The Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission this week adopted new transparency rules requiring commissioners to publicly disclose private communications with elected officials and their staff—a move supporters say is aimed at shoring up public trust as the panel moves toward an early April deadline to reshape the city’s governing charter.
The policy, approved unanimously at the commission’s Wednesday meeting, requires commissioners to disclose ex parte communications, or off-record discussions with elected officials or their staff about matters pending before the commission. The disclosure requirement took effect immediately on Jan. 21.
Under the new rules, commissioners must disclose any such communications at the next commission meeting following the interaction, including the date and time, form, duration, participants and a summary of the charter reform topics discussed. Any off-the-record conversations that occur during a public meeting must be disclosed before adjournment. Commission staff are also directed to maintain a public log of disclosures on the commission’s website.
The vote marks the commission’s first formal step to address growing concerns that behind-the-scenes conversations could influence charter reform recommendations outside public view. But while commissioners agreed on the need to disclose their own communications, they stopped short of extending the same requirement to commission staff, postponing a separate proposal that would have broadened the rule’s reach.
Commissioner Carla Fuentes, who introduced the motions, said the disclosure framework was necessary to protect the integrity of the commission’s work and ensure transparency at a moment when public confidence is critical.
“If the public is going to trust the outcomes of our charter reform process, it has to be transparent and credible,” Fuentes said during the meeting. “To me, this is about creating guard rails that match the magnitude of what we’re doing here by strengthening accountability and ensuring that the public record reflects the conversations that may influence our deliberations.”
She noted that the commission’s action would take effect sooner than a similar ordinance approved by the City Council earlier in the week, which still requires additional procedural steps before implementation.
The City Council ordinance, introduced by Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla and approved on Jan. 20, similarly requires Charter Reform Commission members to disclose ex parte communications with elected officials and their staff. However, it is not expected to take effect for at least several weeks, following a second reading and other required procedural steps. The ordinance also does not extend disclosure requirements to commission staff.
In a follow-up email to this publication Friday, Fuentes said the commission could not afford to wait for the City Council’s ordinance to take effect, citing the panel’s limited lifespan and the April 2 deadline to submit their recommendations to the City Council.
“With each meeting, we’re closer to that deadline and transparency needs to be in place now for the public to have any confidence in the remainder of our work,” she wrote.
While commissioners ultimately approved disclosure rules for themselves, divisions emerged over whether the requirement should also apply to commission staff.
Commission Chair Raymond Meza said he supported commissioner disclosure but raised concerns that extending the rule to staff could sweep in routine or procedural communications.
“It is not uncommon for an elected official’s staff person to call one of our staff and say, ‘Hey, I heard a discussion that’s been taking place in the commission — did this commissioner really mean that,’” Meza said, adding that such exchanges could trigger disclosure even when no policy advocacy was involved.
With only seven of the commission’s 12 members present Wednesday, any dissenting vote would have been enough to block the motion. Meza said he would vote against the staff disclosure provision under those circumstances, prompting Fuentes to agree to separate the two proposals and bring the staff issue back at a future meeting when more commissioners are present.
Transparency advocates welcomed the commission’s action but said gaps remain—particularly around the decision to delay staff disclosure.
Chris Carson, chair of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles’ Government Reform Committee, speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the League, said Friday that the new rules still leave significant gray areas.
She pointed to the difficulty of distinguishing between “procedural” and substantive conversations, noting that routine check-ins or requests for clarification can easily slide into discussions that influence decision-making.
“It just raises a lot of questions about what you are defining as procedural,” she said. “And when does an inquiry about what is going to happen morph into something else.”
While the new rule requires commissioners to publicly disclose off-the-record communications, enforcement relies largely on self-reporting and internal commission oversight. The policy does not include an independent enforcement mechanism, and violations would not invalidate votes or recommendations already made by the commission. However, commissioners who fail to comply could face censure or a recommendation for removal by their appointing authority.
Still, Carson said disclosure requirements can meaningfully change behavior, even when they rely on voluntary reporting, by making secrecy riskier than transparency.
Drawing on her experience helping draft California’s independent redistricting reforms, she said the state’s citizens redistricting commission adopted a strict ex parte ban — prohibiting private communications altogether — and publicly disclosing any attempted contacts.
“The cleanest and most transparent way to go is to just have a ban on ex parte communication from everybody,” Carson said. “That way, the commissioners know maybe they’re not being gamed. The public knows that the commissioners are not being gamed. And it works.”
Created in 2024 following a series of City Hall scandals, the Charter Reform Commission is tasked with reviewing Los Angeles’ charter, often described as the city’s constitution, and recommending changes to the City Council. If approved by the Council, some proposals could go before voters as early as November.
As Los Angeles’ Charter Reform Commission moves toward recommendations that could reshape City Hall for decades — from City Council expansion to changes in financial oversight — a growing dispute over transparency is raising concerns that some elected officials may be privately influencing the process outside of public view.
The debate has sparked a motion by Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla, supported by civic transparency groups, that would require members of the Charter Reform Commission to disclose ex parte communications, or private discussions with elected officials or their staff that occur outside of public meetings.
Supporters say the safeguard is necessary as the commission, formed in 2024 after a series of City Hall scandals, prepares to submit its recommendations to the City Council by April 2, a step that could put major governance changes before voters as soon as November.
Rodriguez said she is concerned that key ideas are being developed through informal, undisclosed conversations, limiting meaningful public input before the commission’s work reaches the City Council.
“Voters are going to have items to consider without a fully vetted proposal, and that’s really problematic,” she said in an interview Thursday. “ Potentially it could do more harm than good for our city.”
She also argued that the commission’s structure heightens those concerns. With a majority of commissioners appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Rodriguez said the process risks being driven by “the will of two or three people,” rather than the public.
“There has been a lot of behind-closed-doors [discussion] with commissioners and elected officials,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of policy suggestions haven’t come forward in a formal manner.”
Padilla, who co-authored the motion with Rodriguez, said the proposal is aimed at strengthening public confidence in the commission’s work as it approaches major decisions.
“Independence and transparency can and should go hand in hand,” Padilla said in a statement Friday. “When proposals have the potential to alter the structure and function of our local government, there must be confidence they are being developed openly, not through informal or undisclosed conversations.”
Rodriguez also criticized the pace at which her ex parte disclosure motion has moved. Introduced in August, the measure was referred to the Council’s Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, where it remained for several months before being approved in December, but was not immediately scheduled for a full City Council vote.
With the commission facing an early April deadline to submit its recommendations, Rodriguez said the delay has narrowed the window for public debate.
“Without ex parte communications, which is a motion that I introduced over five months ago that Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the president of the Council, has sat on and refused to advance—[it hides] the disclosures of what communications are actively happening with elected officials and commissioners,” Rodriguez said. “What it does is it just exposes the lack of transparency that they’re operating here, and that’s a big problem.”
