to reject any of the commission’s proposals. He also faulted the council for allowing the commission to be populated by political appointees.
“This [process] embeds a direct City Council conflict of interest around deciding the future size and powers of the council,” he said in an email to The Times.
The charter reform commission is also expected to look at whether to shrink the number of council meetings — a topic that has exasperated some council members in recent months.
The city charter requires that the council meet at least three days each week. Councilmembers Katy Yaroslasvky, Tim McOsker and Eunisses Hernandez recently backed a ballot proposal to reduce that number to one day per week. But others on the council resisted the idea, saying it needed vetting from the soon-to-be-formed commission.
Separately, the council voted on Tuesday to approve language for two city charter amendments on the Nov. 5 ballot. One would establish an independent redistricting process for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which takes in 26 cities and is governed by a seven-member board.
The other ballot proposal is aimed at strengthening the city Ethics Commission, which enforces laws dealing with campaign fundraising, lobbying and other political activities. Under the proposal, the agency would receive a minimum of $7 million per year for its operations.
Backers say this would prevent elected officials from retaliating against the agency by cutting its budget. The proposal would also triple the fines for ethics violations and give the Ethics Commission the ability to hire its own lawyer in some cases.
You might call them political progressives. Or maybe super progressives, given how much they want to reshape politics in Los Angeles.
Whatever the label, candidates on the left end of the political spectrum made crucial advances in the March 5 primary election for City Council, setting the stage for some hard-fought runoff campaigns and potentially, an expansion of their power by the end of the year.
Progressive activists and advocacy groups helped reelect City Councilmember Nithya Raman, while sending two other left-of-center candidates — tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado and small business owner Jillian Burgos — into runoffs against more moderate rivals.
“I think the results showed consistently across the board that when we show up, we win,” said Bill Przylucki, executive director of Ground Game LA, a nonprofit advocacy group that has spent several years pushing the council to the left.
If Burgos and Jurado prevail in November, the number of council members with deeply progressive backgrounds will grow from three to five, making up a third of the 15-member council. Four of the five have campaigned alongside Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles. Burgos, the fifth, drew support from other big names in leftist political circles, including City Controller Kenneth Mejia and former mayoral candidate Gina Viola.
A five-member super-progressive voting bloc would have significant influence over homelessness, subsidized housing, tenant protections, public transit, the installation of bike lanes and the size of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The bloc would need only three more votes to pass legislation on a council where several members, including Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Katy Yaroslavsky, are left-of-center swing votes. Super progressives also would occupy additional seats on the council’s committees, allowing them to shape policies from their inception, Przylucki said.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman speaks to the crowd on election night. She secured the majority vote needed to avoid a Nov. 5 runoff, winning a second term.
(Myung Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Some players in L.A. politics say the effect of the left in the primary is overstated. They point out that Councilmember John Lee, one of the council’s centrist members, easily won his reelection bid in the northwest Valley. Another incumbent, Councilmember Imelda Padilla, coasted to reelection after securing support from public safety unions, construction trade unions, Valley business groups and others.
Raman won 50.7% of the vote, securing the majority she needed to win outright. But that victory simply preserved the existing political makeup of the council, said Tom Saggau, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which waged an expensive but unsuccessful campaign against Raman.
“At the end of the day, there’s been no net gain for any ideology on the council,” he said. “There’s still three socialists on the council. That was before the election, that was after the election.”
Saggau said the police union has not yet decided how it will spend its resourcesin the upcoming runoffs.
L.A.’s progressive groups remain hopeful that Jurado and Burgos will win and shift the status quo.
Julio Marcial, senior vice president of the nonprofit Liberty Hill Foundation, said that expanding the council’s super-progressive bloc would ensure that City Hall has a “real, honest conversation” about strategies for community safety. For Marcial, that means shifting money out of the LAPD and into affordable housing, expanded mental health services, job training and other programs.
City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado cuts a cake at an event in Little Tokyo celebrating her campaign’s success in the March 5 primary election.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
“We can no longer follow the same playbook around budgeting, where we fully fund law enforcement and not the things that are proven to be effective in creating community safety,” he said.
Burgos, who is running to represent an east San Fernando Valley district, said she’s hoping that if she and Jurado win, other council members will be inclined to embrace more progressive policies.
“Right now, some people are afraid to make those choices,” said Burgos, an optician who lives in North Hollywood and part owner of an interactive murder mystery theater company.
Burgos, 45, and Jurado, 34, have a long list of shared policy goals. Both want to repeal Municipal Code 41.18, which prohibits homeless encampments next to schools, daycare centers and “sensitive” locations such as senior centers and freeway overpasses. Both want to create “social housing,” assigning city agencies to buy, fix and manage low-cost apartment complexes.
The two candidates want to shift traffic enforcement out of the LAPD. And they’re hoping to make bus and train fares free — a more complicated goal, since the decision rests not with the council but Metro’s 13-member board.
“We have a real opportunity to usher in a progressive era” at the City Council, “instead of just chipping away at some the solutions that we care about,” said Jurado, who finished first in an eight-way race for the Eastside seat now held by Councilmember Kevin de León.
