LA Squawk Box for Tuesday, May 26, 2026

LAPD chief opposes police accountability measure, early in-person voting begins, We the Unhoused interviews street doctor, and more.

What’s happening today?

The LA City Council meeting includes votes to create a consolidated Community Investment Department, withdraw the gross receipts tax repeal ballot measure in exchange for delaying a $30 tourism wage for airport and hotel workers, the naming of a street in the northeast San Fernando Valley after Bert & Jane Boeckmann (who ran Galpin Ford), funding for tiny homes, a resolution on a statewide homelessness strategy, a contract with USC to provide event services including at the LA Coliseum, funding for a pedestrian tunnel in Cypress Park, a report on city worker vacancies (meeting stream).

What just happened?

Police Commission, police chief oppose charter reform recommendation to give the City Council the ability to set LAPD policy

Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell is on record opposing a charter reform proposal that would reduce the power of the Board of Police commissioners. That proposal gives LA City Council members the ability to set LAPD policy, which it can’t do now. They have this power over other departments, but not over the LAPD, which has caused some frustration among council members who want to limit LAPD from taking actions that would help ICE immigration officials, and to try to rein in police brutality. The City Council has also been trying to push for policy changes limiting pre-textual stops. The LAPD is led by a civilian oversight board made up of appointees of the Los Angeles mayor, called the Board of Police Commissioners, which also opposes this charter reform proposal.

Early, in-person voting for the June 2, 2026 primary started over the Memorial Day weekend, on Saturday, May 23. All centers open on May 30.

Voters can now vote in person or drop off their vote-by-mail ballot at a vote center, which are open at select places. The remaining vote centers open this Saturday, May 30. You can look up the closest vote centers and ballot drop-boxes on the LA County Registrar-Recorder’s website here.

Also, people who haven’t registered by the May 18 deadline can still vote, because California election law lets you register and cast a ballot conditionally. The rules around that can be found here.

FYI, LA city elections used to be done by the city clerk, but they were consolodiated with the county a number of years ago. The City Clerk still handles the candidate filing process, but the LA County conducts the city and LAUSD elections. The City Clerk website includes some information about the candidates and the ballot measures from the city, and they just released the final list of write-in candidates as well.

Oil spill in East Los Angeles: 2,400 gallons of crude oil spilled in East Los Angeles, near Cesar Chavez and Eastern Ave, last Friday. The oil later flowed into storm drains and the Los Angeles river. Birds that came came into contact with the oil were transported to a San Pedro care center, the LA Times reports. LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that the leak happened when an underground construction crew hit a petroleum pipeline. There has been reports of the oil spill affecting places downstream of the LA River, including near Rosecrans Avenue in Paramount.

Long Beach wage theft case: The Long Beach Watchdog reports that the city of Long Beach just won convictions in a wage theft case in which the owners of Mattress Factory Direct will need to pay $45,000 to six victims of stolen pay. The amount is double the amount the owners shorted the employees.

Street doctor talks sweeps, a toxic drug supply on We the Unhoused: Theo Henderson talks stigma, and Canadian snacks, with street doctor Jill Wiwcharuk, an ER doctor or specializing in treating people who are homeless and who use drugs, on his show, We the Unhoused. Wiwcharuk tells Henderson that the stigma targeting the unhoused is so severe that “people would rather die than go to hospital,” and people have indeed died — an all too common occurence. Wiwcharuk also discusses the toxic drug supply that has been a leading cause of death in her province, and the harms of sweeps: “Street sweeps happen all the time, and they are one of the biggest harms that is incurred to my patients. So when a community is swept. When the unhoused population is told to move somewhere else, that comes with automatically an increased risk of death in the coming weeks … sweeping encampments is shown to keeping people in homelessness for longer.”

Election reads…Rae Huang is interviewed by Jacobin. LA On the Record covers Trump backing Spencer Pratt. Politico posted up the interviews from their California Agenda summit in Los Angeles with Mayor Karen Bass, LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and others.

A few more things… Eric Brightwell, a local historian, does a deep dive into the history of Asian Americans in Silver Lake. Alissa Walker writes about being able to use debit/credit cards, in place of Tap, on Metro in Torched. Someone drew a nostalgic map of the San Fernando Valley.