Rodriguez publicly raised those concerns during a Jan. 9 City Council meeting, accusing council leadership of allowing key policy discussions to languish without action.
Harris-Dawson chairs the Rules Committee and, as Council president, plays a central role in setting the City Council agenda, giving his office influence over when motions are heard in committee and when they advance to a full Council vote.
He did not respond to requests for comment. The motion appeared on next Tuesday’s City Council agenda, Jan. 20, as Item 33 on Friday.
The dispute has drawn a response from the Charter Reform Commission itself, whose chair pushed back on the idea that the body is operating without safeguards or public oversight.
Charter Reform Commission Chair Raymond Meza said the body is already subject to multiple layers of oversight and transparency, and that it operates under rules set not by the commission itself, but by the City Council.
“This commission was created by ordinance of the City Council and whatever rules the City Council puts in place, this commission will abide by,” Meza said.
Meza pointed to several existing safeguards he said prevent decisions from being made outside public view. The commission, he said, is bound by the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act, meaning deliberations and votes must occur publicly and records can be requested like those of any other city body.
He also noted that any formal recommendation requires seven votes from the full 13-member commission — not just a majority of those present — a threshold he said makes it difficult to advance proposals without broad agreement.
“You can’t spring things on people,” he said.
While commissioners may speak informally with members of the public, advocacy groups, department heads or elected officials, Meza said those conversations cannot lead to action unless proposals are introduced as motions, debated publicly and approved by seven of the commission’s 13 members.
Meza, a mayoral appointee, also rejected the notion that the commission is controlled by elected officials through appointments.
Under the structure approved by city leaders in 2024, he said, the mayor appoints four commissioners, the City Council president appoints two and the president pro tempore appoints two more. Those eight commissioners then selected five additional members through an open application process — a structure he described as unusual among city commissions and intended to promote independence.
Meza also said ex parte disclosure requirements are not standard across city commissions. Only Los Angeles’ Independent Redistricting Commission currently has such a rule, he said, and unlike that body, the Charter Reform Commission does not send proposals directly to voters.
“No council member put forward any amendments when this commission was created to put ex parte requirements or to change who appointed the commissioners,” Meza said, adding that many of the same council members who approved those rules are still on the Council today.
Supporters of the disclosure proposal, however, argue that the Charter Reform Commission — often described as the city’s constitution-writing body — warrants a higher standard of transparency, given the scope and permanence of the changes under consideration.
The League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles said ex parte disclosure rules are critical to maintaining public confidence in the charter process, particularly as the commission moves toward final recommendations.
“The charter is our constitution,” said Chris Carson, chair of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles’ Government Reform Committee. “And the public has a right to know what is being done to influence the commission’s work behind closed doors.”
League officials said existing open-meeting laws do not replace disclosure rules that reveal how ideas take shape before they reach a public vote.
“We firmly believe that the best safeguard, the only real safeguard, is a ban on ex parte communications—private communications between an elected official and a member of that commission,” Carson said.
Others who have followed the commission’s work say the effects of those gaps in disclosure are already visible in how proposals take shape.
Asked what she believes is at stake in the Charter Reform Commission process, Jamie York did not hesitate.
“The future of the city,” said York, president of the Reseda Neighborhood Council.
She said the Commission’s work goes to the core of how Los Angeles governs itself — and whether it is willing to confront politically difficult issues in a meaningful way.
“It’s asking the questions about what kind of city we want to be, what kind of changes do we think that we need to have,” York said. “And contending with if this Commission is willing to do that work, and then be willing to ask the hard questions and address the tough topics.”
York said she has grown increasingly frustrated with what she described as a staff-driven process that, in her view, has limited transparency and public trust.
“There are two tracks for how things work in this city,” she said. “There’s the public process, and there’s the private process. And the private process tends to be what dominates the city. But the charter should be about what’s good for Angelenos, not about what’s good for politicians. So the entire process should be public.”
York said her Neighborhood Council submitted a community impact statement supporting the motion with amendments, urging that ex parte disclosure requirements apply to city staff as well as elected officials.
Supporters of the disclosure proposal have also pointed to recent commission debates involving City Controller Kenneth Mejia as an example of why transparency concerns have intensified.
On Jan. 10, Commissioner Martin Schlageter — an appointee of Harris-Dawson — introduced a proposal that would significantly restructure the city’s financial oversight system.
The plan would convert the City Administrative Officer into a chief financial officer role and transfer certain financial and administrative functions now handled by the independently elected City Controller.
After widespread public opposition at the meeting, commissioners agreed to advance portions of the proposal while continuing discussion of other elements in committee.
The dispute comes as the Charter Reform Commission approaches the final stretch of a process born out of City Hall’s own credibility crisis.
The Charter Reform Commission was created in 2024 in response to multiple City Hall scandals, including the leak of racist audio recordings involving former City Council President Nury Martinez. Tasked with reviewing the city’s governing document — often described as Los Angeles’ constitution — the commission is examining changes that could permanently alter how power is distributed at City Hall.
Under the current schedule, the commission is expected to submit its recommendations to the City Council by April. The council will then decide which proposals, if any, advance to the ballot — a step critics say further heightens the need for transparency at the commission level.
Among the ideas under consideration are proposals to expand the City Council, adopt ranked-choice voting for city elections, set standards for removing elected officials indicted on criminal charges, and allow the mayor to submit a two-year budget instead of the current annual cycle.
A spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass said the mayor’s office was preparing a response, but a statement was not provided by publication time Friday evening.
Los Angeles City Council moved to dramatically expand the city’s adaptive reuse policy citywide, clearing the way for empty office and commercial buildings across the city to be converted into housing.
The City Council voted unanimously to adopt a pair of ordinances that extend adaptive reuse regulations beyond Downtown for the first time in more than two decades.
The action repeals the city’s existing Adaptive Reuse Incentive Areas Specific Plan, which had limited conversions largely to parts of Downtown, Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, Hollywood and Koreatown. It also updates the 1999 Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) that helped spur more than 12,000 new homes in downtown alone.
According to a City Planning Department fact sheet, the updated regulations are intended to make it easier to convert older or underused commercial buildings, many left partly empty after the pandemic, into much-needed housing.
The revision expands eligibility for adaptive reuse citywide and introduces new incentives and streamlined approvals designed to make conversions easier.
The updated ordinance broadens the types and ages of buildings that qualify, allows more projects to be approved by right, adds incentive for developments that include affordable housing, and establishes design standards to improve ground-floor uses and the public realm. It will apply citywide outside the Downtown Community Plan area, which is governed by its own adaptive reuse regulations under the new zoning code.
