Los Angeles City Council Regular Meeting - June 23, 2026
Los Angeles City Council Regular Meeting - June 23, 2026
The Los Angeles City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 8:30 AM (start time inferred from proceedings). The meeting covered a broad agenda including emergency response to the Boyle Heights warehouse fire, readoption of the city's oil phase-out ordinance, a ballot measure to fund the LAFD, and critical funding for eviction defense services. Public comment lasted over 90 minutes, with many speakers urging action on tenant protections and homeless services.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of minutes from June 17, 2026, and commendatory resolutions were approved without objection.
- Items 8 through 12 and 16 were passed in a single 14-0 vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Boyle Heights Fire Response: Councilmember Isabel Jurado gave a lengthy statement thanking city family, community organizations, and the LAFD for supporting families affected by the warehouse fire, and announced motions for immediate relief, public health, and accountability.
- Eviction Defense Network (EDN) / Stay Housed LA (Item 50): Dozens of tenants, advocates, and program staff spoke in support of urgent release of funds. Speakers included Lawrence Vasquez (tenant who learned to defend himself), Catherine White (Woundwalk.org), and others who described how EDN prevented their homelessness. They urged the council to release April 2026 allocation by July 1 and to order the city attorney to execute four contracts with Stay Housed LA.
- LAFD Ballot Measure (Item 36): Representatives from United Firefighters of LA City Local 112, including President Doug Coates, Vice President Richard Ramirez, and Secretary Ryan Quigley, spoke in favor of a November ballot measure to provide $345 million annually for LAFD staffing, stations, and equipment, citing depleted resources and response times nearly double national standards.
- Oil Phase-Out Ordinance (Item 17): Several speakers from Stand LA Coalition, including Becca Strada, Emma Silber, and Tiana Evans (Black Women for Wellness), supported readoption of the ordinance and urged the city to revoke permits for the Warren and Murphy drill sites and plug idle wells.
- General Public Comment: Multiple speakers addressed homelessness, displacement, and the need for continued funding for eviction defense and homeless services. Some speakers engaged in disruptive behavior and were warned or removed.
Discussion Items
- Boyle Heights Warehouse Fire: Councilmember Jurado delivered a detailed account of the fire that erupted last Wednesday at a cold storage warehouse, affecting air quality and public health. She described the response, including distribution of masks and air purifiers, and recognized contributions from fellow council members, the mayor’s office, and community partners. She introduced a package of motions for immediate relief, public health, and accountability, and called for a joint declaration with the county to seek a state emergency declaration.
- Reduction of Civilian Layoffs (Item 13): Councilmember McCosker reported that through a transfer portal and collaborative work, the number of potential layoffs was reduced from 1,600 to 0, with all civilians in the police department retained.
- Oil Phase-Out Ordinance (Item 17): Councilmember Yaroslavsky urged adoption, noting that state law now clearly authorizes local regulation of oil and gas (AB 3233). She thanked the Stand LA Coalition and community members for their persistence. The council voted 14-0 to readopt the ordinance.
- LAFD Ballot Measure (Item 36): Councilmember Hernandez supported putting the measure on the November ballot, citing the ongoing Boyle Heights fire as evidence of need. The council voted 14-0 to place the measure before voters.
Key Outcomes
- Items 1-2, 6-7, 18-33, 35, 37-48, 51-52: Approved 14-0.
- Item 13 (Layoff update): Received and filed with commendation.
- Item 14 (Amended): Approved 14-0.
- Item 15 (Separate vote): Approved 11-3, with Councilmember McCosker recorded as a no.
- Item 17 (Oil phase-out): Readopted 14-0.
- Item 34 (As amended): Approved 14-0.
- Item 36 (LAFD ballot measure): Approved 14-0 to place on November 2026 ballot.
- Item 49 (As amended): Approved 13-0 (Councilmember Price recused as a landlord).
- Item 50 (Eviction defense funding, as amended): Approved (vote tally not explicitly stated, but passed).
