The Los Angeles City Council convened on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, with 11 members initially present, later increasing to 14. The meeting addressed several key issues ranging from economic development, housing policy, public safety, and community celebrations.
Council President Marquees Harris-Dawson opened the meeting at approximately 10:00 AM. Roll call confirmed a quorum with 11 members present initially. The council approved the minutes from January 27, 2026, and commendatory resolutions. All items on the agenda were designated to go "forthwith," requiring ten votes for consideration.
Item 1: Support for Vertical Content and Micro-Drama Production
Councilmember Blumenfield introduced legislation to support the emerging micro-drama and vertical content industry, which represents a $15 billion market by 2028. The motion addresses the reality that 78% of local independent producers now shoot projects outside Los Angeles due to insufficient incentives. Key provisions include:
Blumenfield noted that in recent months, there are 30-40 vertical short productions monthly in Los Angeles, with each episode lasting 1-2 minutes and series running 20-100 episodes. The item passed with 14 ayes.
Item 5: Woodland Hills Country Club Development Concerns
Councilmember Blumenfield raised alarms about a proposed 400-unit development at Woodland Hills Country Club located in a "very high fire severity zone." The concerns include:
Blumenfield is working with State Senator Henry Stern on legislation to address unintended consequences and directed the planning department and city attorney to analyze whether the city has any legal leverage over the proposal, particularly regarding fire safety. The item passed with 14 ayes.
Item 9: Transit-Locked Subsidies (TLS) and Shared Housing
Councilmember Blumenfield amended legislation to explicitly authorize shared housing as an option for TLS funding. Key points:
The item passed with 14 ayes as amended.
Item 11: TLS Funding Expansion
Building on Item 9, this item expands TLS funding options and passed with 14 ayes as amended to include shared housing provisions and ED1 units.
Item 20: Open Streets/Ciclovía Funding
The item recommended committing almost $2 million in matching funds to accept $3 million from Metro for nine open streets events. Blumenfield cast a protest vote because:
Rodriguez joined the protest vote, stating Valley residents deserve their "fair share." The item passed with 12 ayes and 2 noes.
Item 22: Venice Del Community Affordable Housing Legal Funding
The council voted in closed session to authorize $650,000 in additional funding to law firm Nossaman LLP through March 2026, related to ongoing litigation regarding the Venice Del affordable housing project. Multiple public commenters opposed the expenditure:
Councilmember Lee recused himself from the vote. The amended motion passed with 9 ayes and 3 noes.
Item 23: Gibson Dunn Legal Services Funding
The council authorized an additional $1.8 million transfer to the contract with Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher law firm. Public commenter "Drew" noted this represents the third increase, following an initial $900,000 and subsequent $5 million authorization. The item passed with 9 ayes and 4 noes.
Items 25-42: Settlement and Closed Session Items
The council approved numerous settlements in closed session, including:
All items passed with 14 ayes.
Item 43 (Special Meeting): LASA Funds
During a brief special meeting, the council approved Item 43 related to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LASA) funding with 14 ayes. Public commenters expressed skepticism that funds would be properly allocated to housing and services rather than enforcement activities.
Numerous members of the public provided testimony:
Councilmember Nazarian delivered remarks with video presentation about ongoing protests and violent crackdown in Iran, noting thousands have been killed. The council observed a moment of silence for those who perished. Councilmembers Yaroslavsky and Rahman expressed solidarity with Iranian-American constituents in Los Angeles, particularly in the Westwood/Tehrangeles community.
The meeting adjourned with no session scheduled for Friday. Council President Harris-Dawson noted that members could participate in a national day of protest on February 30th (likely an error in the transcript). The meeting also included extensive discussion during a closed session segment addressing Items 22 and 23.
That's right, that's right. And what we have now is a unique collection of over 400 different designs. Wow! And that's spread throughout the 470 square miles of the city, right? And it pretty much, as you said, kind of grew up with the city. Different neighborhoods as they would rise and they would want street lights, they would design their own. So you have Wilshire Specials, you would have things like the Broadway Special, Hollywood Special, Van Nuys Special. So there's just different ones that the neighborhoods would kind of adopt and say, this is the one that we wanted. I think they could legitimately be called art. I mean, some of them have turned into art pieces. Obviously, I think most people know Urban Light, which is in front of LACMA. Are there other art installations that have been done with former practical lights that are now not practical but still worth our attention? Yes, Sheila Klein's Vermonica that actually shows the progression, and a time progression of all the different street lights. With all of the diversity of street lamps to choose from, what is, as the executive director, your favorite? Well, if you're gonna put me on the spot like that, I would say the Wilshire special that we have is an amazing piece, again, just because it kind of harkens back to that origin of us. And it's huge. You would never expect, we have them in the field right now. You would never expect that while you're walking on a sidewalk, there's this five foot tall, you know, two foot wide, like gargantuan street light. When you have it next to you, it's that big, right? But when it's up there, it just looks like any other street light, not to say nondescript, but, you know, like unassuming kind of light that has a great history. One of the things that most people don't know about the Beirah Street Lighting, we're one of the largest municipal deployments of EV chargers on the right of way. I was going to ask you. So about 700, we expect to have about 900 by the end of this fiscal year. And those are great opportunities for us to ensure that we are approaching transportation electrification in an equitable way. And is it being rolled out in certain neighborhoods? As you said, you were looking for an equitable solution to something like this when EV chargers may not be able to go into a neighborhood that had the resources for it. So is it specific? We're looking for existing markets and hoping to create emerging markets. What I mean by that is we're going to places where there have been requests, high demand, where we've placed chargers. we're looking at our analytics and seeing should we place another one close by right in order for for people to have more usage but we're also trying to get into places that we we don't necessarily see what i would say the private sector so we're trying to go into places like Hyde Park right like South LA like the valley right so get away from just what traditionally people would think that that is not just a privilege to have that's something that we should all have. Are we ahead of the game when it comes to technology and advancements for something like the Bureau of Street Lighting or are we looking to other cities to see how they are doing it and then following soon? When you look at the world as a whole there's obviously going to be some places that might do things better here or there and different types of technology. On average though, I'd say LA is on the cutting edge, the further ahead than the pack. And I'll say this for a couple things.