City officials said the expansion is part of the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, a package of six strategies aimed at boosting housing production and helping Los Angeles meet its state-mandated housing goals. The adaptive reuse update is the first of those strategies moving forward.
The Los Angeles City Council has voted to make major changes to rent control, hoping to make housing more affordable in the city.
In a historic 12-2 vote on Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council decided to cap annual rent increases. Updating the Rent Stabilization Ordinance formula to set the annual increase of rent to 4% for roughly 650,000 units across the city.
Previously, the formula to set rent was 60% of the consumer price index, but now it is being increased to 90%. Additionally, the ruling will allow an additional 2% increase for landlords who cover utilities.
Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, ahead of the vote, said, “Extraordinary rent increases are driving people out of the city.”
The RSO covers apartments built on or before Oct. 1, 1978, and lawmakers have spent months debating how to best alleviate residents from additional rent-related burdens. While also taking into account how to best balance the needs of housing providers.
Raman said, “What we have before us right now is an opportunity to make L.A. more affordable, because when people can afford to stay in Los Angeles this entire city thrives.”
Landlords and advocates against the measure say the updated formula will make it more expensive to provide housing.
To relieve any additional burden to landlords, they are also putting into effect an increase in funding for “Mom and Pop” landlords. Owners with 2-10 units will receive support for repairs and rehabilitation.
Most Angelenos are renters, and more than half spend more than 30% of their income on paying rent. With 1 in 10 residents using 90% of their income to cover rent.
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to formally codify an existing rule requiring landlords to file eviction notices with the city, a procedural step that aims to improve enforcement of tenant protections and spot patterns of evictions.
Under the newly adopted ordinance, landlords must submit a copy of any written notice ending tenancy to the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) within three business days of serving the tenant. The amendment, originally drafted by the City Attorney’s Office in April, specifies that notices must be submitted either electronically or using a form approved by the LAHD and the City Attorney.
City officials and housing advocates say the rule is part of a broader push to increase transparency around evictions and ensure renters aren’t being forced out of their homes illegally.
In a statement, Sharon Sandow, director of communications for the city’s Housing Department, said the amendment requires landlords who don’t file eviction notices online to instead mail the notice along with an LAHD Eviction Filing Cover Sheet.
“This ensures that LAHD receives all necessary tenant information directly from the landlord,” she said. “Tenant information is essential for providing tenants with valuable renter protection and referrals to appropriate legal services, thereby safeguarding tenant rights.”
Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, a longtime tenants’ rights nonprofit, praised the move, saying it strengthens tenant protections and enables groups like his to help tenants fight unlawful evictions.
“Tenants are in some cases unaware that they’re being evicted, until they get the notice to appear in court,” Gross said. “So landlords play a lot of games with these notices and this will hold them accountable.”
He also connected the ordinance to broader tenant protection infrastructure, like the city’s Right to Counsel Program, which provides eligible tenants with free legal representation.
“ It goes hand in hand with the city’s commitment to funding Right to Counsel,” Gross said, “to ensure that tenants, particularly low-income tenants, are represented with legal representation when they have to fight an eviction in courts.”
But landlord groups criticized the move as overly burdensome. Daniel M. Yukelson, executive director and CEO of Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, said the measure adds yet another layer of bureaucracy for landlords already grappling with complex rules.
“The city is doing everything in its power to make it more difficult for property owners to collect legally owed rent or deal with problems that tenants are causing, whether they be conducting criminal activity, destroying property, creating a nuisance,” he said.
Yukelson said that under the city’s eviction-filing rules, even small technical errors, such as forgetting to list the number of bedrooms, or failing to submit the required forms within three business days, can allow a tenant to raise an affirmative defense in court. That means a judge could delay or dismiss the case, forcing landlords to start the eviction process from the beginning.
“ Believe me, evictions are a last resort in any situation,” he said. “They’re very costly and time-consuming and nerve-wracking for property owners to go through, so nobody wants to do it. And the city is just creating even more burdens on property owners through this latest action. It is basically death by a thousand cuts.”
The item passed Tuesday without discussion. The updated ordinance amends sections 151.09 and 165.05 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code to clarify how landlords must comply with the city’s eviction filing rules, which was enacted in January 2023 as part of a broader package of pandemic-era tenant protections.
This rule applies to all written notices terminating a tenancy for at-fault reasons, including those for nonpayment of rent, lease violations, nuisance complaints or other tenant misconduct under the city’s Rent Stabilization and Just Cause ordinances.
Notices for no-fault evictions — such as owner move-ins or demolition — must be filed separately through a Declaration of Intent to Evict, which includes an application fee and paid relocation assistance to the tenant.
The LAHD maintains a searchable database of notices filed under the ordinance, which tenants can use to check whether their landlord has complied. If a landlord fails to file the notice properly or on time, tenants may be able to raise an “affirmative defense” in court — a factor that can delay or even derail the eviction process.
In a July 2023 report, LAHD noted that while it had received roughly 40,000 eviction notices since the rule took effect, many were submitted on paper, creating backlogs and straining staff capacity. To streamline the process and bolster enforcement, the department recommended a technical amendment requiring landlords to either upload notices electronically or submit them on a standardized form approved by LAHD. Tuesday’s vote codified that recommendation.
The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval Tuesday to a major increase in trash collection fees, the first rate adjustment in 17 years, with the hike expected to hit customers next month.
Tuesday’s 11-2 vote finalized a months-long process to update fees for the city’s trash collection service, known as the Solid Resources Program.
City officials have said the rate change is necessary to cover organic waste disposal, staff salaries, maintaining vehicles and equipment, as well as inflation.
Council members Monica Rodriguez and Adrin Nazarian voted against the proposed ordinance while members Ysabel Jurado and Curren Price were absent during the vote.
The proposed ordinance now heads to Mayor Karen Bass for consideration. Once signed by the mayor, the ordinance will go into effect after 30 days.
Earlier this year, council members instructed the Bureau of Sanitation and City Attorney’s office to draft the ordinance to update trash collection fees.
Under the fee change, single-family homes and duplex buildings will increase 54% from $36.32 to $55.95, and apartments with three to four units will increase 130% from $24.33 to $55.95. Customers’ bi-monthly bill from the Department of Water and Power will jump to $111.90, for example, once the fees are in effect.
Low-income customers who qualify for the city’s EZ-SAVE or Lifeline programs can receive lower rates.
The rate adjustment will add another 18% increase over the next four fiscal years, reaching $65.93 a month by the 2029-30 fiscal year for single-family homes, duplex buildings and small apartment buildings. Rate adjustments will affect approximately 743,000 households, and another 474,000 residencies that receive bulky item collection services.
Currently, apartment buildings with five and more units pay full price.
The new rates will put the city in line with such neighboring cities as Burbank, Culver City, Long Beach and Santa Monica — but will still be on the lower end.