Burgos, who describes herself as a leftist, finished second in the race to replace Council President Paul Krekorian, who is stepping down at the end of the year. In first place is former State Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, a onetime Krekorian aide who describes himself as a “pragmatic progressive.”
Los Angeles City Council Candidate Adrin Nazarian, grabbing campaign signs in North Hollywood earlier this year, is touting his own progressive credentials.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)
Nazarian secured 37% of the vote in the primary, compared with 22% for Burgos. In an interview, he said that he, too, has pushed for progressive policies, such as expanded public transit, increased funding to help students pay for college and the creation of a single-payer healthcare system. In 2016 and again in 2020, Nazarian endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for president in the Democratic primary.
“Judge me by my record. Judge me by my work ethic. There’s a reason why, in a crowded field of seven people, that I was able to garner almost 40% of the vote,” he said.
Nazarian, unlike Burgos, supports the continued use of 41.18. He also spoke in favor of Mayor Karen Bass’ push to hire more police and raise their pay.
Burgos, asked about those two issues, called for more alternatives to police, saying in a statement that “data has shown that there is no correlation between the number of sworn officers or the police budget and crime.”
De León, who came in second behind Jurado, also defended his progressive credentials, pointing to his work on immigrant rights, climate change and laws to prevent the displacement of renters in downtown, Boyle Heights and elsewhere.
“My record of taking on the toughest fights — Sanctuary State, 100% clean renewable energy, tenant protections — and winning for my constituents shows I know how to actually accomplish progressive change,” said De León, a former president of the state Senate who is seeking a second term.
De León faces a tough second round. He is still dealing with the fallout from a scandal over his participation in a secretly recorded conversation that featured racist and derogatory remarks.
Like Nazarian, he supports the LAPD raises, the hiring of more police and the use of 41.18.
L.A.’s leftists made their first serious inroads at City Hall four years ago, helping to elect Raman, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, to the council. Labor unions and advocacy groups replicated that success in 2022, working to elect two more Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates — activist Eunisses Hernandez and labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martínez — and ousting two incumbents.
Of the three, Raman has proved to be the most moderate. Like Nazarian, she sometimes refers to herself as a “pragmatic progressive.” At one point in the primary campaign, she declined to say whether the city needs more police officers. At another, she relied on former Councilmember Paul Koretz — who has drawn the ire of L.A.’s leftists — to vouch for her with the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
Attorney Edgar Khalatian,who represents real estate developers at City Hall, said he considers Raman to be pro-business. Raman, whose district straddles the Hollywood Hills, has shown “a strong backbone” on the city’s efforts to build more housing, while also working to address the homelessness crisis, he said.
“The reason housing prices are as astronomical as they are is decades of elected officials not supporting the development of more housing,” said Khalatian, who chairs the board of the Central City Assn., a downtown-based business group. “She supports housing, and will take the political heat from people in her district when she supports that housing.”
Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León, at his Eagle Rock office in September, is touting his work on climate change, immigrant rights and measures to prevent the displacement of renters.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Raman won despite more than $1.3 million in outside spending by the firefighters union, the police officers union, landlords and others for one of her opponents, Deputy City Atty. Ethan Weaver. Those groups waged a similar effort in the northwest Valley, spending a combined $1.1 million to help Lee turn back a challenge from nonprofit leader Serena Oberstein.
In South L.A.’s 10th Council District, law enforcement groups spent a combined $103,000 on ads portraying Reggie Jones-Sawyer, one of the five candidates, as soft on crime. Jones-Sawyer, a state assemblymember, came in fifth.
“For the rank-and-file of the league, we had a few goals” in this year’s city election,said Saggau, the police union spokesperson. “One of them was to ensure that Reggie Jones-Sawyer did not bring his brand of criminal justice reform, or ideas, to the city of L.A., and we succeeded on that.”
The 10th District will instead see a runoff between Councilmember Heather Hutt and attorney Grace Yoo, who share the same views on some of the city’s more contentious issues. Both support the city’s package of police raises and 41.18.
A spokesperson for the Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter said it’s unlikely her organization will get involved in that contest, in part because neither candidate is a DSA member. Given that they both favor the police raises, it would be “remarkably difficult” for either to win the DSA’s endorsement, said the spokesperson, who declined to give her full name.
A councilman who went No. 1 has been 86’d from his post.
Crescenta Valley Town Councilmember Chris Kilpatrick resigned from office after surveillance video showed him and another man urinating outside an LGBTQ+ bar in downtown Los Angeles. Kilpatrick and his boyfriend were seen relieving themselves at the employee entrance to Precinct, a bar on South Broadway, sometime around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to video posted to the bar’s Instagram.
The two men walked out of the bar carrying cocktail glasses just before they urinated on a set of glass doors, according to the post. An employee approached the men and tried to take their drinks away.
But the taller man, who was later identified as Kilpatrick, threw the employee to the ground, according to the post.
“Precinct is a safe space for all; let’s have a good time,” the post said before urging patrons not to be jerks (in cruder terms). “Oh, yeah, we also have several bathrooms.”
Kilpatrick’s attorney, John Duran, said two employees from the bar approached Kilpatrick and his boyfriend without identifying themselves and aggressively grabbed Kilpatrick, asking him if he had been at the bar.
