And teachers and nurses, and we need to be out here supporting them and making sure they are accepted and that we stand with them.

We see you, we hear you, we're here to fight alongside with you.

Pride is not just this month and this day, but we're here to fight for the rights of every single person and the dignity of all people, LA is for all.

I'm extraordinarily proud and grateful that this is going on and that I can be a part of it.

We all have each other's backs.

Um, and we are, in fact, a community, and we're not going to let them divide and conquer us.

We're a united front.

It takes things like pride to remind everyone of how far we've come, but how much farther we still have to go.

We've had people for decades fighting for equality and equity, and it's just become abundantly clear that that fight has to continue on.

We were pleased to give $500,000 to the downtown women's center.

This grant supports the most basic of important needs and the most long-term of needs that help end homelessness.

And on the basic level, that means a safe place to have a meal and a shower.

Things that most Angelinos take for granted.

The LA Repair Program is participatory budgeting at its best.

Repair stands for reforms for equity and public acknowledgement of institutional racism.

Participatory budgeting is when real people get real power over real money.

It is a program where $8.5 million is going to nine of the most impacted neighborhoods in our city.

The city is providing the check, but the people provide it's a votes for these dollars to be spent with the downtown women's center.

We want as a city to support the people who support the people.

So I'm really grateful for this money that's coming to us.

It'll help me reach the ladies I need to reach.

I mean, sometimes these ladies all they need is like a pair of pants.

We help them with hygiene.

We link them to various other resources.

Um I have ladies getting jobs now, and I'm working with ladies through permanent housing goals.

So this money is very helpful to help us continue our efforts.

I've been doing this work for 25 years, and I constantly hear a tone that implies that homelessness is the fault of the individual.

But I think that's unacceptable when you see 75,000 across Los Angeles experiencing homelessness.

How can 75,000 people just like it be their faults?

To us, it's a systems problem.

There's not enough affordable housing.

Folks cannot obtain employment that pays for housing anymore.

It's out of reach.

The level of disability that people experience compounded by homelessness in and of itself, making people more sicker makes it even harder to access housing and employment and just the basic of needs.

We have a systems problem, and with Downtown Women's Center's advocacy and with our partners for years, we've been addressing systems issues while we're also meeting women one-on-one with their needs as they come today.

One thing the Downtown Women's Center does offer is a sense of community, a place to go.

And that's one thing me with my own lives experience.

I actually was in the day center one day, and I've been through a RISE program.

This whole environment is so encouraging for women who have lost a little hope.

And we're a beacon of hope.

Los Angeles recognizes the history, resilience, achievements, and ongoing contributions of LGBTQ IA Plus Angelinos, and reaffirms its commitment to keeping Los Angeles a city where everyone can live openly with pride.

The city of Los Angeles has designated significant historic and cultural sites.

And during June, it honors and uplifts LGBTQIA Plus community members, talents, and leaders who continue to inspire.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the people's house.

Happy Pride Month, Los Angeles.

Woo!

For generations, LGBTQ people.

We're told that spaces like this weren't built for us.

And yet here we are, queers, not only in the room, but taking over it.

In the LGBTQIA Plus community, it's not uncommon to show up and show out in your most fabulous look.

So here I am, City Hall.

And if all these rhinestones don't give it away, I am part of the LGBTQ IA plus community.

Today we are unveiling our bridge gallery exhibit for LGBT Heritage Month.

This year our bridge gallery exhibit is called Portraits of Olympic Pride.

It's an opportunity for us to showcase 19 different athletes that are part of the LGBTQIA Plus community.

We are all eligible for the Olympics in LA 28.

It is completely free.

It is available to anybody here in the city of Los Angeles and beyond.

You'll learn a lot, you'll be inspired, and you'll be ready to go out and create the kind of good that we all deserve.

And every year it gets more and more important because our communities are continuing to be under attack.

We have a federal government that continues to attack our LGBTQ youth.

And so making sure that we find joy through all of this is so important because we can't let fear be the winner.

Being LGBTQ Plus is about your authenticity.

It's about having the courage to stand in your truth, even when others try to dim your life.

Here in the City of Angels, you are welcome.

You are a part of the fiber of the city of Los Angeles.

And if anybody messes with you, they're gonna have to come through a whole bunch of us.

We got your back.

Thank you.

Find your community wherever they may be.

Our partnership with Los Angeles Department of Aging.

This is year two, so we're super excited about it.

Yeah, last year was kind of like a trial and error.

We visited four MPCs, multi-purpose centers.

It was just amazing.

So we wanted to capitalize on the momentum.

We wanted to continue the growth.

We wanted to touch more seniors.

So this year we've expanded to 10 MPC locations.

The goal behind this partnership with the LA Sparks and their social impact team is to really just continue to get our seniors up, be on the move.

Because physical health really encaptures the whole body.

So it physically we're well, then mentally we're well, emotionally.

And so we want to make sure our seniors are heard and seen and that they have opportunities to move, literally.

Our seniors love Sparky.

He truly brings a spark when he visits the senior centers.

They're looking for the photo ops, they're looking for the engagement, the high fives.

So Sparky is a hit, and we're so grateful to have the mascot of our WNBA LA Sparks team along for this fun ride.

So last year we had 250 seniors come out to the game, but uh this year we're we're trying to expand that, hopefully bringing out more uh seniors and their families to the game.

So not just seniors, but everybody, making it all inclusive a whole family outing.

Really excited about taking senior to the game coming up in September.

We just love that the Sparks value our older adult population just as much as we do.

September 24th, 7 p.m.

More information to come, and we're really looking forward to that.

We will be having our maiden voyage on the motor vessel El Escudo.

It's a 108-foot, 350-passenger tour, whale watch, dining boat, ferry boat here, based in the Los Angeles Long Beach Harbors.

This is the cleanest harbor craft in the world, exceeding national standards for tier four emissions.

It's able to run hybrid version zero emission for hours at a time so people can see the industrial theater here at the port of Los Angeles and the majesty of the Pacific Ocean.

It's super quiet, it's super green.

I think it's the future of the ports for LA and Long Beach.

You know, they're talking about moving to green fuels.

It's just amazing that they can do this running on battery electric.

It was an amazing maiden voyage that we have the opportunity to go on.

It's great to be able to say that we are definitely looking into the future and people are having fun.

What makes this boat so significant is it's the first in the world to utilize a parallel hybrid system, which means we can actually get this 108-foot boat to zero emissions.

So we'll have tourists and local people alike joining to see exactly what's happening at the port, whale watching, seeing all the great sea lions and dolphins jumping in and out of the water, and at the same time knowing that this is the cleanest harbor craft for visitor serving anywhere in the world.

This is California, right?

And California is the place that changes things in America when it comes to fuels.

It's always been far ahead, and now it's starting to happen here at the ports.

And what happens in California happens at the rest of America.

So I'm really proud to see this happening right here because I'm sure the rest of the ports are gonna follow suit.

Beyond modern festivities, Los Angeles holds a deep legacy in the fight for equality.

In Silver Lake, Harry Hay founded the country's pioneering gay organization, hosting the Matachine Society in his private residence.

Recognized as the movement's true origin, the history is now honored at the Matachine steps.

The city also witnessed the nation's initial gay protests.

Following the 1967 New Year's arrests at the Black Cat Tavern, local activists organized a historic rally for social justice.

These Los Angeles demonstrations preceded the Stonewall Uprising, and the seeds of protest were firmly planted in the city of Angels.

Beyond the struggle for progress, the spirit of resilience defines the Angelino fight for change.

After a devastating traffic accident in Griffith Park, local community members rally to secure a safer future.

Driven by unwavering advocacy, residents have finally realized the completion of the most significant safety enhancement project in the Farks Iskary.

There was a terrible tragedy here where Andrew Gelmert, who was training for the AIDS lifecycle ride, was killed by a reckless driver about uh almost a mile up the road.

He was coming down and a reckless driver drove through at an ungodly speed, lost control of his vehicle, slammed into the curbside and hit Andrew.

After Andrew lost his life, something unusual happened.

Immediately after the fatality in June of 2022, we did a temporary closure up on Griffith Park Drive from Travel Town to the Compost Center.

And that was meant to cut on cut through traffic.

And it also galvanized the department to you know get a procurement out there right away to hire an engineering firm to design and plan for what we should do.

And then it also galvanized the then assembly member Laura Friedman for the area who went and got a state earmark of four million dollars to help us actually do something.

And then it helped push us through.

So when we hit snags in the process, which you inevitably do, all this stuff adds up, and it can be super frustrating to the community, but they were excellent.

They were like very steadfast in what they uh wanted to see, and just kept our you know our nose to the grindstone.

So we had the I guess ribbon cutting, the the official uh acknowledgement of the new Crystal Springs and Zoo Drive bike lanes and safety improvements in Griffith Park, which is honestly it's the single largest investment in the safety of Griffith Park that it has ever had in its history, and well needed, well needed.

In February of 2013, I was bicycling in Griffith Park, right near the auction museum when I was hit, pinned underneath the car, dragged nearly a quarter of a mile from the streets of Griffith Park onto and down the five freeway freeway speeds.

My right leg was ripped off, about 20 pounds of flesh in two minutes, 20 broken bones, 10 ribs.

I shattered both my shoulders, my hips, my wrists, you name it.

It was a hit and run.

The driver never stopped and was never caught, and from that I learned about how deadly our roads of Los Angeles are and started working on advocacy, which became the organization Streets Are for Everyone.

So I think our primary focus in Griffith Park has to be for the recreational uses.

That's part of the uh donation of the land from Griffith J.

and Tina Griffith.

I was excited about this project when I heard about it in the planning stage, and then today was my first day to actually get out on the street on my bike, and it's so much better than I ever thought it was gonna be.

The places where the road had previously been a little scratchy, it's all been repaid, it's smooth.

There's so much space for the bikers.

When someone is also running or walking, there's space for everybody, and we're never worried about a car coming into my lane or having to sort of jump out of the way or be in a subpar space on the road.

It's it's really it was just a pleasure today.

Andrew would have been very happy to see these changes, and I believe these changes would absolutely have saved his life.

The importance is having a space, having our roads uh be safer and more accessible for uh all road users.

And at the end of the day, it's better for people driving too because it's calmer.

Um, you're not you're not speeding with someone trying to change lanes, and I'm gonna turn here, I'm gonna do all this crazy stuff.

Like it's just a more calm experience.

And like I said, you're gonna get there at the same time going through the park.

We're gonna go ride the park right now.

A bunch of us are gonna go uh ride the uh the new lanes and check them out.

So we're excited to do that.

Putting on the glasses right here, getting ready to go.

The valley wasn't that long ago that this was a horse area.

This had orange groves.

This is a good representation of the communities of what they used to look like here in Council District 12.

Today, the wonderful Oak Ridge estate here in the Northridge.

We had a really awesome community event here.

We brought the community the Los Angeles City Park Rangers mounted unit.

So what you see behind me is our horses.

Today we brought both Archie and Bert.

That was excellent experience.

My daughter definitely loved it.

We got to cut the horses, feed the horses, Bert and Archie.

And uh this is a really nice event.

Really put together really well.

That's great.

Our horses actually came all the way from the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank.

And so they came over here in our horse trailer, and our horses get a lot of love.

So we make sure they get plenty of water, they get exercise, and I gotta tell you they love coming out here to these community events, and they love taking selfies with our community members.

The horses, they're not just animals, they are part of the forest, they are part of our park ranger system.

This is an important piece as the officers are.

What is this?

This looper is looper.

I'm not really sure what this is.

It's looping.

So you went just by and you see trash here and you just throw it there.

Please do better.

Let's step literally in LA.

I need a new punt.

Just play it and write in my It's too tight, I think.

I'm telling my wife, don't give me too much tackles.

No.

Yeah, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna put a request on 311.

That's too heavy.

Now let's go to 311 up.

Right there.

311, my LA311 Up.

Illegal dumping.

Just make sure.

Is the right address?

Items.

Counter top.

It's on the side street.

So side street right there.

Summit.

Okay, so the request is done.

That's it.

Wow.

You see the fresh the difference.

Follow me on my social media.