It took the City Council about six months to finalize the ordinance as it had to comply with Proposition 218, a constitutional amendment limiting the methods by which local governments can levy taxes, fees and charges without taxpayer consent, which required public hearings and an opportunity for taxpayers to oppose the fee, an effort that failed to garner enough signatures.
Bass incorporated the rate increase in her budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year as one part of the many solutions to address a roughly $1 billion deficit. The program has received subsidies from the general fund in past years — with a $200 million cost this fiscal year alone.
City officials said the rate increase will close this strain on the budget.
The fee increase was previously criticized by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
“The increase in trash fees for residents of Los Angeles and other cities in California is the direct result of a reckless law signed in 2016 by Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate Bill 1383. It mandated a 75% reduction in ‘organic waste’ from the 2014 level starting in 2025, supposedly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills,” according to a statement from the association.
“The date has arrived, and compliance with the law has significantly increased the cost of trash processing. It’s very effectively reducing the disposable income of Californians. The state government should reconsider ill-advised mandates that are raising costs for cities and their overtaxed residents.”
The Los Angeles City Council delayed a vote Friday on City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s request to hire a “monitor” who would track the city’s progress and use of funds under a federal lawsuit settlement requiring 12,915 shelter beds by June 2027.
The City Council is expected to revisit the matter Wednesday. Feldstein Soto has proposed contracting with former City Controller Ron Galperin and data analyst Daniel Garrie to serve jointly as the monitor in the L.A. Alliance case.
In June, a federal court judge determined that the city failed to meet its obligations under a settlement agreement with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights. U.S. District Judge David Carter ordered city officials to provide an updated plan detailing how it will create 12,915 beds for homeless residents within two years.
In court documents, Carter wrote that the city has shown “a consistent lack of cooperation and responsiveness — an unwillingness to provide documentation unless compelled by court order or media scrutiny.”
The judge had previously threatened the city with appointing a receiver to oversee homeless funding and enforce compliance with the settlement, as requested by plaintiffs. Carter ultimately declined to do so, describing such action as a “last resort.”
However, Carter did institute a “monitor” to oversee compliance, who would “ask the hard questions on behalf of Angelenos,” the judge had written in his order.
The city is expected to submit their bed plan and name a monitor as ordered by Carter no later than Oct. 3.
The case started in March 2020 when L.A. Alliance — a coalition of business owners and residents of the city and county — filed a complaint in Los Angeles federal court against the city and Los Angeles County accusing them of not doing enough to address homelessness.
A judge signed off on a settlement in September 2023 in which the county agreed to supply an additional 3,000 beds for mental health and substance abuse treatment by the end of next year and subsidies for 450 new board-and-care beds. The L.A. Alliance filed papers alleging the city was not meeting its obligations.
An independent court-ordered assessment filed in March was unable to verify the number of homeless shelter beds the city claimed to have created.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen announced on Tuesday that her administration has reached a deal with labor unions that averts all remaining layoffs in the city’s fiscal budget, resolving one of the most contentious issues in this year’s budget cycle.
The agreement marked a sharp reversal from Bass’ original FY 25-26 budget proposal in April, which included more than 1,600 layoffs to address the city’s budget shortfall. The deal averts those cuts entirely, ending weeks of uncertainty for city workers and preserving public services that had been at risk.
“This is not about numbers on a spreadsheet, this was always about protecting our skilled city workforce who have trained for years and honed their craft,” Bass said at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, where she was joined by city leaders and representatives from several municipal employee unions.
A Los Angeles Zoo employee monitors tree trimming at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A Los Angeles Zoo employee at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Los Angeles City workers repair a sidewalk at Victory and Western avenue on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A Los Angeles Zoo employee monitors tree trimming at the LA Zoo on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. On Tuesday Mayor Karen Bass announced a labor agreement that averts the previously proposed layoffs in the City of LA’s 2025-2026 budget. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Bass’ original $14 billion budget proposal had included 1,647 layoffs and the elimination of more than 1,000 vacant positions as part of a plan to address a $1 billion budget deficit.
A revised version adopted by the City Council in May — and signed by Bass in June — saved roughly 1,000 jobs by trimming proposed increases to the Fire Department, scaling back LAPD hiring plan and shifting some positions off of the general fund. But several hundred jobs remained at risk until this week’s announcement.
According to the mayor’s office, those remaining layoffs were ultimately avoided through a combination of negotiated labor agreements, department transfers and creative staffing alternatives.
City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said that after the revised budget was adopted in June, 614 employees still faced potential layoffs. His office worked with labor groups to calculate the savings required to keep those workers on the payroll, then helped broker agreements to meet those targets, including changes to overtime policies, unpaid holidays and staff reassignments.
About 250 of the at-risk employees worked in civilian roles at the Los Angeles Police Department. To save those positions, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents sworn officers, agreed to let its members voluntarily receive overtime as paid time off, reducing LAPD overtime expenses and avoiding civilian layoffs within the department.
For the remaining 300 or so employees, the city partnered with civilian unions to expedite transfers into vacant positions and secure commitments for up to five unpaid holidays in the latter half of the fiscal year.
Two major labor groups — the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which represents more than 20,000 city workers, and the Engineers and Architects Association, which represents over 6,000 technical and professional staff — agreed to the unpaid days.
Those days are February 9, March 27, April 6, May 22 and June 22. The final number of unpaid days will depend on how many employees remain to be transferred into funded roles by the end of 2025.
Additional savings came from shifting employees from at-risk positions into vacant or specially funded roles — including transfers to departments such as the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports, and the Department of Water and Power, which operate outside the city’s general fund and have more flexible funding sources.
“Our members secured a historic agreement that will avert layoffs and establish a joint effort with the city to increase revenues, to protect and restore our city services,” said David Green, president and executive director of SEIU Local 721, which represents 11,000 city employees.
Marlene Fonseca, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Association, recalled reaching out Monday to a member who had recently been laid off but was slated to return thanks to the agreement. He had planned to attend the press conference but was unexpectedly hospitalized over the weekend.
“Had we not had this agreement, he would be facing a medical crisis with no health insurance,” Fonseca said. “This is the real human difference that solidarity makes.”
The mayor’s announcement comes months after a contentious budget season that drew pushback from several City Council members and employee unions.
In the council’s first vote on the revised budget, Councilmembers John Lee, Traci Park, and Monica Rodriguez voted no, citing concerns about cuts to public safety. The budget passed on a second vote, 11–2, with Lee and Park maintaining their opposition. Rodriguez and Nithya Raman were absent.
“I commend the collaborative efforts that led to this result, and I’m especially proud that the LAPD civilian positions previously identified for elimination were saved,” Lee said in a statement Tuesday. “These professionals are essential to the department and to keeping our communities safe.”