“My client instinctively pushed back in self defense,” Duran said in a statement. “It was reasonable for him to believe that they were about to possibly be gay-bashed” by the bar employees, who were not in uniform.
While Kilpatrick was not identified in the Instagram post, people wrote in the comments that it looked like Kilpatrick, who was elected to the Crescenta Valley Town Council in 2020.
Crescenta Valley, northwest of Pasadena, includes the cities of Montrose, Sunland and La Cañada Flintridge, along with sections of the city of Glendale. The town council where Kilpatrick served works as “an advisory body, advocating for interests and concerns of our residents,” according to the Council President Harry Leon in a recent blog post.
Council members learned about the surveillance video on Tuesday and asked Kilpatrick for a statement, but by that time he had retained an attorney, according to a letter detailing the council’s response. Leon called for a special meeting about the issue, but before it could take place Kilpatrick “expressed his desire to resign from the council,” the letter said.
His resignation was accepted by the council and effective that day.
“While we do not condone any of the behavior we observed on social media, we appreciate his 3 years of commitment and dedication to the community while serving on the council,” the council leadership said in the letter.
Duran, Kilpatrick’s attorney, said that public urination is not a criminal offense, and battery is a misdemeanor offense, including “unlawful touching as exhibited by individual one who grabbed my client first.”
It’s unclear if the bar employee was injured during the incident.
Los Angeles City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado didn’t have any big-money backers spending lavishly on her behalf.
The Highland Park resident didn’t mail out glossy campaign mailers either, opting instead for an estimated 3,000 postcards, which were less expensive and personally handwritten.
What Jurado, a tenant rights attorney, did have was a supercharged canvassing operation. According to her campaign, she sent 20 paid staffers and about 250 volunteers to 85,000 doors across the 14th District, which stretches from Boyle Heights and downtown north to Eagle Rock and El Sereno.
That strategy is paying dividends. On Tuesday, she pulled ahead of Councilmember Kevin de León, who had been leading in the eight-way race to represent his Eastside district, according to the latest election results. Now in first place and likely headed to a runoff, Jurado is yet another example of the electoral might being wielded by the city’s political left.
Jurado, in an interview, said she’s not certain who her opponent will be in the Nov. 5 runoff election, since votes are still being counted. She portrayed her campaign as a lean operation, one focused on supporting renters, fighting gentrification and “uplifting the voices of those who haven’t been heard.”
“We don’t have an office. We haven’t sent mailers. We are talking to voters one-to-one,” she said. “Everything involved in building this campaign has been an uphill battle.”
Jurado’s first-place showing was revealed Tuesday as part of the latest daily election update from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk since the March 5 primary. Jurado had 24.5% of the vote, compared with 23.5% for De León — a difference of 318 ballots.
On Tuesday, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago was 730 votes behind De León, with 21.2% of the vote.
Election officials say an estimated 126,000 ballots are left to be processed countywide. Up until now, each of the county’s daily updates has broken in Jurado’s favor.
On Friday, Jurado pulled into second place, securing more votes than Santiago. Four days later, she was leading the pack.
De León, who is seeking a second four-year term, will face some serious challenges if he makes the second round. A former state lawmaker, he was at the center of the 2022 scandal over leaked racist remarks that spurred the resignations of former Council President Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, former head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
De León repeatedly apologized for his remarks during that conversation, and for failing to put a stop to those made by others. He resisted calls to step down from a wide array of politicians, including President Biden, showing up at meetings where he was frequently jeered by audience members.
Less than a fourth of voters opted to keep De León in office, according to the results so far.
De León voted last year for Mayor Karen Bass’ budget, which called for the hiring of 1,000 police officers. Jurado said she would have voted against the spending plan, pushing for funds to be allocated to social services instead.
De León also voted for a four-year package of police raises, which Jurado opposed. In addition, De León is a supporter of Municipal Code 41.18, which bars homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools, day-care centers and “sensitive” locations designated by the council, such as senior centers and freeway overpasses.
Jurado has called for 41.18 to be repealed, saying it has led to the criminalization of homelessness.
On Tuesday, a De León representative made clear that his candidate would highlight some of those differences in a runoff against Jurado.
“The voters have a clear choice in November between an experienced, results-driven elected official and someone who has promised to undo some of the progress we’ve made in housing Angelenos and cleaning up sidewalks,” said David Meraz, a De León spokesperson.
Meraz pointed out that 18 months ago, in the wake of the audio leak scandal, many political groups called for De León to step down. The results so far show that “the community makes the choice of the candidate, not outside organizations,” he said.
Jurado has been running to push the council to the left, expanding the size of the council’s ultra-progressive bloc if she wins. She would be the first Filipino American to serve on the council, representing a district that is 61% Latino, 16% white and nearly 15% Asian, according to a demographic breakdown posted by the city in 2021.
De León, who was born in Los Angeles, is of Mexican, Guatemalan and Chinese descent, Meraz said. During the campaign, De León highlighted his own efforts to reduce homelessness, aid renters and halt gentrification in downtown L.A. and Boyle Heights.
Brian VanRiper, a political consultant who does not have any clients in the race, said Jurado is in a strong position to prevail in the runoff. Still, he offered a word of caution for the Jurado camp, noting that the district has a “history of forgiving” incumbents with major political baggage.