Clean away with me.

Okay.

And you just see it.

Many people just say hello to me and thus keep me going and going and going because more people are gonna come, you know.

It's I think it's worth it to keep doing it.

I'm gonna go and dump the trush.

Let's go.

Let's make a change.

I know we can do it.

I know we can change our habits.

I know we can change our culture.

Let's do better.

I think everything can start with us and then we can push everybody else.

When we first started this safe summer initiative, the purpose was to talk about peace and safety once school let out so that we could have a safe summer for all.

This is our third year where we bring over 40 different vendors.

They provide opportunities for our youth during the summer.

Everyone from uh the LA Rams, UCLA, USC, uh LA parks and recreation.

There's internships, sports.

So many opportunities to uh support families and give uh youth opportunities during the summer.

They're coming here and we're providing the resources which will help them to hopefully have a better future.

Especially for our youth.

We want them to know that there's more that they can achieve than just what they're limited to in the community, and that we're here to help them get there.

We specifically are here for the grid program, which is the gang reduction and youth development program.

I've been with this program since 2009, and I can say that we have students that were in our program back then that are still connected with this agency till this day.

It's really important that our parks are a safe space, and it's important that our families have a place to come to to receive resources.

I think it's incredibly important that the Los Angeles Police Department in conjunction with our city partners put on these events because it again is an educational piece to let our communities know what's out there for them.

From neighborhood cleanup efforts and festive local celebrations to the collective push for greater public safety, the unwavering power of partnership is bringing residents together to evolve our city.

The City of Angels continues its dedication to empowering and honoring the rich cultural tapestry found within every unique neighborhood across the region.

Thanks for watching.

Catch these stories and more on channel 35 for lacity.gov slash TV and follow at LA City on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube.

Until next time, show up in your community, celebrate the wins, and enjoy everything Los Angeles has to offer.

What is it?

It's not so Scheduled meeting of your Los Angeles City Council.

Today is Friday, the 26th day of June in the year twenty twenty six.

Six twenty-six twenty-six.

Public comment for this morning's meeting will be taken in person in this chamber.

Bloomenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hut Herado, Lee, McOskar, Nazarin, Padilla, Park, Price, Raman, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Jarvislovski, 11 members, and our quorum, Mr.

President.

First order of business.

Approval of the minutes of June 24th, 2026.

Councilmember Raman moves, Councilmember Lee, seconds.

What's next?

Amendatory resolutions for approval.

Councilmember Price moves.

Councilmember Soto Martinez, seconds.

Can we walk through our agenda?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Items one through two are items notice for public hearing.

For item two, the tabulated value of the opposing ballots cast, receive a weighted majority of no votes, 79.29% versus 18.74%, as defined in Article 13 D proposition two eighteen of the state constitution.

Therefore, the proposed assessment district has failed.

As a result, the city may not impose an assessment for the improvement and maintenance of lighting in the proposed district.

Items three through twenty-five are items for which public hearings have been held.

Item twenty six to thirty-one, items for which public hearings have not been held.

Items thirty-two through thirty-four on the continuation agenda items for which public hearings have not been held.

All right, without objection, those items are now before us.

Now is the time for specials.

Specials members.

Two five and an amendment.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Price.

That's item number twenty-nine.

All right.

That's your special.

Yes, Council President.

I would like to note and file item two and a separate vote for item 16 and continue item 26 for a month.

And for 26 being continued, it would be our first day back, August fourth, 2026.

Alright.

Councilmember Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Can I ask uh that item number three be called special for comments?

Alright, Councilmember Jurado.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to continue item 21 to July 1st.

I'd also like to call item 29 and 31 special for an amendment.

And both should be circulating shortly.

Thank you.

All right, Mr.

McCosker.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Item eleven just for a special vote.

A separate vote.

Separate vote for eleven.

All right.

Any other specials members?

I see a couple of folks who've just walked in.

Alright, and there's a request to continue item 16 until Wednesday the first of July.

And with that, uh Mr.

Clark, if you can let us know what items are available for votes at this time.

The council may now vote on items four through nine.

17 through 20.

22 through 24.

Alright, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Twelve eyes.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to uh make a revision to my specials.

I'd like to continue item 28 to July 1st, not July.

Not item 21.

Sorry.

Thank you.

All right, Mr.

Clerk.

Where does that leave us?

Uh the council may actually vote on item number 21 now.

Alright, let's open the roll on item number 21.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

Twelve lies.

And to confirm item number 28 is continued to July 1st.

All right, without objection.

May I just have a confirmation, Councilmember Hernandez, uh for the second on her motion to note and file.

Second.

Thank you, Council President.

And to confirm item 16 has been continued to July 1st.

And there's also been a request to hold item 10 on the desk.

All right, uh, what's next?

Any other items we can take up at this at this time?

Uh the council may now move on to presentations.

Excellent.

Uh we have an exciting morning of presentations.

The first of which will be led by our councilmember of the fourth district, council member Rahman.

And it is my privilege to uh officially declare once again uh the Dia del Bolero in the city of Los Angeles on August 1st.

This year carries special meeting because we are not just marking another Dia del Bolero.

We're celebrating 10 years of boleros del noche, which we've heard from in this chamber in the past, and we're gonna hear from again today.

It's been a great honor and joy to bring this presentation to council, not just this year, but for the past four years to share the healing power of this music.

In partnership with Boleros de Noche, we'd like to kick off with a short video highlighting their efforts to preserve the bolero tradition and the broader cultural impact of the genre.

Boleros are the music of our grandparents and uh of our holding years in Mexico.

So we bring this back to LA to get them back in touch with the roots.

But I am not seeing.

So it's important to like keep that alive.

And so it's really sweet to get to sip and chat and like listen to music.

La cultura, the tradition, that love for boleros.

Two different things.

I'm thrilled to be here celebrating Noche de Boleros here.

It's such an incredible show, uplifting the Latino community.

As a chicana, I can be prouder to be a resident of Los Angeles and be here and see the entire community coming together.

Being able to hear Spanish here in this specific location is really beautiful and really special to me.

Members, friends, anyone you could bring, bring because they're gonna have a great time.

Great.

Ten years ago, Roberto Carlos had a vision to create a space in Los Angeles where Bolero music and the generations who grew up on it could come together.

It started as one concert series, but it's now become something much bigger.

Over the past decade, boleros de noche has presented numerous concerts featuring both local and international artists, has brought together thousands of people across the city to bask in the lush orchestration of this music.

This genre has always been a music of connection.

It was born in Cuba as a form of romantic folk poetry, found new life in Mexico in the 1940s, travels on the sound of a guitar and carrying with it lyrics about longing, love, devotion that feel just as true today as they did generations ago.

That's the power of the genre.

It reaches across borders and across generations.

It's why grandparents and grandchildren can sit in the same room, feel the same song in their chest.

For so many in the Latino community and beyond, this isn't just music, it's memory, it's home.

And perhaps most importantly, it's heritage being carried forward.

And for 10 years, Roberto Carlos and Boleros de Noche have made sure that that heritage has a stage right here in Los Angeles.

That kind of commitment to culture to community and to joy is what makes this city so vibrant.

So today, on behalf of the city of Los Angeles and the Fourth Council District, we want to once again recognize that legacy.

Roberto, thank you for ten years of bringing this music to LA to making sure it has a place in some of our best stages, and here's to many, many more.

Please join me now, uh everyone in welcoming the creative director of Boleros de Noche, Roberto Carlos.

Thank you.

Good morning, buenos yas.

Buenos días, good morning, council members.

I'm the founder and director of Boleros de Noche.

Our mission is to preserve and celebrate Bolero music in Los Angeles.

This year we celebrate 10 years, 10 años, and as I look back on this journey, I remember the small art gallery in Echo Park.

Where we hosted our very first events.

So over the years I have heard countless stories from audience members who tell me how this music reminds them of their parents, grandparents, first loves and family traditions.

Those stories remind me that Bolero is more than music, it is memory, Bolero was rarely part of our city's cultural connection.

And today, Bolero programming can be found across Los Angeles, and I'm honored that Boleros and Noche has been a driving force behind its growth.

So I do want to take the time to thank people who made this journey possible.

Since we have 18 minutes left.

First, my parents, two and the uncumented immigrants from this beautiful state of Oaxaca who shared with me their love for music and for boleros.

To my brother who has always listened to my ideas and offered his guidance.

To my children who are here today Julian and Valentina who inspired me every day to create a positive impact for future generations.

Isn't that right?

Create a positive impact for future generations to the artists, volunteers, cultural leaders, mentors and community partners who believed in this vision and helped it grow, thank you very much.

To the musical giants to my bandmates to the musical giants like Julio Haramillo, Daniel Santos, Los Eryes Los Panchos their essence, their memory their music lives on through boleros and noche.

Lastly I thank God and my ancestors for the strength, purpose and energy they continue to place in my life Council members.

Thank you for declaring August first Dia del Bolero I leave you with this thought we are all creatures of love sometimes life's challenges make us forget that.

Can still be shared through music, your community and through this beautiful city of LA Los Angeles Thank you so much Roberto I am now thrilled to introduce loses romanticos Roberto's very own trio for a special performance and he's gonna run out there bringing soulful storytelling to every stage that they're on Los Rebeldes romanticos has captivated crowds across Los Angeles reason recently performing for over a thousand people at the Levitt Pavilion summer concert series.

Welcome to the Mm-hmm, I think, sube, it will be spiran, one belleza, o las flores su perfume y su color no sería tan inmensa mi tristeza como aquella de quedarme sin tu amor.

Importas tú, que solo tú, solamente tu.

Y solamente tú, que tú y tú, y nadie más que tu, ojos negros que el canela que me llegan a desesperar.

Mi importas tú.

Y tú y tú solamente tú.

Y sola, solamente tú.

Y tú y tú y tú, y nadie más que tu.

Tanto tempo disfrutamos de este amor.

Nuestras almas se hacen caron tanto así que yo guardo tu calor, pero tu llevas también.

Sabor a mí, si negarás mi presencia en tu vivir, bastare con abrazarmi y conversa.

Tanta vida yo te di que por fuerza llevarás.

No pretendo seré tu dueño.

No soy nada, yo no tengo vanidad de mi vida.

Hoy lo bueno, soy tan pobre que otra cosa puedo dar, pasarán más de milagros.

Muchos más, yo no sé si tenga la eternità, pero allá tal como aquí en la boca llevarás, sabore a mí.

No fare tempo, seré tu dueño.

Io no soy nada, yo no tengo vanidad de mi vida, yo doy lo bueno.

Soy tan pobre che otra cosa puedo dar.

Pasarán más de mil años.

Yo no sé si tengo la eternità, pero allá tal como aquí, la boca llevarás, sabor a mí, sabor.

Thank you so much, and if we could have another round of applause for the incredible musicians from Los Reveles Romanticos.

And to Roberto and to everyone who makes boleros de noche possible every single year.

Thank you so much.

And on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, we would like to recognize.

Before you do the big present, Councilmember, I have a speaker on the queue, Councilmember Padilla.

Thank you so much for being here.

You know, I I as someone who lives my life trying to make sure that in Southern California and in Los Angeles, everything that is related to our Latinidad, everything related to, you know, being able to continue to preserve our music, our food, and our way of life.

Identifies as Chicana, comfortable with the word pocha, celebrating my nieces and nephews, identifying as Yosabu kids.

I applaud you for being part of that, you know, making sure that we are unapologetic about preserving our culture.

And which is why I uh it's it's always fascinating when you know there's uh groups brought into city council uh to show that so thank you for being uh you know fighters in that space, and just know that there's definitely leaders here on this council that fight for our uh our culture as well.

Uh when I first got to this seat, there was an attempt to mess with jardineros and the tools that jardineros take to work, and I made sure that I reminded this council that when I was 10 years old in fifth grade, there was a battle in this building over taking away leaf blowers from gardeners, and it was very racist, right?

But I fought it because that's what we do, right?

There was also an attempt to take away carne salas recently, but we fought it because that's who we do, and then ice came and we all helped each other to make sure that we were making sure that this didn't stop.

So know that um I respect you, I appreciate it.

