LA Squawk Box for Tuesday, August 4, 2026

LA city leaders return from recess with legislation to sweep unhoused constituents. Mayor Karen Bass out-raises Nithya Raman, who in turn snatches up a major labor endorsement. And more.

What’s happening today?

The Los Angeles City Council is returning from recess, and there are several items to boost LA city leaders’ ability to target unhoused people in their community. Traci Park has a resolution to set up more zones where encampments would be prohibited under LAMC 41.18 (there is an effort to oppose this), and both Council members Imelda Padilla and Monica Rodriguez are looking to step up CARE+ sweeps of encampments in each of their east San Fernando Valley districts by allocating funds to cover overtime hours for city workers. And a motion by Council members Curren Price and Heather Hutt to upgrade LA Sanitation’s CARE operations at encampments into CARE+ sweeps is scheduled for today’s meeting, although it appears that motion had already been approved at meeting from before the recess.

Connor Sheets of the LA Times covers an effort by Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South LA to change how the county divvies out funding from Measure B, approved in 2002 to fund trauma care — just as this issue is getting taken up at today’s LA County Board of Supervisors meeting. The hospital’s officials argue that more well-off hospitals continue to receive the funding, under an existing formular, while their hospital, a private hospital that opened in 2015, filling in after the closure of LA County’s Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, has struggled, even though they serve an underserved community. They receive the remaining funding from Measure B, after the main pot of funds are put into other hospitals. Cedars-Sinai which opposes a shift in funding says they are concerned this would affect the the trauma system. There has recently been some activity especially in LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s office to introduce legislation to re-examine the funding formula. City News Service’s Jose Herrera wrote about MLK’s effort, over a month ago.

What just happened?

In the mayor’s race, Mayor Karen Bass and Council member Nithya Raman are bringing their game

Nithya Raman just snatched up a major labor endorsement from the Western States Carpenters, a construction trade union that had backed Mayor Karen Bass in 2022, when she was battling Rick Caruso. In the earlier race, union members canvassed for Bass, and the union’s PAC poured in millions of dollars in outside spending to get Bass elected that first time around.

Pete Rodriguez, a top official at the Carpenters union, told The LA Reporter on Monday that “we’ve always gone with the incumbent,” so for the union to depart from that, and go for Bass’s opponent, in this round “is a really big deal.”

Rodriguez pointed to Bass’s executive directive streamlining the construction of affordable housing as a reason for backing Raman this time. He said they were disappointed by a lack of provisions in the directive to nudge developers to use union labor.

At the Sylmar training center where Raman announced the endorsement, trainees and union members were already wearing t-shirts emblazoned with bright yellow logos that declared the Carpenters’ support for Raman. They also held up signs supporting Raman. Those signs carried a line at the bottom saying that the ads were paid for by Building a Stronger California, sponsored by the Western Regional Council of Carpenters.

Meanwhile, Bass out-raised Raman, as of the end of June, in the first major campaign fundraising report of the election cycle. Bass drew more than $500,000 from donors in just the first month. Bass also received a big chunk from the matching funds program – more than $675,000. Raman raised $170,000, and received more than $576,000 in matching funds.

Here’s what’s happening in the four LA city runoff races, in terms of campaign finance

Friday was the deadline for LA city campaign committees to file their half-year reports. This includes how much LA city candidates who are now headed to a runoff in November raised (and spent) in June, the first three to four weeks of this general election cycle, after polls closed in the primary on June 2. Results were not settled and were essentially still being tabulated for about a week in early June, and it hadn’t been clear Nithya Raman had overtaken Spencer Pratt to land in second place, which advanced her to the runoff until June 8.

• In the mayor’s race, in which Bass out-raised Raman, Bass reported raising $511,687.22 and spending $43,852.93. She has received $675,368 in matching funds. Raman reported raising $172,926.55 and spending $34,297.89. She received $576,189.56 in matching funds.

• In the City Attorney’s race, Marissa Roy out-raised her opponent John McKinney. McKinney, who brings a more moderate platform, reported raising $3,000 and spending $3,107.15. It doesn’t show that he’s received matching funds, but he appears to be participating in the matching funds program. Roy, a progressive candidate, reported raising $73,766 and spending $1,223.24. She received $131,800 in matching funds.

• In the 3rd District race, Tim Gaspar out-raised Barri Worth Girvan. Gaspar reported raising $180,701 and spending $6,907.18. He has received $47,200 in matching funds. Girvan reported raising $31,456 and spending zero dollars. She has received $47,200.00 in matching funds.

• In the 9th District race, Jose Ugarte out-raised Estuardo Mazariegos. Mazariegos, reported raising $5,396 and spending zero dollars. He has received $47,200 in matching funds. Ugarte reported raising $35,154 and spending $2,460.06. He has received $47,200 in matching funds.

While the next major reporting deadline is Sept. 24, candidates will also need to report contributions above $1,000 starting tomorrow, Aug. 5, within 24 hours of receiving the funds.

Community organizers, Eastside groups again demand that Lineage get out of town, while Mayor Bass orders a pause on Lineage’s rebuild plans

ACCE, Eastside UTLA, and Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización held a rally on Friday to demand that Lineage leave their community. They issued demands that include permanently closing the Lineage warehouse, getting a transparent environmental investigation and a complete site cleanup, immediate housing relief, and transparency around the emergency funding. And they want Lineage and other responsible parties held accountable. The rally was covered by Boyle Heights Beat and Spectrum.

Mayor Karen Bass, who had previously been noncommittal about whether she would oppose Lineage’s rebuild, on Friday issued an executive order that calls for city departments not to process Lineage’s rebuilding plans. The rebuild plans would be held off until a couple of city departments – Planning, and Building and Safety – report back on Lineage’s rebuild plans. And Bass is requesting that the City Council adopt a temporary pause on large cold storage facilities near residential areas and places where there are “sensitive uses.” Council member Ysabel Jurado is anticipated to carry a motion during Tuesday’s meeting.

A few more things…

District Attorney Nathan Hochman charges an officer, who filed a lawsuit alleging racism, with illegally recording his coworkers. Mark Ridley Thomas’s conviction is upheld in his bribery case, with Edvard Petterson of Courthouse News writing that Ridley-Thomas’s lawyer Alyssa Bell says they are exploring “options for en banc review.” Ridley-Thomas, who was sentenced to serve 3.5 years in prison, is out on bail while he appeals his case. Nithya Raman does an interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick, who tries to pin down her “ideology.” Raman discusses advocating for changes to Measure ULA, the transfer tax on high-value properties, which led to criticism from her allies. She tells Remnick that she believes market-rate housing is important (Raman discussed this at greater length in an interview with Mike Bonin back in April). She says she is not anti-market. Rather, she is against exploitation within the capitalist system. She says she supports “big government” around issues like homelessness, and that she believes government money should be spent to address that issue.