District voters reelected Councilmember Jose Huizar in 2015, even after he was sued by a former staffer who alleged that he had sexually harassed her. In that contest, Huizar easily defeated former County Supervisor Gloria Molina, a political “titan” who had been in office for about three decades.
“[Huizar] doubled down on constituent services and making the case that he delivered for the district,” VanRiper said. “It seems like Kevin de León is following that playbook.”
Huizar was later charged in a sweeping federal corruption case and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. De León was elected to the seat in 2020.
In recent months, many of the groups that supported De León four years ago lined up behind other candidates. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Western States Regional Council of Carpenters and other groups spent a combined $687,000 on efforts to elect Santiago, the state lawmaker who was in third place.
A consultant for Santiago did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jurado, for her part, has secured endorsements from an array of politicians and community groups, many of them at the left end of the political spectrum.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, City Controller Kenneth Mejia and former mayoral candidate Gina Viola have been campaigning for Jurado. Volunteers from the Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles, Ground Game LA and Boyle Heights Vota — formerly known as Boyle Heights for Bernie — have knocked on doors for her.
Caleb Elguezabal, who lives in Eagle Rock and is a member of the DSA, said the district has not “had the best representation” over the last decade.
Elguezabal, who volunteered on Jurado’s campaign, said he expects her to bring change to City Hall with a new approach to homelessness, fighting for a tax on vacant residential units and helping renters purchase their apartment buildings.
“Having someone with integrity would be a massive sea change,” he said.
Times staff writer Angie Orellana Hernandez contributed to this report.
When Mayor Karen Bass laid out her budget proposal for the Los Angeles Police Department last year, she had big plans for rebuilding the size of that agency’s workforce.
The mayor’s budget called for the LAPD to end the 2023-24 budget year with about 9,500 police officers — a target that would require the hiring of nearly 1,000 officers over a 12-month period.
Now, a new assessment from City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo — the city’s top budget analyst — shows the department is falling well short of its staffing goal. By June 30, the end of the fiscal year, the department is expected to have 8,908 officers, according to Szabo’s projections.
That would leave the LAPD with its lowest sworn staffing levels in over two decades.
Szabo’s report, issued Tuesday, is likely to fuel calls for the council to scale back the LAPD’s hiring goal. Even before it was released, some at City Hall had begun arguing that the annual budget calls for hundreds of officer positions that have little to no chance of being filled.
“I do not think 9,500 is realistic,” Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said Wednesday. “We can’t be in denial about this. It is not realistic. And the reason it’s not realistic is because … people who are entering the workforce do not want to be police officers.”
Soto-Martínez has long argued for the idea of shifting certain duties out of the LAPD and into agencies with unarmed responders. He asked for the LAPD’s 12-month hiring projections last month, just as the council began the process of cutting an as-yet-unknown number of civilian city positions — part of a larger effort at reining in a budget shortfall.
Meanwhile, police staffing is continuing its year-to-year slide.
The LAPD had about 10,000 officers in 2019, the last full year before COVID-19. In June 2020, not long after the murder of George Floyd, the City Council voted to scale back the deployment to about 9,750.
Bass took office in 2022. By the time her first budget went into effect, the number of officers had fallen to 9,027. In an attempt to reverse those trends, she negotiated a four-year package of pay increases and higher starting salaries.
That deal, approved in August, is now a major contributor to the city’s budget shortfall, which could reach as much as $400 million in the coming fiscal year.
De’Marcus Finnell, a spokesperson for Bass, said Wednesday that the salary agreement with the police officers’ union is producing results, helping to spur recruitment and lower attrition.
“According to conversations with LAPD, retirement rates could’ve been much higher if we hadn’t taken the action we did,” Finnell said in an email.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who voted against the salary agreement last year, has been offering a different assessment, calling the police contract financially irresponsible. Raman, now running for reelection with support from the mayor, has repeatedly warned that the police raises will leave the city with insufficient funds for other government programs.
“I thought that the size of the raise would be so much that it would create significant budget deficits going forward,” she told an audience last month, adding: “So far, the data has proven me correct.”
Others on the council say they still support the police raises.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, in an interview, said attrition has “slowed significantly” at the LAPD since the contract was approved. The contract, she said, is “doing what we needed it to do.”
Bass, as part of her budget, had been hoping to hire 780 new officers during the current fiscal year. She also had been looking to bring 200 retirees back to the department.
So far, only 15 retirees have come back, Szabo said.
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The decrease in LAPD staffing is producing at least one benefit — cutting costs in the city budget.
The city’s financial analysts are currently projecting an $82-million shortfall in the LAPD’s sworn salary account this year. Had the department had been successful in reaching the mayor’s hiring goals, that number would have grown to more than $118 million, Szabo said in his report.
Meanwhile, some categories of crime continue to fall.
Homicides have decreased by nearly 6% compared with the prior year, according to LAPD figures covering the period ending Jan. 27. Burglaries decreased by nearly 7% over the same time frame.
Other types of crime are on the rise. Assaults have gone up by 12% compared to the same period last year, according to LAPD figures. The number of shooting victims is up 29% so far this year.
