What’s happening today?
Quick headlines: Dolores Huerta has died. A fresh poll has Mayor Karen Bass and Council member Nithya Raman in a dead heat for the mayor’s race. Meanwhile, the same poll by the LA Times and Berkeley IGS has Marissa Roy ahead of John McKinney by 17 percentage points in the city attorney’s race.
What’s squawking: 👮 LAPD officer hiring: Video / Agenda // 🔫 Sheriff’s military equipment policy (AB 481 requirement): Agenda // ⛺ Beds for the unhoused: Video / Agenda // 🚶 Broken sidewalks: Video / Agenda // 🩼 Services for people with disabilities: Video (live only) / Agenda // 👮 Restraining orders: Video (live only) / Agenda // 🏖️ Marina Del Rey and history of redlining: Video / Agenda // 🚛 Skid Row sweeps notifications: Video / Agenda
A bit more on what’s on the squawk box today…
👮 How is police hiring working and how are recruits whittled down? That’s what some LA leaders wanted to know about. City staffers presented a report, at this morning’s Los Angeles City Council personnel committee 8:30 a.m. meeting, to help answer questions about whether some potential police recruits have been unnecessarily eliminated from consideration. The report is in response to a motion authored by City Council member Monica Rodriguez and seconded by Traci Park that wondered whether “overly stringent or outdated criteria may be preventing otherwise qualified individuals from moving forward in the hiring process.”
🔫LA County’s law enforcement officials will be going over the county’s military equipment use policy, and getting an update from the jail closure implementation team, at the county’s 9:30 a.m. Public Safety Cluster meeting.
🧑⚖️ ⛺ A big stack of potential settlements in 17 lawsuits against the city are being taken up at today’s 10 a.m. City Council meeting. The council is also looking at items related to the LA Alliance settlement beds, extra cash for homeless outreach in the 10th Council District, ADU regulations, homelessness contracting, downtown LA entertainment zones, above-ground petroleum storage, the clean corridors program related to illegal dumping, grants for transportation projects, and child development services.
🚶 While broken sidewalks are a hot topic among Angelenos, LA city officials do not have a citywide assessment of “pedestrian facilities” like sidewalks that are in the “public right of way.” It’s something that former controller Ron Galperin pointed out in an audit findings report back in 2021. But the city has been trying to work on that, and the Board of Public Works is looking at increasing the payment to PSOMAS, a contractor that’s helping with putting that assessment and inventory together. There are also items related to expanding an asphalt plant in Council member Ysabel Jurado’s district, and they’re looking for bidders to do an estimated $5 million in streetscape and pedestrian upgrades along Central Avenue.
🩼 👮 LA County officials will be talking about doing a better job of serving people with disabilities, as well as improving the process for victims of intimate partner and gender-based violence, including figuring out how to address how difficult it is for people in Los Angeles County to obtain restraining orders. This is being taken up at a 1:30 p.m. cluster meeting.
🏖️ An effort to make access to Marina Del Rey beaches more inclusive is on the agenda of a 12 p.m. LA County cluster meeting. They’re taking up a consultant contract. A 180-day report from 2023 references historical red-lining practices that have kept people out of Marina Del Rey.
🚛 Council member Ysabel Jurado’s motion to improve how people are notified about Operation Healthy Street, which is essentially an encampment sweep program geared to Skid Row, is set to be taken up at the Los Angeles City Council’s 2 p.m. Homelessness and Health Committee meeting. Her motion says that “clear and timely notification of OHS operations is essential to minimizing disruptions to residents, local businesses, and Metro Bus service. Advance notice of specific location and timing of cleanups help outreach workers maintain contact with clients and connect them to services and housing. It also allows residents experiencing homelessness to prepare and safeguard personal belongings including items essential to their health and well being.”
What just happened?
LA City Council was short a vote to veto an Axon license plate reader contract
They were short a vote in the Los Angeles City Council to veto the police commission’s approval of a three-month contract with Axon to give automated license plate reader cameras (specifically the kind mounted to light posts, a la Flock) a whirl. Such surveillance cameras have been a hot issue due to the potential for the federal government to tap into them and use them for immigration enforcement. But police officials and some communities view them as a way to catch “bad guys,” and police department officials say they want them installed to help with investigations.
While John Lee, Traci Park and Monica Rodriguez — known to be more friendly to policing approaches to safety — voted against overturning the already approved contract, there were a few members on the City Council who were thought to be wobblers who ended up voting against overturning this contract. They include Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who in some instances can lean more progressive. The sixth vote against overturning the police commission’s approval of the Axon contract was from Adrin Nazarian.
A total of 10 votes were needed to quash the Axon contract – a higher bar than the usual majority vote for passing issues on the 15-person council, probably because it’s an extraordinary step to assert authority over a commission decision – but they only got to nine members. The council members who voted in favor of overturning the police commission’s approval of the Axon contract included someone we might think of an outlier — Tim McOsker, who was once a lobbyist for the police union.
McOsker said his decision to vote in favor of vetoing the contract wasn’t because he is against automated license plate readers. He explained that it was a way to exert leverage on behalf of the City Council on an important issue, and to “establish ourselves as the governing body.” And over the course of the debate on Tuesday, there were some concerns raised about how the contract itself was written. But when compared with their legislative authority over other city departments, the City Council has had a uniquely restricted ability to set policy for the Los Angeles Police Department. The Police Commission is designated in the city charter as having the authority to decide that department’s policy, and while there is potentially debate over whether that definitely meetings the police commission is in charge, it’s often been treated as if that’s the case. You can listen to McOsker’s remarks here (and scroll back to listen to the whole debate).
The eight other members who voted to veto the Axon contract were Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt, Ysabel Jurado, Imelda Padilla, Curren Price, Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Katy Yaroslavsky.