What’s happening today?
The Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners voted today to rescind their 2024 decision to deny the use of a parking lot to build the now long-delayed Venice Dell affordable housing project. They returned to this decision after a judge ordered that they rescind their denial. Mayor Karen Bass has also told the board that they should vacate that decision, and Bass’s aide today told the board that the mayor does not support an appeal of the judge’s order.
The order came out of a lawsuit by the Venice Dell project’s developers, and lawyers for the developers from Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles just two days ago served a writ of mandate that orders the transportation board to follow the court order.
Transportation commissioners about two weeks ago had initially held off on deciding whether to do this, after the City Attorney’s Office dangled, during an earlier meeting, that they had “important legal advice” that could only be delivered in private.
The board spent about an hour in closed session to hear that advice today. When they emerged into open session, they ended up voting to vacate their earlier, 2024 decision — although one commissioner noted that this would not prevent the Los Angeles City Council from stepping in on the issue.
Yet another long-delayed project to build the People Mover at LAX is up at the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. They’re scheduled to take up litigation around that project, and that’s an item they can take up in closed session.
And the Municipal Facilities Committee is taking up – among other things – a lease agreement with Hope the Mission to operate an interim shelter in the Los Angeles 14th Council District and a report on law enforcement staging during Olympics.
What just happened?
An effort is underway to get the California Dem Party to pull Jimmy Gomez endorsement, amid House Ethics Committee investigation
There’s a petition being circulated that’s urging California Democratic Party leadership to rescind the organization’s endorsement of Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who admitted to marital infidelity, and is now under investigation by the House Ethics Committee following a New York Post report that Gomez was seen kissing a congressional aide three years ago. Gomez says this was a consensual contact, but the attorneys for one of the women interviewed by the House Ethics Committee about her experience with the congress member subsequently released a statement disputing Gomez’s characterization, saying that “his actions were not ‘consensual in nature’ with respect to our client.”
Gomez is running for re-election to represent the 34th Congressional District, a district with neighborhoods on Los Angeles’s eastside that has many progressive-leaning voters. Gomez has already faced some tough races for re-election to continue serving in the seat, which has two-year terms. This time around he’s fending off a challenge from Angela Gonzales-Torres, who garnered 30% of the votes to Gomez’s 45% in the primary.
The petition has gotten more than 150 signatures, with a dozen from delegates of the California Democratic Party who are in the district represented by Gomez. Another 40 people listed on the petition are identified as “non-delegate” registered Democrats who live in the 34th Congressional District. The California Democratic Party is chaired by Rusty Hicks, a former president and political director of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
Jeanine Rohn, an elected party delegate the 34th Congressional District who’s coordinating the petition, said the signatures were gathered over four days. The petition campaign started soon after the Democratic Women’s Caucus raised concerns about voters being able to get information on the investigation in time. The caucus called on the House Ethics Committee to provide a status of their investigation before the 60-day blackout period that’s instituted ahead of an election.
Rohn says the blackout period could begin at around Sept. 4, so there are concerns the investigation’s “results likely won’t be made public until after the election.” Meanwhile, Rohn says, with mailers from Gomez’s campaign are already pouring in, the idea of the California Democratic Party funds being used to boost his campaign doesn’t sit right with her, and she believes it likely won’t either for other Democrats, especially in the 34th Congressional District, which is “an extremely progressive district with two Democrats running,” Rohn said.
“Gomez enjoys party support, added credibility, and resources because of his endorsement,” Rohn says. “Party voter guides and other materials will be going to print soon... The party should uphold our core value of respecting credible evidence of sexual harassment and, at the very least, not tip the scales to allow Rep. Gomez to keep the endorsement of our state party.”
A couple more things…
LA Public Press’s Phoenix Tso writes about street vendors getting cited using LAMC 41.18, which is more associated with enforcement against encampments.
LAist’s Nick Gerda reports that the company that was found to have been serving people at a shelter ramen noodles had actually been red-flagged by the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authorities before that agency awarded the company a $3.5 million contract. That company was recently charged by federal authorities with misusing public funds.