Some community leaders and neighborhood council members welcomed the news, saying it was a relief for both workers and for residents who rely on city services.
Lionel Mares, a member of the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, who spoke on his own behalf, said, “I have been urging the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor to save city employees from potential layoffs, because at this critical moment in our city we need to preserve city services, especially for low-income communities and neighborhoods.”
Mihran Kalaydjian, president of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, said the agreement would benefit city workers and called it “a courageous step by the mayor.”
While the agreement resolves immediate concerns over layoffs, Szabo said his office remains cautious about the city’s financial outlook amid falling revenues and global trade uncertainty. His office plans to release its first quarterly budget report in October.
“But as of now, the $1 billion deficit was closed, and as this budget is implemented, we are projecting a structural balance in the following fiscal year, along with surpluses in years three and four,” he said.
Troy Masters was a cheerleader. When my name was called as the Los Angeles Press Club’s Print Journalist of the Year for 2020, Troy leapt out of his seat with a whoop and an almost jazz-hand enthusiasm, thrilled that the mainstream audience attending the Southern California Journalism Awards gala that October night in 2021 recognized the value of the LGBTQ community’s Los Angeles Blade.
That joy has been extinguished. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, after frantic unanswered calls from his sister Tammy late Monday and Tuesday, Troy’s longtime friend and former partner Arturo Jiminez did a wellness check at Troy’s L.A. apartment and found him dead, with his beloved dog Cody quietly alive by his side. The L.A. Coroner determined Troy Masters died by suicide. No note was recovered. He was 63.
Considered smart, charming, committed to LGBTQ people and the LGBTQ press, Troy’s inexplicable suicide shook everyone, even those with whom he sometimes clashed.
Troy’s sister and mother – to whom he was absolutely devoted – are devastated. “We are still trying to navigate our lives without our precious brother/son. I want the world to know that Troy was loved and we always tried to let him know that,” says younger sister Tammy Masters.
Tammy was 16 when she discovered Troy was gay and outed him to their mother. A “busy-body sister,” Tammy picked up the phone at their Tennessee home and heard Troy talking with his college boyfriend. She confronted him and he begged her not to tell.
“Of course, I ran and told Mom,” Tammy says, chuckling during the phone call. “But she – like all mothers – knew it. She knew it from an early age but loved him unconditionally; 1979 was a time [in the Deep South] when this just was not spoken of. But that didn’t stop Mom from being in his corner.”
Mom even marched with Troy in his first Gay Pride Parade in New York City. “Mom said to him, ‘Oh, my! All these handsome men and not one of them has given me a second look! They are too busy checking each other out!” Tammy says, bursting into laughter. “Troy and my mother had that kind of understanding that she would always be there and always have his back!
“As for me,” she continues, “I have lost the brother that I used to fight for in any given situation. And I will continue to honor his cause and lifetime commitment to the rights and freedom for the LGBTQ community!”
Tammy adds: “The outpouring of love has been comforting at this difficult time and we thank all of you!”
Troy Masters and his beloved dog Cody.
No one yet knows why Troy took his life. We may never know. But Troy and I often shared our deeply disturbing bouts with drowning depression. Waves would inexplicitly come upon us, triggered by sadness or an image or a thought we’d let get mangled in our unresolved, inescapable past trauma.
We survived because we shared our pain without judgment or shame. We may have argued – but in this, we trusted each other. We set everything else aside and respectfully, actively listened to the words and the pain within the words.
Listening, Indian philosopher Krishnamurti once said, is an act of love. And we practiced listening. We sought stories that led to laughter. That was the rope ladder out of the dark rabbit hole with its bottomless pit of bullying and endless suffering. Rung by rung, we’d talk and laugh and gripe about our beloved dogs.
I shared my 12 Step mantra when I got clean and sober: I will not drink, use or kill myself one minute at a time. A suicide survivor, I sought help and I urged him to seek help, too, since I was only a loving friend – and sometimes that’s not enough.
(If you need help, please reach out to talk with someone: call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They also have services in Spanish and for the deaf.)
In 2015, Troy wrote a personal essay for Gay City News about his idyllic childhood in the 1960s with his sister in Nashville, where his stepfather was a prominent musician. The people he met “taught me a lot about having a mission in life.”
During summers, they went to Dothan, Ala., to hang out with his stepfather’s mother, Granny Alabama. But Troy learned about “adult conversation — often filled with derogatory expletives about Blacks and Jews” and felt “my safety there was fragile.”
It was a harsh revelation. “‘Troy is a queer,’ I overheard my stepfather say with energetic disgust to another family member,” Troy wrote. “Even at 13, I understood that my feelings for other boys were supposed to be secret. Now I knew terror. What my stepfather said humiliated me, sending an icy panic through my body that changed my demeanor and ruined my confidence. For the first time in my life, I felt depression and I became painfully shy. Alabama became a place, not of love, not of shelter, not of the magic of family, but of fear.”
At the public pool, “kids would scream, ‘faggot,’ ‘queer,’ ‘chicken,’ ‘homo,’ as they tried to dunk my head under the water. At one point, a big crowd joined in –– including kids I had known all my life –– and I was terrified they were trying to drown me.
“My depression became dangerous and I remember thinking of ways to hurt myself,” Troy wrote.
But Troy Masters — who left home at 17 and graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville — focused on creating a life that prioritized being of service to his own intersectional LGBTQ people. He also practiced compassion and last August, Troy reached out to his dying stepfather. A 45-minute Facetime farewell turned into a lovefest of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Troy discovered his advocacy chops as an ad representative at the daring gay and lesbian activist publication Outweek from 1989 to 1991.
“We had no idea that hiring him would change someone’s life, its trajectory and create a lifelong commitment” to the LGBTQ press, says Outweek’s co-founder and former editor-in-chief Gabriel Rotello, now a TV producer. “He was great – always a pleasure to work with. He had very little drama – and there was a lot of drama at Outweek. It was a tumultuous time and I tended to hire people because of their activism,” including Michelangelo Signorile, Masha Gessen, and Sarah Pettit.
Rotello speculates that because Troy “knew what he was doing” in a difficult profession, he was determined to launch his own publication when Outweek folded. “I’ve always been very happy it happened that way for Troy,” Rotello says. “It was a cool thing.”
Troy and friends launched NYQ, renamed QW, funded by record producer and ACT UP supporter Bill Chafin. QW (QueerWeek) was the first glossy gay and lesbian magazine published in New York City featuring news, culture, and events. It lasted for 18 months until Chafin died of AIDS in 1992 at age 35.
The horrific Second Wave of AIDS was peaking in 1992 but New Yorkers had no gay news source to provide reliable information at the epicenter of the epidemic.