Laguna Beach officials on Tuesday ended a city council meeting early after a handful of speakers unleashed antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic and racist tirades over Zoom during a public comment period.
The incident appears to be an example of “Zoombombing,” an unfortunate trend that began when the pandemic forced public meetings to move online, allowing speakers to make comments from remote sites.
The meeting, where leaders were considering recognizing February as Black History Month and conducting other business, like appointing community members to committees, was peppered with profanity-laced comments about Latinos, members of the LGBTQ+ community and Black and Jewish people. After two hours, and roughly a dozen public speakers, Mayor Sue Kempf decided to adjourn the meeting and move it to another date.
“Our community’s dedication to civic engagement is commendable, and we are committed to ensuring a safe and respectful environment. Together, we will continue to uphold our values of inclusivity, respect, and integrity,” Kempf wrote in a statement.
Zoombombing, in which speakers aim to disrupt a public meeting, became an unwelcome trend during the pandemic when city and school district gatherings largely went online to avoid transmission of COVID-19.
“This was a targeted act by a relatively small number of people who are looking for publicity. They’re like ants,” said Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino. “This is really the conduct of a roving band of both small-numbered and small-minded bigots.”
The comments in Laguna Beach began less than an hour into the meeting during a period set aside for people to give their thoughts on issues not on the council’s agenda.
After two speakers used antisemitic language and a third sought to speak about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., City Atty. Megan Garibaldi briefly paused the comments to explain that this attempt at Zoombombing was a way to “try to test the city government” to see if they’ll shut down speech in violation of the 1st Amendment.
“To the extent that these comments start to get to the point of disrupting our meeting … we can suspend comment. Otherwise, unfortunately, we have to proceed with comment until they’re over,” she told the crowd.
The profanity and conspiracy-laden comments continued after the council moved onto the consent calendar. At one point, after a man used anti-gay and anti-Jewish slurs, city officials paused the meeting to give members of the audience a chance to step outside until the comments were over. Officials attempted to continue the meeting, but the hate speech continued.
After several breaks and attempts to move the discussion forward, Kempf said she was ending the meeting.
“We couldn’t get any work done,” Kempf said Wednesday morning. “It just wasn’t productive.”
Cities and schools across California from the Bay Area to San Diego have grappled with Zoombombing during their meetings.
Many of the Zoombombing incidents are the work of individuals associated with a small, known hate group. The incident comes at a time when anti-Jewish hate is surging across the United States, Levin said.
In Orange County, the Jewish community was the most targeted for religious-related hate activity in 2022, according to a report published last year by the OC Human Relations Commission. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Portland, Ore., and other major cities also hit records for anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023, Levin said.
“There is a greater resilience with respect to these kinds of bigotries because of both the destruction of the internet and the the down-sloping direction of civic discourse,” he said.
In Laguna Beach, which has been celebrated for decades as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community, residents attending the meeting were visibly angry.
Some shouted from the audience that the council should stop the Zoom feed.
Mayor Pro Tem Alex Rounaghi called the comments from the Zoom speakers “horrible” and said they don’t reflect Laguna Beach values.
“We all know the 1st Amendment protects everyone’s right to speech, even hate speech, but we can add our voices too,” he said. “This is a place that is not only tolerant of diversity of all forms but also embraces it.”
After six trespassing arrests were made in less than a week related to a heavily tagged unfinished skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, the City Council will consider ordering the property owners to clean up the site.
Councilmember Kevin de León introduced a motion Feb. 2 that would instruct the Department of Building and Safety, the Bureau of Street Services and the Bureau of Engineering to order the Oceanwide Plaza owners to secure the property and clear debris from the public right of way. The council will vote on the motion Friday.
“Our residents and businesses deserve safe and vibrant neighborhoods, which is why I’ve taken action to ensure the Oceanwide property is cleaned and made safe,” De León.
If the owners do not comply by Feb. 17, the city will begin its own cleanup process, the motion said. There is currently scaffolding, plastic barriers and other debris on the sidewalks and in the bus lane adjacent to the building.
The Department of Building and Safety issued an order to the property owners on Jan. 31 requesting they remove all graffiti and debris and securely fence the building.
Oceanwide Plaza was slated to be a mixed-use development including luxury apartments and hotel and retail space, but construction was halted in 2019 when the Beijing-based developers ran out of money.
The incomplete high-rise has attracted many taggers and graffiti artists in recent weeks, who have collectively tagged at least 27 stories of the building. De León’s motion described the development as “a blight on downtown Los Angeles” and “a black eye on an otherwise vibrant part of DTLA.”
The development faces Crypto.com Arena, which hosted the Grammys last weekend, and is near the popular L.A. Live complex among shops and restaurants. De León represents Council District 14, which includes downtown Los Angeles.
De León’s motion orders the owners of Oceanwide Plaza to “restore the public right of way to its original condition,” and instructs various city organizations to step in if the job is not completed by the deadline. The motion also asks the city administrative officer to identify funding for the cleanup and securing of the site.
The building attracts criminal activity and has become a hazard for surrounding residents and businesses, the motion said. Los Angeles Police Department officers are also investigating a report of shots fired near the development last week.
And they’re not going to just sit there and take it.
