Los Angeles City Council Regular Meeting - May 28, 2025
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Los Angeles City Council Regular Meeting - May 28, 2025
The Los Angeles City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting on May 28, 2025. The council honored the retirements of two top city engineers, passed a motion restricting corporate purchases of single-family homes, renewed the local emergency declaration for recent wildfires, and heard extensive public testimony about housing conditions and tenant protections.
Consent Calendar
- The council approved the minutes of the May 27, 2025 meeting and several commendatory resolutions.
Special Presentation: Retirement of Ted and Julie Allen
- Councilmember Hernandez led the recognition of Ted Allen (City Engineer, 31 years of service) and Julie Allen (Assistant Director, Bureau of Sanitation, 33 years of service). Ted managed a capital portfolio of over $5 billion and led the Build LA permitting portal. Julie led the $587 million Sixth Street Viaduct replacement and the post-Palisades fire watershed task force. Multiple councilmembers praised their combined 64 years of public service and noted their shared life and career partnership.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Skid Row Tenant Conditions: Over a dozen speakers from LA CAN and the Keep LA Housed coalition testified about uninhabitable and unsafe conditions in buildings formerly owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust, now managed by Heart Management Company. Tenants reported rats, mold, broken elevators, non-working fire systems, and a lack of security, including an incident where a person with a gun entered a building. Speakers questioned the city's responsibility after selling 17 buildings for approximately $8,300 per unit and demanded better enforcement of the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance.
- Rent Stabilization: Christina Boyer of Public Counsel urged a council update to the rent stabilization formula for the first time in 40 years. She proposed a cap of 3% based on 60% of the Consumer Price Index, calling it a free way to stem the homelessness crisis and the budget crisis.
- City Enforcement and Budget: Speakers criticized the renewal of the local emergency declaration, questioned the allocation of fire relief funds, and took issue with a motion to freeze salary adjustments for non-represented workers without matching cuts for elected officials. Distrust over an easement dedication was voiced due to perceived lack of enforcement against certain organizations.
Discussion Items
- Corporate Home Purchases (Item 10): Councilmember Nazarian presented a motion to restrict corporations, hedge funds, and private equity firms from buying single-family homes. He stated such entities purchased thousands of homes for drastically reduced prices during the 2008 foreclosure crisis, depriving families of generational wealth. He cited a LA Times report indicating most of the 80 homes sold in fire-ravaged Altadena were bought by corporations. The motion passed with 13 ayes.
- Other Votes: Items 1 and 2 (easements), Items 11 and 12 (called special by Price, taken off board and passed), Items 15 through 23 (emergency declarations, REAP motions, and salary adjustments), and Item 24 (closed session motion by Raman and Hurado) were all approved by 13-0 votes.
Key Outcomes
- Passed: Motion restricting corporate purchase of single-family homes (13-0).
- Passed: Renewal of the local emergency declaration for windstorms and fires.
- Passed: Salary adjustment resolution for non-represented employees.
- Adjournments: The council adjourned in memory of Maria Elena Figueroa (reproductive justice activist and plaintiff in Madrigal v. Quilligan) and William "Bill" Lambert (co-founder of UTLA and architect of California teachers' collective bargaining rights).
Meeting Transcript
Well, you've mentioned the website a couple times, but for clarity, if people, because it's an ever-changing scenario, updates, etc. What's the best approach? What's the best website for people to reach out to? That's recovery.la County.gov. Okay. Um, and I and I like to say because a lot of folks right now have insurance questions. They have a really good insurance page on there that's gonna that's gonna walk you through that much better than I did. This has been literally fascinating, incredibly informative, and I so appreciate your time. Thank you so much, Colonel Saucer, for being with us today. Thank you for having me. And that's a wrap on this LA Currents. Hello everyone. I'm Susan Huckle, and here's what's happening in LA this week. It's an LA icon that continually inspires, and it's turning 90. Griffith Observatory is celebrating. Owned and operated by the city of Los Angeles, the observatory has starred in many movies, thousands of tourist videos, and now it has its own starring role. Today is Griffith Observatory's 90th anniversary. On this day, 90 years ago, Griffith Observatory opened to the public with its official ceremonies. And of course, we've been operating as a public observatory, the most visited public observatory on the planet over the last nine decades. This morning we start with the opening ceremony where we have some distinguished folks talking about the observatory and talking about its mission, and obviously just kicking the whole thing off. But you can't have an opening ceremony and a celebration without birthday cake and cupcakes. Happy birthday, cha-cha-cha. I didn't realize before today that I've taken for granted something a lot of people don't have access to, which is a public observatory. This is rare and precious, and we're very, very fortunate in Los Angeles to have an observatory where we can go, explore the stars, learn about our place in the universe, all for free. So the Griffith Observatory is part of the Department of Recreation and Parks. We staff this facility. This is one of our largest and highest of visited location. We have, you know, travelers from all over the world that come to the Griffith Observatory, not only to gather, but also to learn. We have the amazing Dr. Krupp that has been such a great opportunity for us and all Angelinos because he has so much to teach and educate our public about everything that has to do with the sky. You know, it is hard to beat being at a place that is open free to the public, and everybody is glad to be here. Everybody kind of feels like they own the place, and they do. And those things have made it an enduring emblem for Los Angeles. It is in fact a gift to the city of Los Angeles to me. You know, this is also my kids' favorite place uh in the city of Los Angeles. So to be in Griffith Park, uh just this amazing view that you have here of not only the nature that we have, but also the entire city. I welcome everybody to come and visit the Griffith Observatory. It's been a wonderful, wonderful 90th celebration. It's gonna last all year long, and the Griffith Observatory will have an amazing array of activities throughout the whole year. So everyone should go on the Griffith Observatory website, check out what's happening that day. There are monthly opportunities to come up at night and view this the heavens through telescopes. You can get your eye through the major observatory telescope. It's an amazing opportunity throughout the whole year, not just today. We are here in City Hall commemorating the 10 years of the Day of Religious Pluralism to honor, to acknowledge the beautiful tapestry of our faith communities, more so to reaffirm the sacredness that exists in all of humanity because that's what our city is about. Pluralism is a recognition that there are different religions. We have to go beyond just a mere recognition that yes, there are different religions. We have to go towards that genuine feeling of warm-heartedness towards each other, a genuine feeling of community, that we are all seekers of the sacred, manifesting something higher in our lives. Faith leaders do work together. And there's really the best example of what it means to be building bridges, serving the community at a greater expanse. But to do this today, it just should have flow outward and outwards.
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