“When my business partner died of AIDS and I had to close shop, I was left hopeless and severely depressed while the epidemic raged around me. I was barely functioning,” Troy told VoyageLA in 2018. “But one day, a friend in Moscow, Masha Gessen, urged me to get off my back and get busy; New York’s LGBT community was suffering an urgent health care crisis, fighting for basic legal rights and against an increase in violence. That, she said, was not nothing and I needed to get back in the game.”
Staff of Gay News City in New York City, which Troy Masters founded in 2002.
“We were always in total agreement that the work we were doing was important and that any story we delved into had to be done right,” Schindler wrote in Gay City News.
Though the two “sometimes famously crossed swords,” Troy’s sudden death has special meaning for Schindler. “I will always remember Troy’s sweetness and gentleness. Five days before his death, he texted me birthday wishes with the tag, ‘I hope you get a meaningful spanking today.’ That devilishness stays with me.”
Troy had “very high EI (Emotional Intelligence), Schindler says in a phone call. “He had so much insight into me. It was something he had about a lot of people – what kind of person they were; what they were really saying.”
Troy was also very mischievous. Schindler recounts a time when the two met a very important person in the newspaper business and Troy said something provocative. “I held my breath,” Schindler says. “But it worked. It was an icebreaker. He had the ability to connect quickly.”
The journalistic standard at LGNY and Gay City News was not a question of “objectivity” but fairness. “We’re pro-gay,” Schindler says, quoting Andy Humm. “Our reporting is clear advocacy yet I think we were viewed in New York as an honest broker.”
Schindler thinks Troy’s move to Los Angeles to jump-start his entrepreneurial spirit and reconnect with Arturo, who was already in L.A., was risky. “He was over 50,” Schindler says. “I was surprised and disappointed to lose a colleague – but he was always surprising.”
“In many ways, crossing the continent and starting a print newspaper venture in this digitally obsessed era was a high-wire, counter-intuitive decision,” Troy told VoyageLA. “But I have been relentlessly determined and absolutely confident that my decades of experience make me uniquely positioned to do this.”
Troy launched The Pride L.A. as part of the Mirror Media Group, which publishes the Santa Monica Mirror and other Westside community papers. But on June 12, 2016, the day of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., Troy said he found MAGA paraphernalia in a partner’s office. He immediately plotted his exit. On March 10, 2017, Troy and the “internationally respected” Washington Blade announced the launch of the Los Angeles Blade.
Troy Masters and then-Rep. Adam Schiff. (Photo courtesy of Karen Ocamb)
In a March 23, 2017 commentary promising a commitment to journalistic excellence, Troy wrote: “We are living in a paradigm shifting moment in real time. You can feel it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s toxic. Sometimes it’s perplexing, even terrifying. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just downright exhilarating. This moment is a profound opportunity to reexamine our roots and jumpstart our passion for full equality.”
Troy tried hard to keep that commitment, including writing a personal essay to illustrate that LGBTQ people are part of the #MeToo movement. In “Ending a Long Silence,” Troy wrote about being raped at 14 or 15 by an Amtrak employee on “The Floridian” traveling from Dothan, Ala., to Nashville.
“What I thought was innocent and flirtatious affection quickly turned sexual and into a full-fledged rape,” Troy wrote. “I panicked as he undressed me, unable to yell out and frozen by fear. I was falling into a deepening shame that was almost like a dissociation, something I found myself doing in moments of childhood stress from that moment on. Occasionally, even now.”
From the personal to the political, Troy Masters tried to inform and inspire LGBTQ people.
“Just recently he invited us to participate with the LA Blade and other partners to support the LGBTQ forum on Asylum Seekers and Immigrants. He cared about underserved community. He explored LGBTQ who were ignored and forgotten. He wanted to end HIV; help support people living with HIV but most of all, he fought for justice,” Zaldivar says. “I am saddened by his loss. His voice will never be forgotten. We will remember him as an unsung hero. May he rest in peace in the hands of God.”
“It pains me to know that my dear, beautiful and amazing friend Troy is no longer with us … He always gave me and many people light,” Salcedo says. “I know that we are living in dark times right now and we need to understand that our ancestors and transcestors are the one who are going to walk us through these dark times… See you on the other side, my dear and beautiful sibling in the struggle, Troy Masters.”
“Troy was immensely committed to covering stories from the LGBTQ community. Following his move to Los Angeles from New York, he became dedicated to featuring news from the City of West Hollywood in the Los Angeles Blade and we worked with him for many years,” says Joshua Schare, director of Communications for the City of West Hollywood, who knew Troy for 30 years, starting in 1994 as a college intern at OUT Magazine.
“Like so many of us at the City of West Hollywood and in the region’s LGBTQ community, I will miss him and his day-to-day impact on our community.”
Troy Masters accepting a proclamation from the City of West Hollywood. (Photo by Richard Settle for the City of West Hollywood)
“Troy Masters was a visionary, mentor, and advocate; however, the title I most associated with him was friend,” says West Hollywood Mayor John Erickson. “Troy was always a sense of light and working to bring awareness to issues and causes larger than himself. He was an advocate for so many and for me personally, not having him in the world makes it a little less bright. Rest in Power, Troy. We will continue to cause good trouble on your behalf.”
Erickson adjourned the WeHo City Council meeting on Monday in his memory.
Masters launched the Los Angeles Blade with his partners from the Washington Blade, Lynne Brown, Kevin Naff, and Brian Pitts, in 2017.
Cover of the election issue of the Los Angeles Blade.
“Troy’s reputation in New York was well known and respected and we were so excited to start this new venture with him,” says Naff. “His passion and dedication to queer LA will be missed by so many. We will carry on the important work of the Los Angeles Blade — it’s part of his legacy and what he would want.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who collaborated with Troy on many projects, says he was “a champion of many things that are near and dear to our heart,” including “being in the forefront of alerting the community to the dangers of Mpox.”
“All of who he was creates a void that we all must try to fill,” Weinstein says. “His death by suicide reminds us that despite the many gains we have made, we’re not all right a lot of the time. The wounds that LGBT people have experienced throughout our lives are yet to be healed even as we face the political storm clouds ahead that will place even greater burdens on our psyches.”
May the memory and legacy of Troy Masters be a blessing.
Veteran LGBTQ journalist Karen Ocamb served as the news editor and reporter for the Los Angeles Blade.
Ysabel Jurado, 34, a lifelong community member of Highland Park, and openly out candidate, is running against current Councilmember Kevin De Leon for Council District 14, the most powerful city council in Los Angeles County.
Her campaign slogan is ‘Ysabel For The Community.’
Earlier this year, Jurado made history in the primary, using her perspective as a historically underrepresented person in the hopes of bringing new leadership to the district after De Leon was called to resign in 2022, following a scandal.
The live voting results earlier this year highlighted Ysabel Jurado at 24.52%, with 8,618 votes, while De Leon fell behind by nearly 400 votes, with 23.39% in the primary.