Protect Huntington Beach — a revolution led by retirees — is waging a spiritedfight against what the group sees as a City Hall attempt to screen, and perhaps ban, library books with sexual content, reel in Pride flags and suppress voting rights.
A posse of six or seven hell-raisers in their 60s, 70s and 80s agreed to meet with me Tuesday night as they geared up before a city council meeting, but before long, the group had grown to 10, then 15, then 20. Some of them were new to activism; others have histories.
“I took my bra off in the ‘60s,” JoAnn Arvizu said proudly.
California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults.
“I’ve never done this before,” said Carol Daus, who added that she and her husband, Tony, were out posting signs late one evening. “This is our new hobby, I suppose. It’s midnight, and we’re out driving around. I have a torn meniscus, I’m going up a hill, there’s railroad tracks and for a minute I thought, ‘How crazy are you?’ ”
“We’re dedicated,” said one rebel.
“No, we’re mad,” said Tony Daus.
Former Huntington Beach Mayor Shirley Dettloff, who’s almost 89, didn’t hesitate to join the resistance.
“We’re really the people who built this city, and we’re proud of what we did,” Dettloff said. “And this new council is diminishing all that we worked for.”
Members of Protect Huntington Beach protest outside City Hall before a city council meeting.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Dettloff said there’s long been a conservative strain in the city, which once had a John Birch Society presence and led the mask-resistance forces in the early days of the pandemic. But when she served on the council in the ‘90s, Dettloff said, there was always civil discourse and respectful compromise. The focus was on managing the city for the betterment of residents, not on culture wars.
So what’s changed? Dettloff had a two-word explanation.
“Donald Trump.”
The former president unleashed “a whole new way of politics being done,” Dettloff said. And the current majority on the Huntington Beach City Council — Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark and council members Pat Burns, Casey McKeon and Tony Strickland — has joined the conga line.
As mayor, Dettloff said, she was co-author of a human dignity policy after reports of a skinhead presence in Huntington Beach. But in September, the council voted 4-3 to remove references to hate crimes from the policy, and it added a line saying the city “will recognize from birth the genetic differences between male and female…”
Huntington Beach City Council members from left: Pat Burns, Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, Tony Strickland, and Casey McKeon listen to speakers from Protect Huntington Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
And that wasn’t the only waste of time or insult to civility that set off Dettloff and others. They were steamed about a council discussion on whether to continue observing Black History Month, and about a March election that will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, to put three controversial measures before voters.
One would effectively ban the flying of the Pride flag on city property, one would require voters to produce ID and allow drop-box monitoring despite the absence of any evidence of voter fraud, and one would grant more mayoral power in what the Orange County Register warned “can be misused to reduce public access and limit dissent.”
“Vote no on all three,” a Register editorial advised, and “encourage the council to get back to governing rather than political theater.”
That’s precisely the message the protesters carried to City Hall on Tuesday evening, where I expected them to clash with political foes. There’s a reason, after all, that four conservatives were elected to the seven-member City Council.
But the several dozen people who gathered outside City Hall were all on the same side of the skirmish, while supporters of book bans and voter suppression apparently stayed home. And roughly 90% of those in attendance were in their 60s and older.
I spotted one Support Huntington Beach lad of 39 years, who was shooting video of the protest, and asked how he ended up in the company of so many people twice his age.
“I saw a group of senior citizens start to step up, and I joined one of their meetings,” said Michael Craigs. “I realized that their presence on social media and video content wasn’t going to reach younger generations, so I volunteered to help with that.”
Cathey Ryder rallied the group with a barb aimed at the City Council majority that wants to crack down on perceived rigged elections.
“If there’s so much fraud and mistrust, how do we know the four of them got elected?” she cracked.
“We will be mailing out 30,000 postcards,” Ryder said. “We will be knocking on doors and leaving campaign literature to between [12,000]and 15,000 voters.”
The crowd then moved indoors to confront the City Council, filling most of the auditorium and some of an adjacent spillover room with a video feed. Of the more than 40 people who signed up to speak, almost all were 65 and older, and all but a few denounced the ballot measures.
“They stink,” said Andy Einhorn.
“The City Council needs to get about the business of running the city,” said Tony Daus, who ripped council and staff for unspecified and unnecessary election costs.
“This is our new hobby, I suppose,” Carol Daus said, referring to her activism. “It’s midnight, and we’re out driving around. I have a torn meniscus, I’m going up a hill, there’s railroad tracks and for a minute I thought, ‘How crazy are you?’ ” Daus of Protect Huntington Beach addresses City Council members in City Hall on Tuesday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“If I ran a business like this, I’d be fired,” said his wife, Carol, who warned of litigation costs if the state follows through on a threat to block any voter suppression tactics.
Barbara Shapiro opened a gift-wrapped box and pulled out three sausages labeled Measures A, B and C, along with a piece of paper.
“Oh, it’s a bill,” she said in mock surprise. “Oh my gosh. We’re going to be paying millions of dollars for these sausages.”
Two days after the meeting, Carol Daus shared with me some social media feedback from Huntington Beach residents on the other side of this fight.
“So much frosted hair,” said one post, while another referred to Dettloff as a “leftist granny.”