- Closed Session Items 53 and 54: Item 53 (Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations) referred to PLUM Committee; item 54 nothing to report.
- Next Meeting: PLUM Committee scheduled for 3:00 PM after adjournment. The meeting adjourned in memory of Leonard Bertrand Fish.
Meeting Transcript
All 19 matches will be broadcast at Union Station. This is the only free location in all of Los Angeles that will be hosting a fan zone where fans can come to see the FIFA broadcast shown both in Spanish and English. And we're showing it throughout Union Station, both in the fan zone and on a 76-foot LED screen inside the waiting room. The fan zone will be fully interactive with a lot of different things for friends and family to do. Guests should definitely register on eventbrite so that they can solidify their position. However, on the day of the event, folks can also come to Union Station, scan a QR code and register there. The event is free for the public, so anybody can come to the event as long as they register on event right. Come kick it with recreation and parks. Well, it's the only app built by Metro for Metro Riders. So you have a lot of options, a lot of great apps out there, but this is the only one where we're working with our customers, with our riders to make the experience customized for Metro and for Los Angeles. If you want to kind of plan your trip from point A to point B. If you're in a location and you want to figure out how to get to another location, you can see all the bus and rail lines and bike options near you. You could customize your favorite stop. Many of our riders take the same trip every single day to work to school. So if you want to customize the experience just around those lines, the app begins to learn who you are and the experience kind of molds around your trips that you take every day. We also have put a bunch of Metro amenities and features into the app. So if you want to find a bathroom, want to find a tap retailer. If you're looking for a bike locker, you can do that as well. We are going to start listening to our riders and beginning to improve the app over time. So it becomes something unique to Metro, unique to Metro riders and unique to LA. My role here today is to demonstrate how customers are going to pay using their credit and debit card fares on Metro and across over 26 participating agencies. You can use the same car that's already in your pocket or in your digital wallet to pay for the transit fee. So all you do is take a plastic cart, you tap at the readers once, wait for the confirmation on the reader's screen, and then you just continue to write. This is not only for about one event. This was always a Metro's long-term fair modernization plan, and it just aligns well with the work. This ability to pay using credit and debit card is just another convenient way for our riders who are daily riders, occasional or visitors who we will see a significant amount coming for the FIFA World Cup, as well as for the Olympics and Para Olympics in 2028. The electrifying roar of the crowd during a pivotal match is an unrivaled experience. Every second on the pitch counts and the action is entrancing from discovering the starting 11 to analyzing team performance and finding star players descending to total prominence on the World Cup stage. Bring it on. Local and international World Cup supporters are flocking to the FIFA fan festival, taking place at the LA Memorial Coliseum, filling the stadium with noise and joy, creating an unforgettable fan experience in a legendary sporting arena. Welcome to FIFA World Cup here in Los Angeles. We are kickstart was finding a venue and then deciding what we were going to do in this venue to make it a very exciting fan festival for the people that are attending. If you've been here before and you came for football games, and now you're coming for this, you're gonna be shocked. The World Cup is a 39-day event this summer. The FIFA fan festival is going to be really meant to be this large-scale opening weekend celebration. As you can see behind me, massive screens, interactive food displays all over the place. We have great entertainment, all these immersive experiences. People are gonna have a really amazing time. We've got characters walking around, we've got labubu, we've got Paw Patrol, we've got the FIFA mascots for the kids to enjoy. But most importantly, if you're here to watch the matches, you grab something to eat and drink, you grab a seat, and you're watching it on five different screens here with everybody else. And you it's like you're at the match live. It's all meant to be family friendly. Tickets for this event are only $10. It's 12 and under are free. People will be able to take Metro to this fan festival fast, easy, and affordable. Only $1.75. We have two rail stations right next door. Short walk from our USC stations right here to the Coliseum. To make it easier for riders and fans to identify which buses they want want to ride, we have wrapped our buses in the official World Cup colors and logos for Los Angeles. What we did was we captured all the iconic sites in Los Angeles, which is what you see on the exterior.
openpublica.com