You have a beautiful voice.

I love how you played your instruments, but just know that we need your help too.

Um I don't know if you uh guys also sing originals or write originals, but you know I I'm seeking, I'm waiting for the day where somebody writes corridos, whether it be in any style where we also talk about the nonsense that we Latinos have to go through too in this city just to tell our stories and preserve what we go through.

So thank you.

Um, really happy to see you here.

Uh, this is the kind of thing that I will probably record and send over to my mom just so she could sing along with you because she used to sing.

Gracias.

Thank you so much, uh, Councilmember Padilla, and thank you uh to our guest and council member Raman.

Uh the tapestry of culture in our in this city uh is so great and is something that we all hold dear.

I was just uh commiserating with my staff.

You know, you have your ballots, you have your oldies, you have your slow jams, you have your bolettos.

Like all of us have um yearning and lost love and and uh tragic stories and triumphant stories uh that uh our people tell through music, and uh this is one of the the best and sweetest examples that there is.

So thank you so much for sharing with us uh this morning and sharing with our city, Councilmember Raman.

Thank you so much, and so on the behalf on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, I want to recognize Boleros de Noche and Dia del Bolero again and commend you on your 10-year anniversary and to remind everyone that on August 1st they'll have their performance at the Ford and invite all of you to join join them for a beautiful, beautiful night uh which will honor this art form.

Thank you all so much.

Mr.

President, before the next presentation, if the council would like, uh the council could vote on item 11 called special by council member McOscar for a separate vote.

All right, uh, let's take up um item number 11, call special by Mr.

McCosker for a separate vote.

Let's open the roll.

Close the roll.

Tabulate to vote.

12 ayes, two noes, all right.

With that, we'll go to our next presentation, which will be led by Councilmember Jurado of the 14th district.

It's exciting.

Come on.

You got a lot of people.

This is great.

Oh, I know.

I was like, we should bring them back for their song.

Okay, the whole family is here.

Carlos, today we celebrate an extraordinary career and extraordinary person.

I have to say, reading through everything you've accomplished over the last 30 plus years is incredibly impressive.

But what stands out to me most isn't just the projects, the funding, or the titles.

It's the kind of person you've been throughout your career.

For more than three decades, you've shown up every day in service to the people of Los Angeles.

And a lot of the work you've done happens behind the scenes.

Most Angelinos will never know your name, but they benefit from your work every single day.

They drive on safer streets, move through better connected neighborhoods, and experience a city that functions better because of your dedication and leadership.

You helped lead major transportation projects across Los Angeles and manage hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding.

That's an incredible responsibility, and it's a testament to the trust people placed in you.

But what I keep hearing from your colleagues is that your impact goes beyond the work itself.

People talk about the way you mentored them, the way you made time for them, the way you helped them grow and gave them confidence.

They describe you as someone who led with humility, patience, and generosity.

Those qualities don't show up on a resume, but they're often the people that we remember the most.

Selfishly, we wish you we could keep you forever, but we know that your work was made real.

We know that your work has made real quality of life differences for constituents all over the city.

And while today is about your professional achievements, I know that things closest to your heart are much simpler.

It's your family.

It's spending time with Delia, who is retiring also today as a principal at a local school.

Alessandra is a b and their children, Alessandra, Isabella, and Anthony, and it's practicing Tai Chi.

It's reading for the Dodgers.

It's a life you've built outside of the work and the people you love most.

That's why retirement feels like an ending and more like a well-deserved opportunity, an opportunity to spend time with your family to enjoy the things you love and to embrace whatever adventure comes next.

Carlos, public service can be demanding, and you both know that.

And it asks a lot of people.

And for more than 30 years, you answer the call with integrity, excellence, and kindness.

Los Angeles is stronger because of your work, and so many people, whether they realize it or not, have benefited from your dedication.

Now it's my honor to welcome Carlos to share a few words.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Um, wasn't really prepared to say words, but I just wanted uh humbly say thank you to the city.

Thank you to all of the representatives of the city, because it's the last 30 years, it truly afforded me an opportunity to you know to serve and an opportunity to to build a uh a family with my wife and kids, and was able to just you know be able to provide for them and I just want to humbly say thank you to you all, but most importantly, I want to say thank you to all the people you see behind because as I've been indicating these last few weeks, it's really not the work, it's the people.

This is my second family, and the hard part about this is um just, you know, knowing that I'm not gonna, you know, see them on a daily basis, but as I shared with them, you know, I want to continue my you know open door policy that I've had in the last 30 years, and I've you know invite them and welcome them to call me anytime they want for anything, whether it's just a chat or still work-related advice.

I'm gonna be there for them, as they've been there for me the last 30 years.

And just last but not least, I just wanted to firstly thank my wife, who's been my partner, best friend for 37 years here, college sweethearts, and uh, and uh is I'm just looking forward to kind of the next chapter because I get to you know spend time with with my best friend and and I just say thank you, thank you, thank you for again just affording me this opportunity.

Thank you, Carlos.

Um, it does take us, all of us know it takes a very special kind of person to want to be in public service.

There's a lot of things that the wage is only half the part, the time, the energy, uh, the public scrutiny, all of those weigh on you, and to have a family dedicated to public service all throughout everything that's happened in this city is something that we really have to commend, and I thank you.

My team's personally benefiting from your mentorship and guidance with our our planning and transportation.

And I don't know if there's anybody else on the queue, but I'm gonna give the certificate, if not.

You ready?

Ready to go.

Okay, on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, Carlos, we present you with a certificate signed by all of the council members for your work and dedication.

Congratulations on your retirement, and hope that you have a lot of time with your best friend.

Everybody get any quote on for Carlo.

I'm sorry, uh, Councilmember Gurado.

Uh, while the pictures are being taken, we want to hear from Councilmember Rahman.

I just wanted to thank uh Carlos for all his work uh and wish him a well-deserved retirement.

Uh I know that you've been in.

Sorry, I'll let you take your pictures, but uh just wanted to um thank you for so much work in CD4 that you were so incredibly helpful with that we could not have accomplished without your support, the processing of two federal community projects that brought traffic signals and signal upgrades to the valley, a four million dollar state earmark for traffic safety in and around Griffith Park, and you did so much work for that, um, and and benefited really the entire district, and worked with us on so many discretionary fund projects, including speed humps on Mulholland Drive, Hyperion, and near almost every school in the district.

And your knowledge and the mentorship that you brought to your team is was just absolutely integral, and we're just very grateful.

And I did just want to, I'm sorry to keep you here, but I did just want to thank you for that uh during this moment.

So thank you, Councilmember Jurado, for recognizing Carlos, and thank you for all the work that you've done.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Gurado.

Okay, thank you.

Alright, uh Mr.

City Attorney, if you can prepare us for public comment, Mr.

President, the amendment for item 25 called special by Councilmember Padilla for comments and the amendment has been circulated if council would like to vote on it before public comment.

All right.

Let's open the roll, close the roll, tabulate to vote.

14 ayes.

All right, so city attorney.

Yes, Mr.

President.

To people providing public comment, when it's your turn to speak, please state which of the agenda items you'd like to speak to.

You'll have one minute per item, up to three minutes total for the items open for public comment.

When speaking on the agenda items, you must be on topic.

Our goal is to get through as many speakers as we can.

If you are not on topic, or if we cannot tell whether you're on topic, you will get one brief warning from me or the council president.

At that point, you need to get immediately and clearly on topic.

If you do not do so, or if you again stray off topic, you will forfeit the rest of your speaking time, and we will move on to the next speaker.

The items open for public comment on the agenda today are items one and two, item 27, items 29 through 34.

Again, the items that are open for public comment on the agenda today, and this is for the regular and the continuation agenda are items one and two, item 27, and items 29 through 34.

There will also be an opportunity during the special meeting to speak on the single item that is on that agenda.

Members of the public may also speak for up to one minute for general public comment.

During general public comment, members of the public may speak to any of the items or anything else in the city subject matter jurisdiction.

We will tell you when your time is up.

A couple more announcements.

If I could please have the interpreters make this first one aloud to the room, please.

If you require a Spanish language interpreter, please make sure to pause every few sentences so the interpreters can interpret.

Finally, in order to help us accommodate as many people as possible and to run an efficient public comment period, we would ask that you please wait until you hear the name that you signed up under, called aloud before lining up in any order on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

Thank you.

I'd like to begin public comment by calling up a few names.

Jens Johnson, Rose, Cato, Lauren, Harper, Sergeant Gunny, John C, and Boxer.

I'm a little confused about the procedure.

I was told that I could do speak at general comments and then again on item number two as well, too.

Is that correct?

Good morning.

So so what would you like to speak to?

You said general and which item?

General, and then also item number two.

And item number two?

Yes.

Okay, so you have one minute for the item and one minute for general.

For I see a lot of new faces here.

So you'll see one minute pop up, then you'll hear a buzzer, and then you'll heal switch over to general public comment at that time.

So please begin with the item item number two.

Go ahead.

So I speak on item number two right now.

Yes, this is for item number two right now.

And then the buzzer will go off and I get to speak again.

Uh no.

So this is item number two for your public comment.

We'll walk you through it.

Well, why don't we do this?

You're gonna get two minutes.

So you're gonna get one minute now.

You'll hear a beep, you'll get another minute.

That'll be both item number two and general.

Go ahead.

So, but later on, when item number two comes up, I get to speak again.

Is that correct?

No, that is not correct.

We're taking public comment for all items right now.

Okay, start your time.

So, that happened last time when I was here on June 2nd.

I spoke at general comment.

We're gonna start you on item number two, and then we're gonna go to general public comment.

So go ahead.

Okay.

So I'm Rose Cotto, community advocate, homeowner constituent in CD 11.

Prior to the June 2nd, City Council meeting agenda posting on Friday, May 29th.

City Council clearly violated the Brown Act by acting in secret to alter the original wording of the ballot tabulation protocol in ordinance one eight eight eight nine two that was effective April 5th, 2026 of file 26-0331.

City Council held no additional meeting publicly to reword and replace the ordinance to create a new one.

City Clerk Patrice Latimore reports that LA City allegedly noticed property owners of parcels in the proposed maintenance district number 5500, implying that all owners were noticed.

They were not.

General public comment if you'd like.

You have one more minute for general if you'd like.

Go ahead.

Is that going to be the same thing?

Hold on.

So I think I know what you're talking about.

I believe the last time that you were here, there was a statutory required actual appeal hearing.

Today is not that for item number two.

Today was the announcement of the results.

So that's why the hearing was separated.

So currently, you have 55 seconds.

In fact, I'll start you over.

Can we start at a minute?

You have one minute for general public comment.

You can use it, or or you don't have to.

So I can say it again.

Go ahead.

Repeat it again.

Okay.

Uh I'm Rose Cotto, community advocate, homeowner, and constituent of CD 11.

Prior to the June 2nd City Council meeting agenda posting on Friday, May 29th, City Council clearly violated the Brown Act by acting in secret to alter the original wording of the ballot tabulation protocol in ordinance 18892 that was effective April 5th, 2026, so file 26-0331.

City Council held no additional meeting publicly to reword and replace the ordinance to create a new one.

City Clerk Patrice Latimore reports that LA City allegedly noticed property owners of parcels in the proposed maintenance district number 5500, implying that all owners were noticed.

They were not.

The ordinance states the boundaries are all city streets within LA City with existing permanent street lights.

All parcels within the district receive a special benefit.

The Board of Public Works shall mail a ballot to each property owner affected by the assessment.

This ordinance is just a quick fix by VATS and City Council to quadruple the current 44 million dollar assessment to 160 million dollars and to redirect 19.8 million dollars in discretionary funds to other port projects.

Thank you.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

General public comment.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

My name is Lauren Harper, and I work at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles as the data manager for Stay House LA.

State House LA has worked for the last three months without a contract or payment.

Continuing to provide critical eviction defense services to tenants.

As of today, none of the four contractors for the ULA eviction defense program have an executed contract.

We are about to enter our fourth month of work without a contract or payment.

This is unsustainable and the delay is impacting tenants.

We are representing fewer tenants because our smaller subcontractors have been forced to lay off staff and stop taking cases.

