LA Squawk Box for Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Lineage to present on post-fire clean-up at a South Coast AQMD hearing this morning, four council members vote against Traci Park's 41.18 zones, and big turnout for Scattergood power plant project.

What’s happening today?

Lineage will be giving a progress report on their post-fire clean-up effort to the South Coast AQMD hearing board today. The agency enforces air quality rules, and has issued multiple citations to the company over the strong odors, mostly due to the spoiled food, emanating from the cold storage warehouse after it was damaged in the fire. The company’s presentation slides include one that says they have a goal of removing all of the bulk food waste from the Boyle Heights cleanup site by next week. The company had said on Tuesday that they have at this point removed 80% of food waste from the facility. You can catch the hearing here, starting at 9:30 a.m. The meeting is being held at the agency’s Diamond Bar headquarters, and you can find meeting materials, including for the Lineage hearing, here.

In a new episode of the Governance Matters podcast out today, LA politics and governance expert Raphe Sonenshein hosts a chat with me and Jim Newton, author and former LA Times reporter, about what it is like to cover charter reform, past and present. It seems frustrations about how long it’s taking for LA city leaders to act on council expansion is widely shared. We also discussed changes in Los Angeles’s media lanscape, and what that might mean for news coverage of politics and our local government.

What just happened?

LA City Council member Ysabel Jurado motions to block Lineage rebuild; Mayor Karen Bass calls on Lineage shareholders to apply pressure

Lineage’s South Coast AQMD hearing today comes a day after Council member Ysabel Jurado released a package of motions addressing the ongoing post-fire issues of odors and pests at the Lineage warehouse. In the package is a motion that calls for blocking the rebuild of the Lineage warehouse, at least until investigations and other analysis is completed on the fire and its aftermath. The motion also calls for a wider reaching measure that would put a temporary pause — through adopting what is called an “interim control ordinance” — on cold storage projects near residential communities. There are a total of seven motions in this set, and they can be found gathered together in this folder created by Jurado’s office. But that folder won’t let you follow the progress of the motions. The City Clerk keeps a database where you can track what happens to the different motions, and that “council file management system” can be found here.

And Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday issued an “open letter” to shareholders of Lineage to call on them to put pressure on the company. Bass writes that “shareholders should expect the company’s response to reflect urgency, transparency, accountability, and the financial commitment necessary to restore the community that has borne the consequences of this crisis. The people of Boyle Heights deserve nothing less.”

More time given to negotiate enviro groups’ appeal of Scattergood power plant project

Amid a big turnout by build trade unions and members of the IBEW union, which represents LADWP workers, the City Council voted to request that LADWP wrap-up settlement discussions within 45 days on a “modernization” of the Scattergood power plant aimed at transitioning it to hydrogen energy.

Andrea Vega, of Food & Water Watch, had urged the council to give them more time to negotiate with LADWP on the appeal. The group is among several environmental groups have filed an appeal on the project. A lawyer for Communities for a Better Environment, also told the council on Tuesday that he believes the project will be converted to methane gas without a viable pathway to hydrogen power. And the Mar Vista Neighborhood Council has submitted a community impact statement saying they feel the environmental impact study that was conducted on the project was inadequate, and the neighborhood council urged the council to accept the environmental groups’ appeal of the power plant project.

Meanwhile, representatives of labor groups urged the council to approve the project. Brian D’Arcy, the former business manager for the IBEW local representing LADWP, even made an appearance to support the Scattergood project. “I feel like I’m in the scene from Godfather 3 — I’m pulled back in,” he told the council. “This is just silliness. Scattergood was needed six years ago before I retired. I thought we reached some kind of agreement politically, even though there are no real political ramifications to it.”

Council member Hugo Soto-Martinez had recused himself from the discussion and the vote on the Scattergood matter. A recent Form 700 disclosure of economic interest Soto-Martinez filed shows he has stock in a hydrogen fuel cell company.

A few more things…

The LA City Council approved a new set of 41.18 zones in Council member Traci Park’s district, setting up areas in Venice where people will be prohibited from setting up encampments. Four of the 15 members voted against the measure, however, including Council member Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor. Those members typically oppose measures that make being homeless a crime.

The LA City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee would be split in two, under a proposed committee structure submitted on Tuesday by Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Council member Bob Blumenfield. The committee is now chaired by Council member Nithya Raman. Any new committee assignments would be decided by the council president.

The Council’s Rules committee advanced a motion to create an Ad Hoc Committee on Charter Review, which was expected to begin meeting this month. The committee still needs to be voted on by the full City Council before it’s officially set up. Issues that didn’t make it to the November ballot, such as council expansion, could conceivably be taken up by this new committee.

Mark your calendars for a series of deep-dive meetings on the elected county executive, starting with one scheduled for this Friday at the LA County Hall of Administration in Room 140 A and B.