Jurado is a tenants rights lawyer and housing justice advocate from Highland Park who has built her reputation in the community with support from social activist Dolores Huerta, L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis.
“I’m the daughter of undocumented immigrants, a public transit rider, a former teen mom, and a working class Angeleno who has navigated the challenges of poverty. I have held the line on countless strikes and defended truck drivers against the same wage theft my father faced,” said Jurado in her candidate statement.
De Leon secured the second spot and will go head-to-head against Jurado in November. Jurado rose to the top of the polls, while her opponents spent more money on their campaigns, including De Leon. Miguel Santiago raised the most money for his campaign and also spent the most to secure support. De Leon came in second with both money spent and money raised. While Jurado came in fourth in the amount of money spent and raised for her campaign.
Jurado is running to become the first queer, Filipina to represent CD-14. Among the list of issues she aims to tackle while in office are; homelessness, climate action, safer streets and economic justice that uplifts small businesses.
“I will bring the institutional knowledge of a legal housing expert and the lived experience of a queer, immigrant-raised, working class, woman of color – a battle-tested representative for and from the community,” said Jurado.
De Leon might be facing an uphill climb after he was caught saying homophobic, racist and anti-sematic remarks in a leaked audio recording that rocked his political career. Even President Joe Biden called for his resignation.
The conversation that rocked L.A politics is said to have started because of redistricting plans and gerrymandering. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, De Leon had his hopes set on running for mayor of Los Angeles. Since the audio was leaked, protests erupted, calling for his resignation. De Leon continued in his position after an apology tour and is now running against Jurado on the November ballot.
The recording of a conversation between De Leon, Ron Herrera, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo.
“Between FBI raids, backroom gerrymandering, racist rants, and corruption charges, our needs have been chronically ignored,” says the statement. “City government has failed us. We deserve better.”
If she wins, she would join a progressive bloc of leaders in city council that include Nithya Raman, Hugo Doto-Martinez and Councilmember Hernandez. The leadership would have a pendulum swing toward city affairs that has not been seen before.
CD-14 covers Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Boyle Heights and parts of Lincoln Heights and downtown L.A., which includes skid row and other points of interest.
Those points of interest make CD-14 seats particularly difficult when it comes to dealing with polarizing issues like homelessness and street safety measures.
According to the latest demographic data by L.A City Council, 61% of the population is Latin American, while the second highest population is white, at 16%, followed by Asian, at 14% and Black at 6%.
If elected, Jurado aims to tackle homelessness in a district that has one of the highest unhoused populations in the city.
Jurado is now gearing up for the November election by continuing to campaign at various events across Los Angeles, including ‘Postcarding with Ysabel,’ at DTLA Arts District Brewing and The Hermosillo.
Voters in seven Los Angeles City Council districts went to the polls Tuesday to decide who will win outright and who will go on to a second round in a series of races that could reshape City Hall.
Thirty-one candidates were competing in contests that will help determine the future of the city’s fight against homelessness, its approach to policing and public safety, and its ongoing efforts to make housing more affordable, particularly for the city’s renters.
Six of the seven races feature incumbents who are seeking a four-year term.
On the Eastside, Councilmember Kevin de León was hoping to fend off seven challengers, including State Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, both Democrats, and tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado.
De León, a former state lawmaker, has been attempting a comeback after being at the center of a scandal over a secretly recorded conversation with former colleagues that featured racist and derogatory remarks. Since then, he has repeatedly apologized for his role in that conversation, which took place in October 2021.
Meanwhile, in the northwest San Fernando Valley, Councilmember John Lee was facing off against nonprofit leader Serena Oberstein. That race, in its final days, has focused heavily on the issue of ethics.
Oberstein spent much of the campaign highlighting an ongoing ethics commission case against Lee, which deals heavily with allegations that Lee violated laws governing the reporting and acceptance of gifts provided to city politicians. Lee, for his part, criticized Oberstein over a 2019 court case that dealt with her eligibility to run for council, which ended when a judge found that she was legally barred from running.
In a district that straddles the Hollywood Hills, Councilmember Nithya Raman was looking to fend off challenges from Deputy City Atty. Ethan Weaver and software engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian. Raman had been running in a race that was sharply different from the one that elected her in 2020.
In South Los Angeles, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson was heavily favored to win his bid for a third and final four-year term. His rivals in the race are real estate broker Jahan Epps and union leader Cliff Smith.
Meanwhile, in the San Fernando Valley, Councilmember Imelda Padilla was the heavy favorite in her race against real estate broker Ely De La Cruz Ayao and Carmenlina Minasova, a respiratory care practitioner who is also running for state Assembly. Padilla won a special election last summer, replacing former Council President Nury Martinez, and has been seeking her first full four-year term.
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Councilmember Heather Hutt, who has been in office since 2022, was running for her first full four-year term in a Koreatown-to-Crenshaw district.
Four candidates — state Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, attorney Grace Yoo, former city commissioner Aura Vasquez and Pastor Eddie Anderson, a community organizer — were looking to unseat Hutt, who was first appointed to the seat several months after former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was charged in a federal corruption case.
The only contest without an incumbent was taking place in the East San Fernando Valley, where seven candidates were seeking to fill the seat being vacated this year by Council President Paul Krekorian, first elected in 2009.
Former state Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, a former Krekorian aide, was competing against housing advocate Manny Gonez, small business owner Jillian Burgos, commissioner Sam Kbushyan and several others.
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David Zahniser, Dakota Smith, Angie Orellana Hernandez, Caroline Petrow-Cohen
When the L.A. Al Fresco dining program was established in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Christy Vega said it saved her 67-year-old family-owned restaurant.
For Vega’s Sherman Oaks restaurant, Casa Vega, this meant converting two parking lots into outdoor dining space, a change that made it possible for Vega to continue to serve customers and pay her employees.
“It was wildly vital to our survival,” she said.
The city is now moving to make the program’s relaxed regulations permanent, allowing restaurants to continue operating outdoor space without pre-pandemic zoning restrictions. The Los Angeles City Council signified its commitment to al fresco dining with a vote Friday requesting the city attorney draft an ordinance to make the program permanent.
It’s a victory for the restaurant industry and for communities accustomed to eating outside, but some business owners and residents say the city’s new version of the program isn’t perfect.
A last-minute amendment to the ordinance mandates that restaurants include one parking spot for disabled people on their property, a requirement that would effectively eliminate outdoor dining space for smaller businesses, Vega said.
“It’ll kill al fresco for anybody that doesn’t have a giant parking lot,” she said.
Vega said she would have to take down her patio and lose $1 million in revenue if she had to make space for a disabled parking spot that also includes room for a vehicle to back out and turn around. To avoid that, she said, she’s spent $60,000 trying to obtain a conditional use permit to keep her patio permanently.