The longer this delay goes on, the longer it will take State House LA to recover.

We are asking that City Council moves to expedite payment to State House LA once the contract is signed.

Using the ULA funds that are available and earmarked for this purpose.

We cannot wait several more months for payment to go through the usual LAHD process.

Please protect tenants and protect State House LA.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Um the solution to uh for the you know the wide-fire crisis solution.

Okay, so I think I need the two minutes, please.

So right now there's only so there's not one of those items on here.

So you can speak to it during general.

Um, to the extent you're speaking about the Boyle Heights fire, there will also be a separate opportunity during the special meeting, which will be a little bit later.

Uh, and you can comment then.

But right now, I can give you one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Uh, thank you for this uh giving me this opportunity.

My name is Dr.

Cutie Ken Mark.

I have a PhD in chemistry study in UCR Bind.

As a scientist, I would like to propose emerging technology to address the wildfire crisis, the most the serious challenging face in California.

The main problem is the existing fire alarm and surveillance camera become useless to protect us and mess the fire disaster because of a strong wind.

Uh commonly present in mountain area to prevent the devastating wildfire.

Scientists come up with a breakthrough technology to detect the fire risk signal before they ignite the people date outbreak.

It is called the uh early stage white white fire detection technology.

The new technology doesn't detect the visible fire frame, but detect the only fire warning signal, uh, such as uh carbon dioxide, the equivalent total volatile organic compound, temperature uh spike and humidity.

I prepared the 30.

Perfect.

So your time has expired, but if you if you or if anyone else has uh exhibits that you'd like provided as council, please provide them to the sergeants and they will circulate them with the clerk's office.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Morning, sir.

What would you like to speak to?

I'm here to speak on council file 26077, which was listed on the printed agenda as item 28, but it appears as item 29 on the kiosk.

So it's if it's item 28, that matter has been continued.

Um, but you can speak to it during general public comment.

So you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh I'm a resident of Highland Park in Council District 14.

I'm a board member of the historic Holland Park Neighborhood Council, but I speak as an individual here today.

Uh I'm asking council members to oppose the resolution in council file twenty-six zero seven seven seven.

The resolution would put the city on record.

Hey, Jude, that's my son and daughter right there.

Um, it will put the city on the record against the stormwater pollution mitigation project before the sequel environmental review is uh completed.

The record that the city needs to make an informed decision is still being built, yet this is moving forward very rapidly.

Um I'm disappointed that the rules committee declined to hear this item and declined the public a chance to make comments.

Uh this is a resolution that claims to speak for an entire community, but it doesn't.

The community should have been heard before this moved forward to the full council.

I urge the city to develop the record before going on the record.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker.

Before the next speaker begins, I'd like to call up a few more names.

Deshaun Duncan, Michael Chang, Ember Knight, Steve, and John John.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning, City Council.

General Public Comment.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Go ahead.

Good morning, city council.

My concern today is the one generation facility who does a wonderful job serving that community.

It services many seniors in Los Angeles.

I have had a few visits and noticed the grounds to be lacking upkeep, including some graffiti.

I have had a few conversations with Jenny Portillo about this matter.

I know that Mr.

Bloomfield is well aware about one generation.

And thank you, sir, for your listening ear.

Conserved citizens and myself would like to improve and beautify the grounds of one generation.

Thanks to Mr.

Bloomerfield and his staff that we are able to improve landscaping and make it inviting for all of Los Angeles.

So I close by saying, let's improve it and happy 4th of July.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Over time, sir.

Over my time.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning, sir.

Happy fourth.

Item two, I believe, and then also public comments.

Okay, so you have one minute for item two and one minute for general.

Please begin with the item.

Go ahead.

First of all, I want to congratulate Homeboys Industry.

They just had their graduation yesterday, and you can never give up on a child.

No matter what happens.

Don't ever give up on your children.

Let's go to public comments, sir, if I may.

Okay, so you have one minute.

Alright, I want I need your attention.

Does anybody know what 1870 why it holds uh important?

Nope.

Okay.

How about 1920?

The ladies should know about this.

No, nobody knows about that.

How about 1924?

Does anybody know that day?

Come on.

Okay, all of you are educated.

1965.

Do you remember that day?

Okay.

That had to do with voting.

And you have something on the ballot coming up in November.

1870, the African American soldier was allowed to vote.

1920, you women were allowed to vote.

1924, Navajo Indian, Native Americans were allowed to vote.

1965.

We thought that was going to be the answer.

And it wasn't.

Now I have a difficult time with this issue coming up because I see the wage runners come here all the time asking for your help with their wages.

I would love to give them the power.

But you have to look at the history of the vote.

Thank you, Mr.

Candido.

Your time has expired.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

It'll be uh general and item number about the ULA, which I believe is item.

So the ULA item has been continued.

So if you're looking for that one and it's not currently open for public comment, it's been continued to next Wednesday.

Oh, okay.

It is item 16.

Um, because item 31, which you did say earlier, that's also ULA.

If you want item number one, you can or 31.

You can have one minute for item 31, and you said general, so you have one minute for each.

Go ahead.

Which one first?

Please begin with the items.

Thank you.

Okay.

So on the ULA tax, which was a tax.

Actually, I'll just read for the members that were.

So Measure ULA, also known as the mansion tax, is a one-time documentary transfer tax on high value real estate within the city of Los Angeles.

It imposes an additional 4% to the existing 5.5% tax on the total sale value of residential and commercial properties exceeding 5.3 million.

So that's the summation of what the ULA and it was intended for the purpose of homeless programs.

Homeless programs, which as you know, uh right now are under strict scrutiny from the federal government, and therefore they have ceased funding of said program within the city of Los Angeles.

Uh now I'd like to go to general.

Okay, so you have one minute, go ahead.

Uh, so today the board of public works is also speaking.

Uh today, item number two, or the second item will be on the resurfacing.

Obviously, the reason why that's an important item is because of the upcoming Olympics in 2028.

The roads are one of our city's greatest assets.

Um, so what I'm gonna be speaking on earlier on that meeting, and I would like to highlight it in this meeting, is on the intelligent way of resurfacing our streets, and the reason why is because if not done effectively or correctly, it could actually lead you down a fiscal rabbit hole where you can actually just uh go beyond the budgeted, but thank you so much.

I forgot to introduce my name.

My name is Rogelio Martinez, um, district four supervisor candidate.

Thank you.

Thank you, next speaker.

Before the next speaker begins, I'd like to call up a few more names.

Danny, Jim G, Amon Shea, Curry Kenmark, Rogelio Martinez, and Lee Conway.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

I would like to just uh make a general comment.

Okay.

So you have one minute, go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh, good morning, council members.

My name is Deshaun Duncan.

I am a part of the DRE license number zero two, two, four, nine, nine, three, one.

I would just like to offer my services to any recruitment that is available at this time to house the unhoused.

If you need me, my information is updated and current.

Thank you very much for your time.

You all have a great day.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Um, number, whoa, number uh 10, 29, and general public comment.

Okay, so number 10 is not open for public comment, but you can speak to it during general.

So you'll have one minute for item number 29 and then one minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay, my name is Clara Solis.

I'm from Highland Park, born and raised in East Los Angeles.

These are over 4,000, including online petitions, uh opposing the Arroyo Seco water reuse project.

Over 4,000 residents, all of the Highland Park neighborhood council, except for the person who just spoke, voted to support Isabel Bordano.

Oh, I apologize for you.

So hold on, we've paused your time.

So I believe you're speaking about item number 28, uh, that is related to the Arroyo Seco water use reuse item.

That item has been continued to next Wednesday.

So I'm gonna move you to general public comment because it sounds like it's related to that item.

If you'd like, you're more than welcome to come back when that item is agendized for that's July 1st.

Uh so I can't speak to it anymore.

You can speak to it during general public comment.

So I'm gonna move you over.

You got a minute for general public comment.

Go ahead.

Okay, on general public comment, I support the uh council member jurado's uh resolution.

Um the Gabrielino quiche nation has uh been identified by the Native American uh commission, heritage commission, as uh in a sacred site search.

They uh participated in A B 52 consultations, and they uh there are burial sites at San Pascual Park.

Um, I'm gonna just use my remaining time to ask you for the East LA Boyle Heights fire.

We need to have monitoring, more monitoring needs to be put into our communities.

We need to have water testing, we need to go out to the sites and take ash and see what our people were exposed to.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Speaker.

And while we're waiting for the next speaker to come up, it's come to my attention.

I think there's a technical issue with the kiosks where you're signing up.

So I think the if you're here for the Arroyo Seco water reuse item, it's labeled 29 in the back, but it is in fact item 28 if you look at the agendas.

Uh so if you're here for that item, that item has been continued.

You are allowed to speak, of course, during general public comment on that item.

Uh, but if you could let us know if you're here for that item, we would appreciate it.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Good morning.

My name is Pilar Reynaldo, and I am here for the Arroyo Seco water reuse project number 28.

Thank you.

Would you like me to wait till general comment or make it now?

You can give your general now.

If there are any are there any other items or just that's it.

Okay, so you have one minute for general.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

This motion is full of disinformation, which council member Herado should have vetted before bringing in front of the entire council.

For starters, this body has no jurisdiction over the city of Pasadena and South Pasadena.

No part of the Arroyo water reuse project is within the boundaries of San Piscoal Park.

In fact, half of San Pascoal Park east of the channel is owned by the city of South Pasadena.

South Pasadena and Los Angeles have long had standing agreements in place since the 1940s.

The city of Los Angeles benefits from the use of San Pascual Park in its entirety.

There are no fences or signs indicating the land is owned by another city.

The project in question has 0.5 space in LA land, which is currently used by the unhoused and is regularly the site of mounds of garbage.

Recently, Councilmember Herado used LA taxpayer money to have dumpsters dropped at the site, resulting in a cleanup in South Pasadena's Arroyo Park, where the belongings of several unhousing camp.

Thank you, Speaker.

Your time has expired.

I'd like to call up a few more names for public comment.

Clara Solis Elise, Elena Pop, Johnny G, Carol Walker, Johnny Boy, Pilar Ronaldo, and Candido.

Okay, so I think we're gonna move on to Mr.

Herman.

Before he begins, so your time is not started.

Hold on, and Mr.

Candido, I'm gonna ask that you please let him give his public comment.

I I know that there are a couple young children in the back.

Uh while you are of course welcome to stay here.

Uh, I suspect what we're going to hear is going to be probably not appropriate for children, maybe not appropriate for any ages.

Um, so if you'd like to exit the room, uh please do so before we move on to the next public commenter.

And I would ask everybody else in the room, again, if you'd like to, uh, feel free to use your muffs.

Uh, but for now, uh, we appreciate your patience, and we will let the speaker begin.

Mr.

Herman, you have three minutes for the items, uh, one minute for general public comment.

Uh, you were not here when we announced the items that are open, that is items one and two, item 27, and items 29 through 34.

Go ahead.

CD 14, but the fucking mic's not on.

Oh, tests, tests, yeah.

Hooper Hooper Business in Putin District, Section 53753 for the fucking record.

Does that sound familiar, Dawson?

Oh, sorry about that.

It's the other guy.

Anyways, in regards to May 5th, 2026, the tabulation of ballots seem to be a fucked up way of dealing with room 223 for city business immediately close to the fucking hearing, and I will be fucking public live stream with smoking scan, right?

Cause I need direction.

I need the HDS to shut the fuck up and listen.

That's item number one.

Am I on topic, sir?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Then he'll go to item number two, tabulation of the fucking announcement of the first.

Alright, I'll talk politely because uh somebody here is fucking complaining.

Go back to your fucking country if you don't like Turkey.

Mr.

Herman, I need you to continue with the items.

We're gonna move you to general public comment.

Item number two.

Instaging the maintenance assessments for more street lights.

Well, my understanding that without street lights, we can't have safety in Los Angeles, right?

Right.

But when you put these fucking lights in the rich area, it only reflects juju money.

When you put them in the minority area, street lighting, you see that us wetbacks or foreigners.

So you've exhausted your one minute on item two, please move on to another item.

I get three minutes, right?

Your time is still going.

