LA Squawk Box for Friday, May 29, 2026

First rent-gouging lawsuit using LA city's 'private right of action' law, mayoral candidate Rae Huang boosts opponent Spencer Pratt's praise, city workers warn of burnout, and more.

What’s happening today?

An LA City Council committee, meeting at Van Nuys City Hall, will be taking up some proposals to scale back Measure ULA, a transfer tax on high-valued properties that funds affordable housing and tenant protections, at an 8:15 a.m. meeting today. Measure ULA is also being blamed for suppressing housing production. One key revision (CF 26-0782) being proposed would lower the tax amount. Much of the urgency around this comes from the fact that a ballot measure expected in November sponsored by Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association could end up nullifying such transfer taxes, if passed by voters. The state legislature is also in the middel of working out their own legislation on transfer taxes at the moment.

What just happened?

Policing reform gets expedited, and city workers warn of burnout, during LA city charter hearing: Police reform measures, including one that would allow the City Council to set LAPD policy, advanced out of a key City Council committee that’s deliberating what charter reform measures should go on the November ballot. LA city workers filled the City Council chamber on Thursday for the meeting in order to speak against some charter reform measures that they said would hurt their civil services protections. Some voiced the mood of the city’s workforce, with one saying that a lack of investment in them “continues to burnout and crush city employees." At the moment, there are some proposals for changing charter reform that would allow the city to have more flexibility to hire from outside of the city worker pool. Those are proposed by the personnel department. Meanwhile, there aren’t any proposals from the city worker unions, because a meet and confer process with them has yet to begin.

Take the rent gougers to court! The Rent Brigade, a scrappy volunteer group that leapt into action after last year’s catastrophic wildfires, announced on Thursday the first rent-gouging lawsuit filed using a city law that allows people to take their landlords to court, rather than hold their breath for government officials to go after scofflaws who take advantage of desperate people trying to find a place to live after losing their homes in disasters like the wildfires. The lawsuit was filed by Candy and Randall Renick, who were charged nearly $15,000 in rent per month at a Glassell Park home, after escaping the Eaton Fires in Altadena. The LAist’s David Wagner reported that when they reached out to the landlords, one of them cut the call short before answering questions and the city attorney’s office failed to respond to the publication’s question about why their office did not pursue the case beyond sending a warning letter. The Rent Brigade announced the lawsuit as a way to also let people know that if government officials aren’t up for the job, people can still seek recourse through a private lawsuit. To help with that process, the Rent Brigade volunteers have also created a tool, built on Zillow data their group gathered over several months, that helps people determine if they could be a victim of rent-gouging.

Watch out, there is a fake poll circulating out there, claiming to be a new one from Emerson College Polling that shows mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt in the lead. It’s making the rounds just as the LA Times-sponsored poll shows Pratt out of the two-person runoff in November. He was at least 4 percentage points behind LA Mayor Karen Bass and Council member Nithya Raman who came out at the top of that poll in a dead heat.

Was lefty mayoral candidate Rae Huang platforming Spencer Pratt (who was recently endorsed by President Donald Trump) when she quote tweeted a post praising her? Whatever Huang may have meant, the now deleted post appears to have turned some folks off of voting for Huang, with others wishing they could rescind the votes they have already cast for her. Pratt made his pro-Huang post shortly after the LA Times poll showed him in third place, and some say Huang may have walked into a trap. Pratt’s praise could be a way to help himself, since Huang’s voters are being eyed by the Raman campaign, since the two candidates may be vying for the same voter pool. If Pratt splits those votes, Pratt could have a chance at slipping into second place, which is enough to keep him in contention by getting him into a runoff in November. Huang replaced her previous post with one saying Pratt doesn’t “deserve any voice or sound bite in my Campaign,” to which Pratt posted a meme of himself elaborately rolling his eyes.

A heated exchange between politicos on Thursday warrants a looking eyes emoji 👀. State Sen. Henry Stern took to X on Thursday calling a new campaign ad from 26th district state senate candidate Wendy Carrillo’s campaign pointing to her opponent Sara Hernandez taking donations from “leadership from AIPAC,” antisemitic. Carrillo, pointing to Israel’s right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responded to Stern’s post sayin that “Anti-Zionism is not Anti-semitism.” The LA Reporter wrote about the donations last September and October.

Noting a few more things… LA city’s $15 billion budget for next year was signed by Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday. The mayor is also now chair of Metro board again, after her colleagues voted to appoint her.