LA Podcast - Cadets, I’ve Had a Few

Mike, David, and Godfrey go deep on one of the wildest LA City Council votes in recent memory as councilmembers quarrel over Karen Bass’s manufactured deadline to increase police hiring. LAPD reform finally makes it onto the charter commission radar, plus all the different ways that council expansion could happen (27 districts…. or 9 three-member districts?). Then: two important races for open seats in the California State Senate.

Listen below, on Apple Podcasts, or almost any place you get your podcasts.

SHOW NOTES

In its final session of the calendar year, LA’s City Council sharply rebuked Bass’s demand that they immediately authorize money to allow LAPD to hire 410 new officers 

While most councilmembers said they support hiring more police officers, they warned that the mayor was ignoring the fiscal crisis and the potential impact on other city services. Council approved an additional LAPD Academy class for January, and promised to revisit the issue in January

Opposition to Bass was led not by the council’s progressive bloc, but by many of its more mainstream liberal bloc, such as Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield. Yaroslavsky was a particularly sharp critic of Bass and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson: watch her comments here

Bass’s approach was backed by an odd coalition of the council’s conservative members (Traci Park and John Lee), her closest personal allies (Harris-Dawson and Heather Hutt), and two moderates (Adrin Nazarian and Imelda Padilla)

The council vote was the culmination of months of tension over police hiring, stemming from the mayor’s budget proposal last spring that called for potentially laying off 1000 city workers to finance a big increase in LAPD hiring. The council balked at that, cutting the mayor’s LAPD hiring request in half, and sparing layoffs that would have led to cuts in other city services. Despite that council direction, however, LAPD had been hiring and spending more than the council had authorized

The timing of this debate — and the sudden deadline — had left a lot of people, including Alissa, wondering if this has something to do with the city’s stalled negotiations with LA28 over who will foot the bill for Olympic related security expenses. (Speaking of the Olympics, LA28 chair Casey Wasserman continues to cozy up to the Trump administration)

As Jim McDonnell prepares to celebrate the first anniversary of his appointment, Los Angeles Times reporter Libor Jany asks “Who’s running the LAPD? Chief’s style draws mixed reviews in first year”

LA’s Charter Reform Commission is rushing to meet a tight deadline to submit potential ballot proposals to the City Council. The body has launched an interesting experiment — engaging with citizen assemblies to get public input; find out more at Rewrite LA

The LA Reporter: “LAPD is finally getting taken up by the LA Charter Reform panel. What took so long?”

The commission will be discussing the size and composition of the City Council at its January 7 meeting. You can track what the commission is doing on its website (subscribe to the newsletter!), and join LA Forward’s Governance Reform working group. You can also watch some great LA Forward teach-ins on the issues, including police reform and council expansion

Two state senate races we’re closely following: SD26 and SD24

SD26 candidates discussed: Wendy Carrillo, Sara Hernandez, Sarah Rascón, Maebe Pudlo, Juan Camacho

Watch the Santa Monica Dem Club debate for SD24; Assemblymember Rick Zbur endorsed four (!) candidates

SD24 candidates discussed: Dr. Sion Roy, John Erickson, Mike Newhouse, Ellen Evans, Brian Goldsmith, Eric Alegria, Nico Ruderman, Republican candidate Kristina Irwin

Listen to our overview of city races from September

This week’s episode was produced by Kristen Torres

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

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