You're more than welcome to look at the timer.

Plenty of time, smoking scan.

That motherfucker has that HDS syndrome.

25.

Fuck item 25.

25 is not open for public comment.

If you stray off the agenda again, I'm gonna move to general.

Oh, Los Angeles Housing Department.

I stand to believe that Los Angeles has fucked up on the housing department.

And I'm here on behalf of David O'Carter for the record, 42SC 1983 politely.

Fuck you, Los Angeles.

Okay, you were asked politely to stay on topic.

You did not do so.

You're now in general public comment.

You have one minute.

Go ahead.

Now into my general fucking public comment.

On Wednesday, Marquisey Harris Dawson made inappropriate remarks about my history of disability.

He stated on the record before my comment on special item.

It was only one special, you dumb nigger.

I mean, that was wrong.

That's it malicious intent of discrimination, Marquise.

That's malicious intent.

Mr.

Bar 317 217, big head, pumpkin head fool.

Talking about that.

You don't rebuttal before or after I'm done with my public comment.

And you want to make your fucking false statements?

You want to make fucking false statements about my health?

What about your fucking mentality, fucking pumpkin?

Okay.

Well, I can tell you it's slightly worse after that.

Um next speaker.

Good morning.

What would you like to speak to?

Uh good morning.

I am speaking on the streetlight uh ballot, voter ballot.

Okay.

So that's item number two.

Anything else?

Um, also something pertaining to uh the street light poll.

Okay, so why don't we do this?

We'll do one minute for the ballot initiative item or the not initiative, sorry, the ballot tabulation item and one minute for general.

Uh so go ahead, start with the item, please.

Go ahead.

Okay.

I am speaking in reference to I received in the mail a ballot pertaining to street light.

It also stated in the ballot something pertaining to landscaping.

So I misunderstood, so I reached out to the election ballot department, and I did go in and I pledged my vote, but I went back the same day and I requested that the ballot to be removed, and I reached out to Desiree.

She was going to reach out to the supervisor and have the ballot to see if possible, she could reach out to the city to see if it would be removed.

So I wanted to reach out to Mr.

Dawson to see if possibly if he would allow my ballot to be removed because I didn't understand it for one.

And for two, when I went to the internet to look, it said ballot for dummies.

So I'm like, oh god.

So I just said, you know, the best thing to do here is just to reach out to city council and see if possibly if my ballot could be uh no longer um accepted in the voting analysis because I thought that thank you, General.

Go ahead.

You have one minute for general.

Oh, okay.

And I thought that um the landscaping portion of it, because I have damages of my home, so I thought that that was going to be uh the issue of coming out to my resident for the repair, but that wasn't the case.

So it's stating something about billing, um, to your taxes.

Um I said, let me call the city because I'm not really understanding this ballot.

So that's the reason why I wanted to reach out to Mr.

Dawson, which I do see up there, and I've sent him a couple of emails, and I thought someone would come out because the transformer fell.

So I'm still waiting for the work to be done.

But I'm asking um if you could just remove my ballot from your uh pledging of voter ballot that I did uh at your election center on the first.

And um I went back and asked if it could be removed.

That's all that I'm asking.

Thank you.

I do have thank you, speaker.

Your time has expired.

Council president, those are all the speakers for public comments.

All right, thank you for everybody who came to share with us in this morning's meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, what's before us?

And Mr.

President, before we get to that, I I know that we've taken all the names that are signed up, but I just wanted to confirm.

Item number one is the creation of a new bid.

Uh sorry, we do need to exhaust public comment.

I assume we have, but just to be doubly sure.

Is there anyone here who has not yet spoken on item number one?

Again, this is item number one, not two.

Uh item number one, who is not yet spoken and who would like to.

Okay, seeing no hands, um, Mr.

President, we can close public comment on that as well.

All right, public comment is closed.

Mr.

Clerk, what's before us?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And just for the record for item one, the public hearing is now closed, pursuant to council adoption of ordinance number one eight eight nine three nine on May 5th, 2026.

The tabulation of ballots shall take place immediately in room 1223 of City Hall and will be publicly live streamed for directions to access the live stream.

Visit clerk.lacity.org/slash bids.

Public announcement of the tabulation of ballots will be on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026.

And with that, council may now vote on items 27, 30, and 32 through 34.

All right, let's open the roll on those items.

Close the roll, tabulate to vote.

14 ayes.

Alright, what's next?

Council may now vote on item number two.

Uh motion Hernandez to note and file the item.

All right, let's open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

14 ayes.

Alright, what's next?

Item number three, called special by Councilmember Lee for comments.

Councilmember Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I just asked that we adopt the committee report with the recommendation that the Department of Wreck and Parks with Los Virginists Municipal Water District to ensure that the updated tree report and any related mitigation plans are provided consistent with both the board report and commitments that the uh Los Virgas Municipal Water District has made to the community.

Thank you so much.

Alright, uh, with that, let's open the roll on this item, close the roll, tabulate to vote.

Fourteen ayes.

All right, what's next?

Item number 10 for an amendment.

Alright, that item as amended is before us.

Let's open the roll.

Close the roll, tabulate the votes.

14 ayes.

What's next?

Item number 29 called special by council member price for recusal and an amendment from council member Herado.

And that amendment has been circulated.

All right.

As Mr.

Price is recusing himself on this item.

Let's open the roll on this item as amended.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

13 ayes.

Alright, what's next?

The amendment for item number thirty-one has not been circulated yet.

Would you like to recess the regular and convene the special meeting?

All right, and uh yes, that's I'm sorry, Mr.

Clerk.

I've got item number 31 for which Mr.

Price is recused for.

Should we vote on that one as well before?

I'm sorry, Mr.

President.

To clarify, 31 is price recusal as well as a Herado amendment that has not been circulated yet.

So is that so we need to hold?

Okay.

Yes.

All right.

So uh just to take half a breath here.

So the next thing is that we'll recess the regular meeting and convene a special meeting.

That's correct, Mr.

President.

All right, without objection, and then uh we'll have public comment for the special meeting.

And I'll just call the roll.

Thank you.

Blumenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Herado, Lee, Mick Oscar, Nazarian, Padilla, Park, Price, Robin, Rodriguez, Soto Martinez, Yarazlovski, 14 members, and a core, Mr.

President.

I'm lineup.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we are now in the special meeting.

So if you're here to provide public comment for the special meeting, uh please feel f like.

Actually, how many people are here to provide public comment during the special meeting?

If you could raise your hand, please.

So I think rather than read names, because we have a lot of we have more names than we have people.

Uh, feel free to line up on your left-hand side of the council chambers.

If you see the line get too long, just go ahead and wait if you see it get beyond five or six people.

Um, just so we can keep the aisles clear.

Again, the only thing that is open for public comment during the special meeting is item one.

Uh, that is with regards to the Boyle Heights warehouse fire and the declaration of emergency.

Uh so you go feel free to begin right when you get to the podium.

You have one minute on that item.

Go ahead.

So I'm actually here to speak about item 28.

Um, new here and I lost my chance.

I literally signed up as you were claiming that it was closed.

I got it.

So one, I appreciate your honesty and your directness.

Um, but we can only take public comment on the special item today.

So uh you'll you'll have to uh vacate the podium so we can move on to the next speaker.

Item 28 when I should be.

Item 28, this is for everyone.

Has actually been continued anyway, so it's on next Wednesday's agenda, that will be July 1st.

10.

Hello again, Mr.

Candido.

Go ahead.

You have one minute for uh item number one on the special.

Go ahead.

Uh clarification.

This is about the fire, the warehouse is just the warehouse.

Yes.

So if you're here to speak about anything else, I'll have to cut you off.

So go ahead.

No, uh first of all, uh living in Porta Ranch, you would think what Candido's not going to be affected, but it was bad.

Opium windows, the smoke was unbelievable.

So we're one city when one people, and what happens in the first district, what happens in San Pedro, happens in uh Chatsworth, it all affects all of us.

So, Ms.

Herado, I want to thank you for uh you and all the people who help uh put that fire out.

Uh again, it was very, very bad up in Porta Ranch.

Sadly, though, as I went to my doctor's appointment, what did I have to do?

I had to go down receita boulevard with all the filth and the trash.

And I called.

I called and I asked, I asked somebody who represents me.

Can you guys come out here?

Nothing.

Nothing.

As I'm coming down here.

Okay, Mr.

Candida, your time has expired.

Okay.

Mr.

Herman, you have one minute for item number one on the special.

Go ahead.

To the local emergency failure.

Why did it take six fucking days to extinguish a fire, Candido?

Are you pandering asshole motherfucker?

We could have shut that fire off if we were the best in the United States of America in two days.

Instead, we fucked up and let it burn for six motherfucking days.

And this is fucking ridiculous.

Uncalled for turn the fucking fire off.

What's so hard?

Okay, can we pause as time?

Mr.

Candido.

I mean, I ask that you please do not disrupt.

I understand the desire to do it.

Please do not disrupt Mr.

Herman's public comment.

This is your first and only formal warning during the special meeting.

I get it.

If you continue, I'm gonna have to.

Please do not disrupt this meeting.

This is your first and only formal warning.

If you continue to do so, you'll be eligible for removal pursuant to Council Rule 7 and Rule 12.

Go ahead, Mr.

Herman.

This fucking embarrassment by this motherfucker that suffers from HDS smoking scan, has to understand that Boil Heights was a lovely, lovely big bowl of soup.

Now it's a bunch of shit.

Shit, because it took six fucking days to turn off that fire.

And we're tired of it.

Fucking do your job.

Fuck the fire department and fuck you, Los Angeles, and fuck you, Dawson, you fucking creep.

And that's it.

Your time's expired.

You don't see any other speakers.

Alright, Mr.

Clerk, what's before us?

If there's no objection, the council may now take up item one A resolution that has been circulated.

Alright, let's uh open the roll.

Close the roll, tabulate the vote.

15 ayes.

All right, we'll uh adjourn the special meeting and return to the regular meeting.

Bloomenfield, Harris Dawson, Hernandez Hutt, Herado Lee, McOskar and Azaren, Padilla, Park, Price, Rami, Rodriguez, Soda Martinez, Yaroslavsky, 15 members and a quorum, Mr.

President.

All right.

And we are just waiting for the amendment for item 31 to be circulated.

I mean, this is the second one.

What are we waiting for?

Oh, you've got to go.

All right, uh, while we wait for circulation, uh, if there are any announcements, members.

Announcements that would normally come at the end of the meeting.

Mr.

McCusker.

Thank you very much.

I have an announcement about an event that's happening tonight.

It's called Cars and Stripes Forever.

And it is a port-sponsored event that we have each year about this time.

And you see it in English and Spanish.

Oh, very good.

So it's tonight, June 26th at 5 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

And the 9 p.m.

will conclude with a fireworks show.

And this year we have a new venue for Cars and Stripes Forever.

It'll be in front of the USS Iowa.

And there will be cars and food and music, a lot of local bands.

And I would just encourage everyone to come on out.

Plenty of parking at the USS Iowa.

Uh begins at 5, goes till 9 p.m., concluding with a fireworks show.

I want to thank the port for their constant uh sponsorship of this event.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

McCosker.

Any other announcements?

Yes, want to invite everybody.

Sunday, we are celebrating 250 years of independence with a drone light show.

I am so proud that we started that tradition five years ago.

And as our fifth year, we have a thousand drones that are choreographed to music.

It is a beach party.

It's paired with a beach party at the Hanson Dam Aquatic Center.

And so uh want to invite everybody to get there early.

We had gosh, I think over 6,000 last year folks show up with a thousand drones in the air.

It's uh pretty much a sight to be seen from many other parts of the San Fernando Valley, but uh it's from five to nine this Sunday at the Hanson Dam Aquatic Center and invite everybody to join.

Thanks.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Rodriguez.

Councilmember Soto Martinez.

Uh we have a brief announcement, we're waiting for them to come down.

So just give us we'll come back to us, Mr.

President.

The amendment for item 31 has been circulated.

If we'd like to vote on that item and uh let Councilmember Price recuse.

All right.

Let's open the roll.

I'm sorry, we've got uh public comment.