In an effort to protect small businesses, the City Council on Friday added an exception to the parking space requirement for restaurants with 3,000 square feet of indoor space or 1,000 square feet of parking space or less.
Vega said she is grateful for the exemption, but other owners say it’s not enough.
“Square footage has nothing to do with the size of the business,” said Brittney Valles, who sits on the board of the Independent Hospitality Coalition and owns Guerrilla Tacos in downtown Los Angeles. “It shouldn’t be a requirement at all.”
Valles, who has enough outdoor space for dining and a disabled parking spot, said the rule could be devastating for many restaurants who don’t.
“I think that there are a lot of restaurants that would have to rethink whether their business is feasible without outdoor dining,” she said.
Councilmember Tim McOsker, who introduced the exception to the parking requirement, said at Wednesday’s council meeting that he was trying to strike a balance between supporting al fresco dining for small businesses and ensuring accessibility for disabled customers.
Implementing a permanent al fresco program has been a long road for the City Council and the restaurant community. City officials first drafted an ordinance in November 2022 and have spent more than a year receiving public comment.
The initial ordinance required restaurant owners to navigate a complicated process to get their outdoor dining approved, Valles said.
“It was going to be this overbearing process that costs restaurants a lot of money and made it very complicated to do basically what we’re already doing,” she said.
To reach a compromise, Valles and her fellow restaurant owners agreed to a ban on outdoor ambient music, which is prohibited by the temporary program. Live music is also prohibited.
Venice resident David Feige said the current ban on ambient music is not enforced in his neighborhood, and the new version of the al fresco ordinance doesn’t do enough to create enforcement mechanisms.
Casa Vega owner Christy Vega talks to customers Kendra Dousette, left, and Scarlett Pettyjohn on Thursday.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
There are several unpermitted outdoor speakers at restaurants on his block near Washington Boulevard that are disruptively loud, he said.
“If we close all the windows, turn on the noise machine and we can still hear the music in our bedroom, that’s a problem,” he said.
Although the ordinance includes the establishment of a hotline for complaints and says the public can contact the Department of Building and Safety to report a violation, Feige said those measures will be ineffective.
“The minute they see the cops coming, they turn it down,” he said of the restaurants with speakers, “and 10 minutes later, they turn it back up. There is no meaningful ability for redress here.”
Feige spoke at Tuesday’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee meeting and said he was representing more than a dozen of his neighbors. He called for a complaint-based system, in which a restaurant gets cited or shut down if it receives too many complaints.
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Vega also said enforcement is an important issue. Only a handful of restaurants play disruptive music, but she doesn’t want them to ruin the reputation of the al fresco program.
But Vega said she is most worried about the parking space measure and the restaurants that may have to lay off employees after shutting down outdoor space.
“Restaurant workers have not had any financial security or job security since the pandemic,” she said. “The No. 1 gift of this program was that we were able to get our employees back to work.”
Restaurant owners say they hope the new version of L.A. Al Fresco will run just as smoothly as the first. The original program during the pandemic was “the absolute easiest thing” to take advantage of, Valles said.
“This was such a beautiful, simple win for restaurants when it launched in 2020,” she said. “We just want to keep it that way.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles City Council member embroiled in a scandal over racist remarks and an activist fought at a Friday night holiday event.
The activist and Kevin de León got into an altercation at a toy giveaway and holiday tree lighting at Lincoln Park, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Earlier on Friday, de León attended his first City Council meeting in nearly two months following a scandal that erupted after a recording surfaced in October of former council President Nury Martinez, outgoing Councilman Gil Cedillo, de León and a labor union leader participating in a closed-door meeting in which racist language was used to mock colleagues while the participants schemed to protect Latino political strength in council districts.
Martinez resigned. Cedillo lost a June election and his last day in office is Monday. De León has apologized and said he has no plans to resign.
De León said in a statement to the newspaper that he was assaulted Friday night, while activists said the council member was the aggressor.
The Times reported two local activist organizations, RootsAction and J-TOWN Action and Solidarity, posted a video on Twitter showing a portion of the incident between De León and a man identified as Jason Reedy, a People’s City Council organizer.
De León’s office said Reedy and other activists were at fault. De León spokesperson Pete Brown said the council member was head-butted by Reedy, a member of his staff was elbowed in the face and a volunteer was punched in the arm, the Times reported.
De León’s statement to the Times said they were “violently and physically assaulted by self-proclaimed activists at a community holiday event to the dismay of a multitude of families and children who were there to celebrate a Christmas tree lighting and to receive toys and food.”
“The escalating rhetoric is hitting a fever pitch, transcending from verbal threats into actual acts of violence and must end before more serious harm or loss of life occurs,” the statement said. “Violence is not free speech and has no place in politics or democracy.”
Shakeer Rahman, an attorney representing Reedy, called de León “a disgrace” in a statement to the Times Friday night.
“Video footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this assault while Mr. Reedy stands prone,” Rahman said. “Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, his claims that he was the one attacked here simply underscores how he’s lost touch with reality.”
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez announced her resignation from the city government Wednesday following immense criticism over leaked audio in which she used racist language to describe a colleague’s Black son.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez arrives at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and … [+] Trafficking’s 20th Annual “From Slavery To Freedom Gala” at City Market Social House on May 10, 2018 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage)
WireImage
Key Facts
Martinez’s resignation comes a day after she announced a “leave of absence” from the council to have what she called “honest and heartfelt” conversations about the audio clip, which was anonymously posted to Reddit before being picked up by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
Martinez is heard in the clip using the Spanish term “parece changuito” to describe how she feels Councilman Mike Bonin, who is white, treats his 8-year-old Black son.
The comment translates to “like a monkey” in English, and she also describes the child as an “accessory” and “su negrito,” a derogatory Spanish expression for a Black person.
Martinez had served as city council president but stepped down from that post Monday amid widespread condemnation from both Los Angeles residents and those outside of the city, including from President Joe Biden.
Crucial Quote
“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” Martinez said in a statement.
Key Background
Martinez, a Democrat, faced myriad calls to resign after the audio leaked, including from the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board, while protesters took to demonstrating outside her house. Martinez made the comments about a year ago during a conversation about the city council’s decennial redistricting process, speaking to fellow council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, along with Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, who resigned from his post Monday. Calls have also come for de León and Cedillo to resign, with the Los Angeles City Council cutting its meeting short Wednesday after continued interruptions from protesters demanding resignations. Martinez served more than nine years on the city council, assuming office in August of 2013.
Tangent
The discussions over redistricting came as many Latino voters pushed for more representation in Los Angeles. More than half of the city’s residents are Latino, but Latinos hold less than a third of city council seats, according to the Los Angeles Times.