“Maybe they did too much LSD at Berkeley,” said another post.
I was prepared to visit with the other side, but if that’s the level of discourse, maybe I’ll pass.
When I met with Protect Huntington Beach before the council meeting, two people said that if the ballot measures pass, they may move out of the city.
Kathryn Goddard, 82, said she’s staying put.
“I’ve been here 30 years and I feel like my job is to not let this happen,” she said. “This is my town, and I’m going to fight.”
EAST POINT, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – East Point has now joined a small but growing list of Georgia cities that have voted to decriminalize marijuana possession of an ounce or less.
Of the 535 cities in the state, East Point is just the 13th to make the move.
Now, people arrested for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana will be given a $75 fine or community service, but will not be punished with jail time.
The ordinance, unanimously approved by the East Point City Council on Dec. 19, almost identically mirrors a similar ordinance down the road in Atlanta.
East Point is the second city to decriminalize this year, following Camilla.
“Georgia is very, very behind the times when it comes to (decriminalization),” said Scotty Smart, a marijuana policy advocate with the group New Georgia Project.
Smart notes that Georgia has the fourth highest rate of simple marijuana possession in the entire country, and Black and brown residents are three to four times more likely to be arrested on that charge.
“Enactment of an ordinance concerning the offense of simple marijuana possession is further intended to prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system and avoiding the enduring stigma associated therewith,” reads part of the ordinance language.
The ordinance also states that decriminalization will also help open up police resources and eliminate costs “by reducing the amount of time police officers spend in connection with the arrest, processing and…
“This agreement allows for work to proceed as quickly as possible on the replacement of old and failing pipes under Bath St,” the spokesman said.
The project had been particularly challenging from an engineering perspective, and time had been an important factor, he said.
It had investigated alternative pipe routes as part of its planning, but “almost all routes” had to pass under private property in Bath St at some stage.
The only other option was to run the new pipe along…
The Napier City Council plans to start design work in its proposed Emerson Street CBD revamp early in the New Year, although it is yet to finish the consultation.
The Revitalise Emerson pop-up shop has another week to run at 247 Emerson St, with feedback sought from anyone interested in sharing their thoughts.
It will be the biggest rethink of the shopping centre in the 30 years since it was transformed into a pedestrian shopping precinct, with single-lane vehicle access replacing the two-way traffic, from the days of the main-street drag.
Cruise visitors enjoy a stroll along Emerson St in Napier on Wednesday. Photo / NZME
Council’s City Activation lead Steph Kennard said that with some government funding the council is keen to make the most of that opportunity and “do something really cool for the community”.
The work includes gathering data around the movement of people, vehicles and micro-transport options like bikes and scooters, with interviews, observations and video analysis by a local research company.
Meanwhile, the week-long Squares in the City, focused on Clive and Memorial squares, is in full swing and the Napier Night Fiesta series starts its 2023-2024 season on December 8.
A homeless housing project in West L.A., backed by Mayor Karen Bass and opposed by some neighborhood groups because of its proximity to residential homes, was approved by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday.
The council, with exception of one member who was absent, voted unanimously in favor of the 33-bed facility on a city-owned parking lot at Midvale Avenue and Pico Boulevard, across from the former Westside Pavilion. The council also decided that the project is exempt from a comprehensive environmental review.
Bass, Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky and other supporters argue the project will provide relief for the area’s unhoused population. It will also help the city comply with a legal settlement that requires it to add beds.
“The citywide issue of homelessness deserves a citywide response,” Bass said in a statement Friday. “We must continue to do all that we can to bring unhoused Angelenos inside and I thank Councilmember Yaroslavsky and the City Council for continuing the work to urgently confront the homelessness crisis.”
Yaroslavsky spoke ahead of the vote, promising residents and business owners who opposed the project that she would secure additional parking before breaking ground and would also develop a neighborhood safety plan with the Los Angeles Police Department and local homeless service providers.
“But let me be absolutely very clear, we need these beds,” said Yaroslavsky, who represents the area. “I know 33 beds doesn’t seem like a lot, because in all honesty, it’s not. It’s not nearly enough, considering the emergency we’re in right now.”
Right now, Yaroslavsky said, fewer than 100 of the city’s 16,000 homeless beds are in her district.
“What this means for my constituents, not only in Westwood but across the entire district, is that when we are trying to resolve an encampment and bring people inside, off the street and into housing, it’s nearly impossible,” she said.
The facility, which is projected to cost nearly $4.6 million, will include “sleeping cabins” with restrooms in each unit. There will also be on-site laundry facilities, storage bins and office space, according to a report from the city’s Bureau of Engineering. It’s expected to open in about a year, Yaroslavsky told The Times.
She said residents will have access to mental health and substance use disorder specialists, employment assistance and help finding permanent housing. There will be 24-hour security on-site. Most of the beds will be reserved for people who have ties to the area.
The Westside Neighborhood Council voted last week to oppose the project because it would be near homes and businesses along Pico Boulevard. The group also expressed “dismay that other sites were not being evaluated as alternatives.”
Controversy over the proposed facility ratcheted up earlier this week when Bass abruptly removed the president of the Transportation Commission days after he led his colleagues in delaying a vote on an environmental review waiver.