Uh we've got member comment on item number thirty-one, beginning with Mr.

McCosker.

No?

That was the announcements.

Okay.

All right.

So do you have something on that number?

Okay.

So wait, are we taking up 30 minutes?

Let's uh let's let him do his announcement.

We'll we'll uh we'll delay consideration of item number 31 and turn the floor over to Mr.

McC Mr.

Soto Martinez.

I said, Mr.

Nazarian.

I'll give my colleague uh Mr.

Soto Martinez some time, uh if he needs it.

So I'll just say tomorrow I welcome everyone to come on over for Football Fest.

Uh start in Nohoe, uh Magnolia Street between Lankersham and Vineland, starting at 12 noon and going all the way to 12 midnight.

The goal was to have a plaza type of a setting where people can not only enjoy soccer but get better acquainted with one another and make sure that they're promoting the local businesses.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much for that.

Mr.

Lee.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Just like to let everyone here in the city of Los Angeles know that tomorrow night we are CD twelve is starting its summer concert series with the new romantics.

It's a Taylor Swift tribute band at the beautiful new 50-acre Jane and Burt Fachman Park.

Nice, nice.

Jesus Christ.

Oh, Councilmember Hutt.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to invite everybody out to Queen Ann Park for our movies in the park tonight.

I think it'll be exciting, a good start to the summer.

Uh we start at six o'clock.

Uh we'll have games and food and a good movie.

Popcorn, all the things.

What movie?

What movie?

Sorry.

I know this answer.

My movie.

Because we had so many to choose from.

Tonight we are showing hoppers.

There you go.

Hoppers.

Hoppers.

Excellent.

Rabbits.

Good.

All right.

Thank you so much, Councilman.

Councilman Hernandez.

On Tuesday, we are going to be having a watch party in Sycamore Grove Park in Highland Park.

So if y'all want to come by and watch the next rounds of the World Cup, you can come by.

And I think Mexico's on Tuesday, but don't get lit because we have to keep it safe for everybody.

But come through.

Alright, Mr.

Soto Martinez.

Thank you so much, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much, colleagues, for allowing me to make this announcement.

Um I'd like to say today that I want to recognize a member who will be sadly leaving our office.

We're all very sad.

Um if someone her name is Carla Carla Martinez is one of our incredible field deputies in CD 13.

She was, I call her one of our day ones because she was one of the first folks to join our team almost four years ago.

Born and raised in East Hollywood.

Uh, Carla has spent those these last few years giving back to the community she calls home.

Uh, her mom and her sister are here joined today to celebrate this transition.

Uh, not only has she been an essential part of our office, but of our but also part of our district's fabric.

She brings her positivity, poise, and sparkling sense of humor to everything she does.

Carla has always been a teen player, evidenced by her participation each year in the Lotus Festival drag boat competition, where we have beat CD1 two years in a row.

Uh she's big has brought help bring victory to us.

Uh no pun intended.

Uh, she's also, I did not write these talking points, all of them, so just I want to just preface by saying this.

She's also a proud member of the girlies uh in our office, uh, a group of young women self-appointed with the task of keeping me cool and relevant, uh, a tall order, some would say.

Uh Carla has always brightened the workplace with her enthusiastic attitude, excellence, fashion sense, and as the girlies will say, her unbelievable aura.

Uh whether she was organizing community resource fairs that brought community leaders together or listening to neighborhood council members uh about the issues in the streets, Carla made our constituents' feel cared and heard.

I know that whatever color goes, she will bring that same positivity, compassion, and dedication.

So, Carla, I just want to thank you for everything.

Wish you the best in everything you do, and we know you'll continue to make a difference wherever you go.

And after many years of presenting certs to different community members, it is now my honor to present with you certificate for everything you've done in C D 13 and the city of Los Angeles.

Thank you so much, Carla.

All right, thank you again for your service.

The uh field deputies are the angels of every council office, so thank you so much for that acknowledgement, Mr.

Soda Martinez.

All right, Mr.

Clark, can you refresh us on what's before us?

Item 31 for an amendment and price recusal.

All right, uh, I've got it looks like I've got speakers on this, beginning with Mr.

Lee.

And before we begin with the comments, I just sorry, Mr.

President.

It wouldn't be a city presentation without Mr.

Herman interrupting it.

Mr.

Herman, this is your first and only formal warning during the regular meeting.

Do not disrupt this meeting again, do not disrupt presentations, do not disrupt adjoining motions.

If you do it again, you'll be subject to removal pursuant to rule seven and rule twelve.

I'm sorry, Mr.

President.

I'm sorry, Councilmember.

Councilmember Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Colleagues, three months ago, I voted against the contracts related to the Measure ULA eviction defense fund and homelessness prevention programs because I did not believe the level of transparency and accountability the city should require when distributing public funds had been met.

Time and again, including very recently, the city has been called to answer to the federal government for the lack of transparency over the use of federal funds.

Why is the city once again putting itself in a position to invite scrutiny because we failed to demand answers from outside parties and contractors?

The fact that we are considering moving ahead with an expenditure plan that includes these contracts when the information was specifically requested three months ago is yet to be provided is absolutely absolutely ridiculous to me.

It's also strange that these contracts are somehow embedded in the expenditure plan separate from the contract items themselves that we discussed three months ago.

I also fundamentally disagree that the source of the contract funds should somehow dictate the level of transparency that we demand.

Whether you agree with the perspectives of the city attorney, the housing department, or the housing and homeless committee, which waived this item out of discussion without discussion, the fact remains that we have not received detailed information about how money was spent in order to assess whether approving the funding is justified.

Are we really prepared to authorize significant increases to these contracts without these answers?

Colleagues, we are about to approve close, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to help people stay housed.

Why doesn't this council care if that money or if those actions are actually happening?

We should be making sure that every dollar that we allocate is going to help the most amount of people possible.

As I said before, I am fully in favor of efforts that help people keep housed to prevent homelessness, but support for these programs must go hand in hand with the responsible oversight and transparency that we should always demand our outside contractors.

I cannot support these contracts that do not meet the standard and hope you follow my lead and vote no today or ask that this be continued to another date so we can get a full assessment of whether these facts have been transmitted to the city of Los Angeles.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Councilmember Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mr.

Lee.

Um, I too have concerns, especially with the amendment that was just provided, because the council gave very clear and explicit instructions about the amount of accountability that we deserve when taxpayer dollars are being provided to outside contractors, and that there is an obligation for them to show the receipts.

You know, it's funny that we have a controller that likes to talk about transparency, and yet never once has there been an investigation or direct reflection of contracts that are being administered with hundreds of millions of dollars just like this.

And what we're asking for is just show the work.

Any other contract, as I inferred even last time, and and made the direct connection with graffiti abatement contractors being required to produce more evidence around their work completed than what these contracts were being required.

This council gave explicit instruction for these service providers that were attempting to redact information that were that were acting on our behalf as extensions of the city to say, show us who you helped.

Show us how these resources were being distributed and show us the accounting for the work that was completed.

And none of that was being trans was being transmitted.

So I'm not looking to accelerate and bypass what we've already provided instruction to do.

And the fact that it was waived out of H without a discussion, well, there's a surprise.

Uh, there is a problem with accountability and transparency around how these contracts have been administered, and we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that that is achieved before we're administering and fast tracking any additional money.

So I have a really big problem with an amendment that would continue to give instruction to provide these dollars when we've already given the instruction to say, can you just fulfill the obligations that we want to make sure that these dollars are being administered and managed transparently?

That's all we're asking for.

And so rather than trying to bypass that, can we allow that process to occur and to make sure that all parties, which we gave the instruction on, that all parties are actually fulfilling the spirit of what this council instructed?

So I'm not looking to fast track that.

I think this is unfortunate that we find ourselves here again.

Uh, I I know we have I, you know, I'm only here to call balls and strikes.

I'm not here to defend anybody, whether it's the housing department, whether it's the city attorneys, or certainly the service providers.

But we have an obligation to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being managed responsibly, and when we can't get the answers that we've asked for in good faith, that raises red flags for me.

So I too am not supportive.

Thank you.

Councilmember Park.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Lee and Councilwoman Rodriguez.

Uh I'm just gonna set aside my general concerns about the structure of ULA that allowed for these kinds of you know, pork-filled expenditures in the first place.

But to the extent that we have to deal with these, we absolutely have a fiduciary obligation to know that these dollars are actually being utilized for their intended purposes, and especially with the additional federal scrutiny across multiple of our city programs.

Uh, I think the timing on this is critically important.

We are entitled to see what we're paying for, and we should expect that our contractors, all of them cooperate with us in good faith and not stonewall.

Um, I also am gonna be opposing this.

Thanks.

Councilmember Judah.

Look, I just gotta say that this funding source and what our expenditure plan is very urgent and sorely needed at this time, and you all understand that because of what my district is going through and the folks that are impacted who are really the recipients, monolingual Spanish, disabled, bedridden, low income.

They're gonna be faced with things that they can't.

They have filters that are black, they have doors that have been kicked open, that have holes in it, they haven't been able to leave, and their property managers aren't fixing it.

This is what this fund is for.

Now, if we're talking about how we govern and how the city operates, I'll go with you and say that yeah, it is dysfunctional.

But if we need to fix our contracting, which we sorely do because every single department does it differently, and we have CID doing 30 days to make sure that we pay our vendors, but then in public works, they have to do a motion just so that they can reinstate the fact that we're paying people out in 30 days.

But if we're having a conversation about contracting, transparency and accountability, then we should all be doing the work of governing and making sure it's uniform, uniform and that our obligations and how we contract is right in every single instance and not just pick and choose the value, the battles in which we're trying to enforce good governance because even with the way that the report backs work, they're so slow.

I mean, think about the BSL assessment.

That was the department submitted their thing to the city attorney in February, and they didn't get it back till March, and so we lost time in trying to do the BSL assessment promotion to do it the best that we can.

Our systems in the city are broken when it comes to contracting, and I agree with you, we should have transparency and accountability, but we have to make sure that we make it uniform and that we're actually responsive and that we don't lose time so we can pay vendors properly, and that we're making sure that we use our money for the best purposes, and we don't lose the money from being in our own ways by slowing it down.

So I'm happy to work with my colleagues to make sure that contracting in the city is better, that there is transparency and accountability, um, because I do share your concerns generally, but um, you know, let's work on that together so that we can expedite the resources to the communities that we need, but do it fiscally responsibly as we continue to move on and figure out how we're spending our money when it comes to this, when it comes to other departments that shield their income and expenses from us and how they spend it, we should be able to do that with everything that we do, and thank you.

Councilmember Nazarian.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, thank you to my colleague from CD 14 for bringing this motion forward.

Thank you to also what my colleagues said from Council District 7 and 12.

I wholeheartedly agree with you.

I do appreciate the accountability.

I am gonna support this measure today because I do think it's critically vital that we move forward in paying for the services that are very much needed.

But you know, I gotta say that it's it's very important to make sure that we know and we can tell our constituents with complete certainty and good faith that we know what we're paying for and what we're getting.

So even though I'm supporting it today, uh, doesn't mean that I don't want us to see that we continue to work to making sure that the fiduciary trust with all of these with all of the nonprofits that we're paying uh is there and it's very transparent.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Nazari and Mr.

McCosker.

Thanks very much.

I realize there's a much larger issue going on, and I think the larger issue has overshadowed the precise issue.

And I just want someone to answer the question isn't this action proposed action today just paying for April, May, and June of a previously authorized expenditure?

Do we have someone from housing, Mr.

McCosker's assessment?

And please correct me if I'm wrong, is because of the delay in the execution of the contracts for whatever reason, we had previously as a budgeting and legislative matter authorized expenditures, and because there is not a contractual amendment because the paper hasn't been moved, there were services that were committed by this body for April, May, and June, and that I believe that this was that is what this money is.

And if I'm wrong, please correct me.

And if it's if it's more nuanced than that, please let us know.

Because there's a much bigger issue that's playing out here on the floor in this in this drama, but the precise issue is do we pay our bills?

Thank you, Councilman.

It is uh as you summarized.

Um, this is Anna Ortega assistant general manager from LAHD.

