LA Squawk Box for Wednesday, June 17, 2026

LA leaders to decide if LAPD reform will be on November's ballot, county officials warn of financial challenges for social safety net, hygiene trailer dollars flagged for Hollywood shelter, and more.

What’s happening today?

We just had a primary election, but some big decisions are about to be made about what measures will go on November’s ballots. Today is the deadline for the Los Angeles City Council to request ballot measure language for November to be drawn up, and you should expect to see some debate around whether LAPD reforms will be among the charter reform measures that makes it onto the ballot. While chances might be slim for this item, a proposal to give City Council the ability decide LAPD policy has nevertheless been recommended for the ballot, after great effort by advocacy groups. Another hot proposal, to increase the City Council to 25 members, has already been rejected.

There’s also a proposal to increase the protected budget for Recreation and Parks, which the City Council’s budget chair, Katy Yaroslavsky, recently said the city would have trouble even funding. There has been an effort to get a tax measure going to fund parks, but that has collapsed after there was indication powerful leaders may not support it. And Yaroslavsky has dismissed the idea that LAPD funding, which commands the lions share of LA’s budget could get diverted to LA’s parks. Meanwhile, LA city’s parks were recently ranked 93rd in the nation. Alissa Walker, of Torched, just put out a piece on the state of the charter reform proposals for LA’s parks.

There is also a proposal to change how city services are managed in a way that goes to the heart of one of LA City Hall’s more politically sensitive topics. While the city’s public works department is now managed by a full-time paid board of commissioners, who are all appointed by the mayor. On the table now though is a proposal to reinstate a director of public works, and to take out language specifying what bureaus should be part of the Department of Public Works. There used to be such a director of public works, but LA leaders got rid of that position, or at least gutted its powers, after that director locked horns with those commissioners.

A key thing to watch in all this is how the City Council decides to group the charte reform proposals. There are strategic considerations for how they do this, and one thing that has come up is if certain issues would be considered “poison pills” that could hurt other proposal’s chances of getting passed by voters. There are also potentially other considerations, such as sweeteners, of course. The City Attorney’s Office last night also submitted a suggested ways to group the proposals.

You can see the full slate of recommendations, and the proposals that might still be in the running but haven’t been recommended, in a report out of Rules committee that just posted this morning. A table of all of the proposals and what happened to them is here. And here is the summary of what is actually getting recommended or going before the City Council today. You can also check out the council file for the charter reform issues, which includes public comment that has come in (although it appears the City Clerk has been slow in posting many of them).

And you can check out yesterday’s episode of AirTalk, where I joined LAist’s civics and democracy reporter, Frank Stoltze, to talk about LA city charter reform.

The Los Angeles City Council will be taking these up at today’s meeting, and you can view the meeting here.

Today is also crunch time for deciding on measures to revise Measure ULA, the tax on real estate transfers and sales for high value properties (that are generally around $5 million or more), so there could be some possible ballot measures on that to watch for coming out of today’s meeting. The measure funds affordable housing and tenant protection programs.

And later this afternoon, at 2 p.m. the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee will be taking up the unsigned contracts for advocacy and legal aid groups offering services to tenants facing eviction. The agenda also includes Council member Ysabel Jurado’s motion requesting a report on housing complaints about rent stabilized units in the 14th council district, which she represents. Jurado’s motion on this issue cites City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s dashboard on the city’s top 100 rental properties, which can be viewed here.

What just happened?

LA County officials lay out financial challenges for county’s social safety net services

While LA county’s sales tax measure to fund healthcare services, amid federal fundjng cuts, Measure ER, just squeaked out a win, belts still need to be kept tight, LA county officials said in a presentation to the LA County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“One of our greatest challenges over the last year... has been operating in an environment of unprecedented uncertainty,” Interim County CEO Joe Nicchita told the Board of Supervisors at their meeting Tuesday morning. “The federal government has cut funding without notice and issued executive orders and regulatory changes without sufficient detail to fully understand the impact until agency instructions are rolled out months later, and even though we’re coming up on the anniversary of H.R. 1 [also referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act], the agency rulemaking to fully implement the bill continues. Not all of the details are fully spelled out at this point in time.”

“In this context we’re forced to continue to focus on financial stability and taking a long view, and even giving new funding sources like Measure ER, the year ahead will require financial discipline to prioritize critical safety net services over less immediate needs,” Nicchita said.

The presentation came a day after the state legislature adopted its proposed budget (which now goes to a negotiation with the governor and ahead of it being adopted later this month). It also comes ahead of the County CEO presenting a set of budget recommendations next Monday.

Nicchita noted that there are more county departments than usual facing budget deficits at the moment. He specifically highlighted the Sheriff’s department, which has a $148 million gap to close, while the public health department has a $30.6 million deficit.

A few more things…

Council motions from Tuesday include one by LA Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, seconded by Nithya Raman, that calls for funding allocations for hygiene trailers for the Schrader A Bridge Home homeless shelter site in in the 13th City Council District, specifically in the Hollywood neighborhood. There is also a motion to transfer funds to use for the “Spring/Alameda Safety & Mobility Project” in the 1st City Council District to help with installing curb ramps, bus pads, and bus boarding islands, and to fix sidewalks.

There was yet another plane crash on Tuesday connected to Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, and this time LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath is calling on the FAA to halt the airport from operating. A plane from Whiteman Airport crashed into power lines nearly three months ago in April. There have been other crashes over the years, including one that killed the pilot in 2020 on a residential street in Pacoima and that set cars ablaze and scattered plane parts.

Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman sat down with KTLA’s Jessica Holmes and Eric Spillman for an interview on Tuesday. You can watch it, as well as read the transcript, here.

The political consultant for Wendy Carillo, Mike Trujillo, has put out a take on what’s happening in the race for the 26th state senate race, highlighting the fact that Sarah Rascon is entering the November runoff against Sara Hernandez on a strong footing. It appears candidates who lean progressive, like Carrillo and Maebe Pulido could be fans of Rascon.

The LA Times’s Ruben Vives has a story about a grand jury recommending the the LA Soo, which is currently a city department, be privately run.