At a commission meeting, President Eric Eisenberg had expressed concern about the waiver and asked for a delay so the panel could hear more about the project from city representatives.
On Monday, Eisenberg said, he was informed by the mayor’s office that he was no longer a commissioner. Bass’ office has declined to explain why she removed Eisenberg.
At a special meeting on Wednesday, the Transportation Commission — now operating without Eisenberg — approved the waiver.
Bass has made reducing homelessness her top issue. Her Inside Safe initiative seeks to quickly move unhoused Angelenos into motels and hotels, and she has ordered city departments to hasten the construction of affordable housing and shelters.
Eisenberg, in a statement he provided to The Times, said he wasn’t convinced the project should be exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
A “project of thirty small homes, with sewage, plumbing lines, and trash disposal, [could] cause a situation, where the benefits of the project do not outweigh the hazards to the community,” he wrote.
Barbara Broide, a neighborhood council member, urged the City Council at a committee hearing on the project earlier this month to look at different sites, including one on Cotner Avenue.
“We’re here to tell you this is the wrong location,” Broide said. “It’s a good project for another place.”
Broide was one of several residents who hoped to address the City Council before Friday’s vote. But the council did not allow comments until afterward.
“I just wanted the council to know that it has shredded the faith that dozens of my neighbors have in their government,” said Meg Sullivan, who lives in the council district. “They came here today to let you know their very reasonable concerns, which I share, about putting housing on a much-needed public lot on Midvale, and yet they were not able to speak.”
Margaret Gillespie, a member of the Westside Neighborhood Assn., spoke in support of the project.
“I want to thank Councilmember Yaroslavsky for her leadership on this very difficult issue. It’s difficult because of all the misinformation that circulates and the false narratives about the homeless,” she said. “I support the project because 25 of the 30 units are reserved for people who live here.”
Austin Pets Alive! is a private nonprofit dedicated to eliminating the needless killing of shelter pets. We have been extremely successful because of the strategy we employ to make Austin, and now other cities, No Kill.
Our No Kill strategy is simple and two fold:
We save lives by drawing attention to, and taking pets off, the daily euthanasia list while
Allowing that attention to apply pressure on the city to get the proper resources they need to decrease the euthanasia list themselves.
In 2021, we worked with the city council on an amendment to our city contract that has caused some community and government staff confusion that we hope to dispel with these three points:
1. Foundational to APA! is to pull only from the euthanasia list to have a measurable effect on the kill rate which ultimately helped the city achieve No Kill status in 2011. It is important to note that critical to this strategy, and implied by the creation and use of a euthanasia list to eliminate pets that they do not have the resources to care for, is that the city can manage and care for all the animals not on the euthanasia list.
2. Our long term contract was extraordinarily overdue and in need of an update. The old contract created in 2011 was built on a guesstimate of the size of future years’ euthanasia lists; this contract stayed in effect for years past its expiration date with extension after extension after extension which ultimately led to operational misalignment between AAC and APA!. This was resolved in contract negotiations in 2018, when it was mutually agreed that APA! would continue to focus on the euthanasia list, but always have a 12% minimum, as long as we used TLAC. Even though that was documented in 2018, land issues prevented it being signed and so in 2021, APA! worked with city council to bring the extension-riddled contract in line operationally to match the agreement from 2018. The current contract wasn’t finalized until 2023 due to TLAC land issues.
3. In response to the community demand that AAC do better for the pets that are not on the euthanasia list, the city council has more than doubled the AAC budget between 2008-2023 to allow AAC to reduce the euthanasia list, provide in house medical and behavioral care, as well as community support to meet their stated mission.
Today, Austin Pets Alive! has made the difficult decision to provide a 30-day notice to end our veterinary services contract with Laredo Animal Care Services (LACS).
When we began our partnership with LACS earlier this year, at the request of the Laredo city council and community, it was with the whole-hearted intention to help meet the city’s goals of providing medical care and practices that further saved lives. Every vaccine given and disease prevented, medical treatment administered, surgery conducted, and animal transported to another rescue partner was done to not only fulfill our contractual obligations but as a moral obligation to the pets being sheltered in the city. We heard from community member after community member how much it meant to them that their city shelter could become more aligned with the word “shelter” — providing true safety and care to pets that are lost, displaced or abandoned.
We’re very proud of the work we did alongside many of the dedicated LACS staff members. The last eight months have led to more than 1,000 spay/neuter surgeries (an approx 400% increase from the previous Veterinary vendor) and raised the feline live outcome rate to a historical high of over 70%. Dogs and cats that were once euthanized for having something as simple as a cold were treated and many have already been adopted.
Unfortunately, we were met with resistance from shelter leadership. Over the past few months as the changes required became more real, and hard, the goals of LACS shifted away from a lifesaving focus and back toward operating at a lower capacity for care and lifesaving. This approach means that thousands of animals who should live long healthy lives will continue to die in order to meet a regressive goal. We cannot in good conscience continue working under such a drastic diversion from the original goals the city council laid out for us to follow.
It hurts our hearts to leave so many pets and people behind but we believe that we have no other choice. Our true hope is that Laredoans saw that life saving was possible and that they will demand the changes necessary to be a humane city for beloved pets.
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