Um, item 31 is for the ULA expenditure plan for fiscal year 26-27.

The amendment has to do with previously approved and allocated funding for eviction defense services, for different agencies for services that they have performed after the contract expired on March 31st.

So these services have gone on during the months of April, May, and June.

We have not been able to pay them, and the goal of the motion is to give us authorization to pay for these months during which the contract has lapsed while we finalize the contract.

We have finalized um two of the contracts and are working closely with the city attorney on the remaining two.

We believe that those will be executed shortly.

So, all right, Mr.

Bloominfield, yeah, a question as well, and I join all my colleagues in the concerns raised about spending the money and the concerns about accountability, but the need, the urgent need.

And so, if that hasn't happened on these, how is it that we can move forward legally?

This is not about the contracts, this is this would authorize the payment, which would need to be forwarded to the controller's office in order to pay for these services that have already been rendered.

There is a clause in the contracts that are pending that has a ratification provision that allows us to pay for services rendered uh it doesn't usually go on this long, but while uh while a contract is being executed, so we're largely relying on the ratification clause that would allow us to pay for services.

Okay, so the the section 370 of the charter says that we have to have city attorney sign off, but you're saying there's a ratification clause, and uh deeper than I understand it that allows us to put forward money even if we don't have the contracts approved because pending the ratification, and is there any time limit on that?

I'm not aware of any time limit.

Okay, yeah, I mean, uh this is important to get the money out.

I've got senior citizens facing eviction, and I understand why we have to get this money out.

We're trying to work with them, and um I don't quite understand the legality in terms of the moving forward, I guess, but you're saying this is just paying the just paying for things that have already been services that have already been rendered.

Correct.

Ape the months of April, May, and June.

Okay, and I don't know, is the city attorney able to shed any more light on terms of the legality question if there's a city attorney who can.

All right, if we have a city attorney here that can comment on this, please come to the table now.

I've got a few more speakers, Mr.

Boom, unless you've got more questions.

No, that's that's it.

Okay, Mr.

Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

So, are we legally are we legally required to provide the money under the current contracts with them for the services rendered during this time where there is no contract?

You know, I would defer to the city attorney on that question.

Okay.

I just can tell you that services have not been interrupted, they've gone on for these months under everyone's good faith belief that contracts would eventually be negotiated and approved.

Yeah, we had a good faith belief that they would actually turn in the documents that we've asked for.

If if would this stand up to a federal audit?

In your opinion?

Yes, we have it is a misunderstanding to say that we do not have reports or monitoring or required documentation for all of the services that have gone on under these contracts.

We get monthly reports of expenditures, activities, um, narratives about what the agencies are doing.

Everything that the housing department has asked for has been received and promptly.

We have records of 29,000 plus tenants that have been assisted, and the demographics of those tenants and the services that have been provided.

We have stacks.

I'm sure they have provided a lot of different things that said that oh, we've done XYZ, we've done all this different things like that.

Why, in your opinion, why wouldn't the city attorney then agree with you that they have provided the information, the ones that are supposed to sign off on these contracts?

I don't think they have the depth of experience with monitoring this type of contract, and the documentation and the monthly reports are not sent to the city attorney.

They are sent as they are supposed to be to the Los Angeles Housing Department, and we receive and review and analyze all of those reports, and if they're not satisfactory, we send them back for more information.

We don't pay them until we're satisfied that they are following the requirements in the contract scope of work.

If we want to improve the scopes of work and the requirements, which we are, and which has been negotiated for the new contracts, we can do that.

I mean, it's been a program that started in 2021, a new program, a huge program.

There has been a learning curve.

Reporting has improved over the past five years and will be strengthened in the new contracts.

But meanwhile, work has been performed, services have been provided for thousands of tenants for the past three months.

And so no one is arguing that what we want to accomplish through these contracts.

So now you just made a statement that somehow the new contracts are going to be stronger than in past.

That's what you just said.

That is true.

No argument that we have to stay up to that there's no reason for the city to hold up federal standards in that is the city attorney's just lying about that.

These contracts do not currently have federal funds.

They separate some of the past contracts do need to comply with federal standards, and they do.

How are we strengthening it then?

We're largely strengthening the reporting on the number of hours and the uh salary rates of each legal case handled so that we know more detail about the attorneys performing the work and their rate of pay so that we could calculate a cost per case handled by the agencies.

And we don't have the right to ask for that information for past years?

We have asked for that information, and uh we do have sometimes not specifically from the subcontractors, but we do have reports where we can make those calculations.

It's a lot of clients with a lot of there's different salary rates for the different attorneys.

So we're asking in the new contracts that they more specifically clarify all of that information so that it's easier to track it.

Why can't they provide that information or pass?

They're not required to they're not required to show us how how much their attorneys are paid, what the hours are, they're not required to do that.

We we have the salary rates, and we have the number of hours that were expended on any particular case, but those these requirements were not there in 2021 or 2022, so they can't retroactively produce it now.

So 21, 22, what about 23, 24, 25?

They have um strengthened their reporting in more, you know, as the program has progressed, they have strengthened their reporting in the more recent years.

Colleagues, this is just, this is just showing us that that we haven't required the information that we require of all the different city contracts to be required to us to make sure they're doing the work.

I don't understand how this council can constantly just approve things and say, hey, we want to help people, absolutely want to help people, but our objective should be to help as many people as possible.

Our objective should make sure as the fiduciaries of the city of Los Angeles, our responsibility is to make sure that that money is being spent where it says is being spent.

We should be have ability to have an assessment.

What is the city attorney saying?

What is the housing department saying?

What is what is the housing committee saying about why these contracts should go through or not go through?

To this point, that has not happened, and so we have a responsibility to the taxpayers and also because these are federal dollars to not invite another time for the federal government to come and audit this program because, you know, because we think that they're doing good, because they say they're doing what they say.

They should be able to provide the proof if they want this money.

These contracts should not go through, they should not be approved until all parties are satisfied with that.

Councilmember Soto Martinez.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

You know, I just gotta say, uh, can we just quit with the shenanigans and fear mongering?

I mean, literally, this uh our general general manager is answering everyone's question, saying that that she has no fear of an audit, and people are just like ignoring the comments that she's making.

She says she has over 29,000 cases, volumes of documentation, and somehow people just seem to ignore the things that are coming out of her mouth.

Like it's really I'm so sorry, it's like it's kind of childish.

So I and let's just talk about like I think Mr.

McCossey said something right.

It's like there's something larger going on.

Let's just be real.

Like a lot of folks just don't like ULA.

They're trying to make ULA this bad thing and see where the things are flaws and getting more information.

Look, I can always ask for more information.

I can ask about, you know, you can always ask for more information.

At some point, you have to make a decision whether you are satisfied with the information that you've gotten and not make this setting here in front of the public eye of opportunity for you to grandstand and try to, you know, sort of achieve a larger political objective.

So I am comfortable with this because people have already done the work, we need to pay them.

It's gone through the it's gone through different areas of vetting, it's gone through the COC as far as I understand.

We've we've discussed it, I've had my team look into it.

We all have different cases of folks that are waiting for the support that they need.

This is about senior citizens, people with disabilities, tenant outreach and education, all things that I think we care about.

And so let's not let's not turn this building into something that it shouldn't be.

And I'm ready to vote on it, but I'm sure there are other people who are ready to talk, want to talk about this.

Councilmember Hernandez.

Uh to that point, I think we need to stop playing games too.

And if we're gonna be serious about being uh fiscally responsible and having uh making sure that we execute our fiduciary responsibilities in the best way possible, then I hope we bring the same energy when we're talking about buying an 18th and 19th helicopter for LAPD based off a report from 1971.

It's just ridiculous.

We're talking about people preventing people from falling into the eviction to homelessness pipeline.

Some of our districts see over 100 eviction filings per week, and then we got to deal with that with that on the other side when people fall into homelessness.

Let's be straight up.

We have the data.

The GM the assistant GM has just told us she is not afraid of an audit.

We need to support this.

This is responsible.

This is prevention, this is dealing with homelessness before it even happens.

I urge you colleagues to support this.

Thank you.

Councilmember Padilla.

Yeah, members, I made it very clear from the very beginning that I uh was not happy with the lack of understanding the data and whether the uh funds were being used in a way that was equitable across all of our districts.

So I think for today, um, I don't want folks doing work and not getting paid for the work that was already done.

However, I do think that we need to uh work on putting more uh rules uh and contingence contingency plans related to being able to potentially stop it if we don't get the data that we want.

And I will say, um, colleagues, for those of you who are, you know, it took a lot for me to get the information to compare every single council district on who was getting funds.

And I'm sorry, but it took you had to put my district, Rodriguez's district, and Lee's district together, and I believe a little bit of two to even match what the number one district was getting.

So obviously, this isn't perfect.

So, what I would like to see is more recommendations on how we make sure that, for example, folks are not just being counted as doing work in the 6th district because they did a digital uh workshop on folks related to eviction prevention, but in other districts they're actually getting funded uh to stay in their homes.

So, I just don't think that this is the end of this conversation.

But if you think that we're ready to move and you're not afraid of an audit, I can support this today, but I hope that we can be more uh strict on understanding what exactly they did, how they do it, and um making sure that it's equitable because with all due respect, it is not to have to get to look at the numbers and to at least match number one by incorporating it for three districts.

I think that's a real issue.

So I had to let you guys know that.

Council Councilmember Rodriguez.

Thank you, Councilmember Padilla, for underscoring one of the other problems that wasn't neither contractually achieved or implemented with any guardrails from the oversight to the intro to the actual contract.

This isn't a trial and error situation with taxpayer money, and that we have greater guardrails around expenditures that provide the level of transparency and audit protection that we deserve.

That should be the action and however we got here in terms of the lax contract language that didn't provide when you say, Oh, well, they provided the reports.

Listen, what was just delivered to us shows a ramping up based on greater questions and inquiries that were coming as a result of the implementation of this contract, but that should have been executed from the very beginning, from the lack of equitable distribution that has occurred in this contract, in these existing contracts, to the lack of accountability for the money that was expended.

We might have very different opinions about what their fulfillment of uh you know stated uh work completion is.

It's very different.

I know that, and you're talking, and this is coming from someone who is equally scrutinized even outside uh legal contracts, but we know what the billable hours and billable rates are when we engage in contracts for outside council, whether we agree with it or not, and I'm off in a no vote on those as well for the record.

This isn't unique because it's regarding ULA, it's what I apply to every single external contract that we do.

And whether or not it's a broken system is not the part of the problem or not part of the conversation.

Right now, it's about we set an explicit expectation about what our level of of what we uh want from these contractors to fulfill.

And there's clearly been two very different approaches from what was executed previously to what we clearly as a council expressed that we wanted to see, and so it's unclear to me that what they claim to have completed in their work provided is anywhere close to what our level of expectation is.

We've made it very clear as a council how we want the accountability piece to look like, and it's unclear to me that that has yet to be fulfilled because it's been a moving target from the very beginning.

So that to me is a problem about how this whole thing has been managed from the get-go.

And as I said to the chair of H when this was first executed, all the changes to ULA separate and apart from this, have now been scrutinized now and identified as being problematic only after all the money has been distributed to all the the different organizations that everyone was okay with without the level of oversight and accountability.

So it's unclear to me that there has been any greater level of compliance based on the standard that we had just expressed to all made it explicitly clear to the housing department and to what we want to see in this future executed contract.

It's unclear to me that any of those things, there was a lot of it felt like a lot of resistance to getting the very same explicit data that we wanted, but I will say, even to underscore what Ms.

Badilla has just talked about, the fact that we couldn't in real time even get the equitable distribution shows that there was a failure to fulfill the spirit with which all of this was supposed to be for the entire city to begin with.

And so I remain a no vote.

Council Member McCosker.

Thank you very much.

Again, putting the larger uh passion play aside for a moment, which is an important play to play out.

I just want to understand what this amendment 31A is doing technically and procedurally, and I apologize.

I'm asking you questions that the city attorney should be answering.

And you're doing a great job, and I appreciate that.

I'm gonna ask some questions, I and they might be leading questions.

I don't want you to agree with me just because it sounds right.

If you don't know, tell me you don't know.

Please.

But what 31A seems to do in paragraph authorized authorizing paragraphs one, two, three, and four, is authorizing the general manager to disperse a number of money out, they're all out of fund 66M, but they go to different accounts for different services, and it's I believe what's happening here is that when we look at paragraph five, which is a just a conformity paragraph saying make sure all the numbers are correct.

In paragraph six, it looks like it is technically an amendment to contract or using the vehicle of contract number C 13826, which is the existing contract, the old expired contract, the old expired contract.

So it's an amendment to the old contract, and this and using that as a bridge between the prior contract and the new contract.

The word expired gives me pause.

What does that mean?

I know what the word means, but what is the status of that contract?

That contract expired March 31st, but these funds are in that contract approved for these same services, right?

So they are they were funds encumbered for that contract.

Yes, funds exist.

The contract expired by operation of law, and the paragraph six indicates that the desire is to transfer those encumbered funds for 1382 60 into the new contracts, but how does the payment get made between an expired contract and the new contract?

And again, this is probably a city attorney question, and it's not a tech, it's not approaching the larger issue of what we're whether we're satisfied or unsatisfied with data and evidence.

It's really just a very technical, how do we make sure we pay our bills for things that we've encumbered, or for things for services that have been provided?

This would allow the general manager to approve payment and the controller to approve the payment for the services that have been rendered.

Right, but it needs to be pursuant to a contract.

Is it pursuant to the old contract, which is the free th new life into, or is it for the new contracts as soon as they're approved?

It's independent of the contracts.

The money is in the old contract, and we'll be disencumbered from that and paid and then subtracted from what we would have put in the new contract.

You know, I know squawk boxes are on, and we got a couple hundred lawyers out there.

Somebody must have heard that we have these questions.

So, sorry.

Uh, like most meetings.

If we're given a heads up, we will do our best to get city attorneys here.

I am actively trying to see if somebody is available, but we did not know that city attorneys are gonna need be needed for this item, particularly for this amendment, until well, when we started this conversation.

So we are doing our best, uh, Mr.

McCosker.

Do you think that when we talk about like ULA and other complicated issues that the city attorney just be here for that?

It always gets dicey.

So that's a different discussion.

I mean, obviously, we do our absolute best to be down here on short notice, but and while we have to be cognizant about the Brown Act and that amendments can't be shared with the members before this meeting.

Um, if they are shared with our office or even with me beforehand, I will do my best to line up people.

Councilmember Hudano.

Yes, I rise.

Thank you, Councilmember Lee, for starting this conversation because I appreciate all the dynamic views that this council has that reflects the city of Los Angeles.

When we talk about where the money is going, I'm going to talk about me.

I worked at Bet Sedek as an eviction defense attorney.

That is one of the subcontractors to this.

I fought hard for right to counsel.

I made $56,000, and it was for me and my daughter.

I lived in an apartment that was $2,000.

I had to use Medical, I think, public benefits still when the recession and COVID hit, all of my colleagues still had to get a stimulus check in order to be able to do the work that we were doing.

We were working 80 hours a week.

When we resolved a case before it even went to court, we counted that as a success because that meant that there was no legal process that had to put our tenants at risk.

So a lot of the work that we did was preventative, and it was to prevent people from going to court in the first place because we know evictions hurt landlords as much as it hurts tenants, especially mom and pop, because it's a long litigious process that can turn into something personal.

So when you're asking about where the money is going and why you feel like it's not going far enough, it's because going not going to court is considered success, and the outreach outside of that.

Now, are we getting the best price for it?

I'm happy to have that conversation because we can talk about that.

But those are the people that we're funding, and that's what we're doing.

And that's what we're that's at stake right now.

But when we talk about transparency and accountability, it shouldn't just be reserved for our external contractors that we're really giving it the scrutiny it deserves, it should be about our internal departments like Council Member Hernandez and South Martinez have been fighting for because I can't even get a deployment schedule from LAPD about where they're sending our folks or where the cars are going, even though we put in money month after month, you know, even voted for that uh whatever, the increase for the uh new recruits, and yet still can't get accountability from an internal department that we pay and overpay year after year.

So let's apply the same scrutiny and accountability for our tenants' groups, the nonprofits that are doing the work that's actually not in our purview that we're not best skilled at and offshooting it because we don't do that work.

We have to pay others to do it.

But if we are not applying that same scrutiny for the departments that we actually oversee to get the numbers and the data that we deserve, then what are we really even doing here?

So I appreciate the spirit, I appreciate the vibes, I appreciate the fire.

Now let's put that towards all of the city departments that are spending our money and won't let us see it.

Councilmember McCosker.

Okay, I don't see I don't see anybody with a legal degree for uh to the purposes of the city walking in.

But if I look at paragraph six, maybe it has its own answer.

Instruct and authorize the general manager to do all these things, including encumber those funds.

Paragraphs one through four.

To the new contracts with Southern California Housing Rights Center, legal aid foundation, Sage, and Liberty Hill Foundation for their respective programs.

Taking that literally, if that's the entire un is that the entire universe of the of the transfers, those four contracts, or those four contractees, so this could taken literally, this could have the effect of saying we're gonna move the money and uh in accounts and we're going to encumber it, but it doesn't get encumbered or paid until the new contracts are in place.

Is that your intention?

Or is it your intention to pay before the new contracts are in place?

And there's something in the law called a rule against perpetuities, these new contracts in place may never happen.

Mr.

President, I want to pay our bills, but I want to make sure we're following our charter.

I also want to make sure that people understand what's happening, and I think we're putting Ms.

Ortega in an unfair position.

She's answering for the policy department and also for the legal department.

If there's if it doesn't do any anything more than four days of violence, can we kick this over to Tuesday and have somebody give us some legal advice?

If it's no, it's no.

Yeah, I I don't I guess I'm unclear on this uh question.

So we have a motion before us and we have an amendment before us.

I share all the questions about the reporting and uh certainly identify with council member uh Padilla.

As the council president.

I couldn't get an answer for how many people in my district have been helped.

So like the the reporting has been challenging, uh, and I'm glad to see it's improving.

Um at the same time, I'm never for holding up paying people who've already done work that we asked them to do.

And if we feel like we can verify that that work has been done, I'm for paying them.

And I just I'm having trouble untangling the original motion from the amendment in terms of its ability to execute on that point.

Or our ability to execute on that point.

Can we get a microphone for?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Um this would allow us to pay to disencumber the money that was in the old contract and pay for the work done since its expiration for April, May, and June, pending the execution of the new contracts, which would then be ratified through the ratification clause in the new contracts.

Okay, that was unclear.

Uh Councilmember Rodriguez.

So I I mean again, this is giving an instruction to pay outside of a contract before the new ones are executed.

This is bypassing what is procedurally how we actually administer contracts.

If they were continuing to do work, and now they're obligating us to pay them.

This is to obligate ourselves to pay them for whatever work they completed without any of you know the got the guardrails that we've explicitly said we wanted, and to your point and to Miss Padilla's point, we still can't.

It's it's a slow go to find out how it's being distributed citywide.

So you know, I just got a big problem with the way this is done.

Like we have contracts, we execute contracts, people don't do work unless they're in a contract.

So the fact that they continue to purportedly do work, can we just wait till we have a contract in place and let's stop bypassing and creating new pathways to hand out money without making sure that we're they're following the spirit of what we've given instruction to?

Alright, I got council member judato.

Council Member McCosker.

Councilmember Herado yielded to me.

I'm gonna propose a friendly amendment in paragraph paragraph, the final paragraph.

Instruct and authorize the general manager of LAHD, adding the words consistent with charter with the charter, the Los Angeles City Charter, and any and any enacting legislation, comma, and then continuing on without change.

And so it deals with the it answers the question as to whether or not this could proceed with or without a contract.

Um I think it would be with a contract, a subsequent contract approved by this body.

All right.

Uh Councilmember, you accept that amendment as friendly.

I'll accept it.

Thank you.

All right, Mr.

City Attorney.

There we go.

So I on okay.

Uh so I I don't think I can get anyone here today.

I do apologize.

We have been trying.

Obviously, there's a lot going on.

I think the same attorneys that would work on this were also involved in some of the other HUD matters.

Um, but if this matter is continued, and I'm not saying this body has to do so if that's what they want to council president objects to continue.

I don't think people have seen next week's agendas.

You don't want to continue anything, trust me.

All right, uh, so uh any more speakers on this before we go.

So uh Mr.

Clerk, what's before us?

Uh, just to confirm, Mr.

President, uh, the friendly amendment from Councilmember McCoscar, you wish to retract your motion to continue the item, correct?

Wasn't a motion, but I want to be really, really clear.

Just for now, I'm going to be pedantic here.

General manager of LAHD or designee, consistent with chart with the Los Angeles City Charter and any enacting legislation, comma, to disencumber all unexpected, uh unexpended encumbered funds.

I think with that language, it puts the city in a position where they have to opine after this and uh should keep us informed.

And confirming this friendly amendment is still acceptable, Councilmember Herado.

With that, the council may now vote on item 31 as amended.

Councilmember Park?

Sorry, Council President.

Thank you.

Just real quick before we move this forward.

I just want to clarify because we're doing this in the absence of counsel from City Attorney's Office.

I think they do have information that they would like to share with us, but about these issues and these underlying contracts, but in the absence of that, um, I just want to confirm that separate and aside from the allocations, the contracts themselves are going to need to come back to the city attorney and council for review and approval before those are moved, correct?

The contracts, two of them have been approved by the city attorney already and are being finalized and attested to by the city clerk.

Two uh are pending with the city attorney.

And the two that are pending, do they come back to us?

They none of these come back to council, they will be signed by the city attorney.

We already have authorization for the new contracts.

So, so what are we doing now?

That's the contracts.

This is payment, authorization to pay.

All right.

Uh we need an instruction that we those contracts come back to the council for consideration.

Is that an instruction you'd like to add?

Yes.

Is there a second to that motion?

Keep talking about the motion.

I ask that the contracts after they come after they go through the city attorney that the council reviews those contracts before we.

I mean, effectively we have that because we have to unencumber the money, but I just want it to be formal.

I got a second from council member.

All right.

I'm sorry, Councilmember, I interrupted you.

You got anything else?

Okay, all right.

Uh I got Councilmember Hernandez and Jurado on the queue.

Is that old?

That's passed.

I just hope that this level of scrutiny also applies to when we have contracts with outside council so we don't get screwed like we did with Gibson Dunn.

I just can't believe this is how much we're putting in scrutiny for money that's gonna help people.

So I just want to uplift that.

I think it's a disservice, all right.

Uh, so Ms.

Clerk, what's been for us?

If there's no objection, council may now vote on item 31 as amended by uh motion 31A and verbal amendment Harris Dawson Rodriguez.

All right, let's uh open the roll, close the roll, tabulate the vote.

10 ayes, three no's.

This item passes.

All right, what's next?

Council has motions for posting and referral.

They are posted and referred.

The desk is clear.

Thank you so much, everybody.

We'll ask everyone in the chamber to rise for adjourning motions.

Lift your paper if you got an adjourning motion.

I see you, Councilmember Hutt.

All right, we'll ask everyone in the chamber to reverently rise for our adjourning motion, and our adjourning motion will come from Councilmember Hutt this morning.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, colleagues, today I rise to adjourn this meeting in the memory of Vera Milton, a woman whose life was a testament to love, faith, and service.

Vera was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1936, and came to Los Angeles in 1956 with her husband Charles to build a life and raise the family.

She began as an Angelino through and through.

She devoted over 21 years to Kaiser Permanente, showing up every day with the kind of compassion and work ethic that makes the city run.

Through her hard work, compassion, and commitment.

She touched the lives of countless colleagues and patients before retiring in 1993.

But her greatest work was with those she loved the most as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, and a friend.

I want to acknowledge her family, including the cherished member of my staff, Jonathan Mitchell, whose very clear reflection of her love and compassion is instilled in her by his grandmother, and we see it when he does constituent services in the 10th district.

She will be deeply missed, and may she rest in power.

And with that, we are adjourned.

Thank you so much, everybody.