What’s happening today?
LA County’s new Ethics Commission starts to come together, with two members appointed, and six applicants to be interviewed
LA County’s Governance Reform Task Force, which is carrying out a variety of governance reforms approved by voters under Measure G, will be interviewing candidates for LA County’s new, seven-person Ethics Commission. The meeting starts at 1 p.m.
The task force appoints one of the three initial commissioners (with that responsibility shifting to the elected County Executive in 2029). Those commissioners then appoint the remaining four. The chair of the Board of Supervisors and the County Assessor appoint the two other initial three members.
Michael Woo, a former LA City Council member who was involved in developing the ethics laws for the city of LA, and Jeffery Daar, a former president of LA city’s Ethics Commission, are among the applicants for the task force’s appointment. The applicants also include Sean McMorris, a program manager at California Common Cause and member of the San Gabriel Planning Commission. Carla Fuentes, who recently completed a stint on LA city’s Charter Reform Commission, is also an applicant. The task force will also be interviewing applicants Maria Williams-Slaughter, a former Public Works director for Carson and who has served on various boards at Long Beach Unified and Cal State Long Beach, and Leticia Casillas Sanchez, who now serves on Pomona’s Citizen Oversight Committee and chaired that city’s independent redistricting commission.
Also, the Board of Supervisors yesterday approved LA County Assessor Jeffrey Prang’s and the appoint of Amanda Susskind to the LA County’s Ethics Commission. Prang released a statement to The LA Reporter saying that Susskind “has extensive experience in public finance, financial management and oversight of audit functions, making her exceptionally well qualified to serve on the Los Angeles County Ethics Commission.
“The appointment of the Commission’s inaugural members is an important milestone in implementing Measure G and establishing independent ethics oversight within the County,” Prang’s statement read. “I am confident that Ms. Susskind will serve the County well and make a valuable contribution to the work of the Ethics Commission.”
Susskind’s application, which Prang’s office also provided, says that she served as a lawyer for the county, and also as a city attorney for small cities. Susskind has also served on LA County’s commissions for parks and housing, and the California Coastal Commission, which she said gave her experience with adhering to ethics rules and reporting requirements.
[Late add] The Board also approved the chair’s appointment to the Ethics Commission, Wilma A. Franco.
A few more things…
The Los Angeles City Council is meeting this morning, and they’re taking up a contract with Genesis LA to administer a program that preserves existing affordable housing by repairing them. Genesis LA worked on a similar program at LA County focused on community land trusts. Also on the agenda are items to increase admission fees at the LA Zoo (this is a second reading of the ordinance), motions related to the Lineage fire, including one that calls for withholding the cold storage company’s rebuild permit, the reappointment of Rasha Shields to the LAPD commission, a street medicine contract with Healthcare in Action in Council District 4 (represented by Nithya Raman), some motions on Niño prep, and an item related to financing for affordable housing at the St. George Hotel, where LA Community Action Network has lately been organizing low-income residents who were being moved out.
Also, a variety of LA city council committees and LA County “clusters” are meeting, including the LA City Council’s Transportation Committee, which took up street sweeping related parking citations, and Dash route bus lane enforcement. The committee also took up an oversized vehicle parking ban in the 12th City Council district represented by City Council member John Lee, a ban on heavy and long vehicles in the 15th City Council District represented by Council member Tim McOsker, both of which Council member Eunisses Hernandez voted against. The committee also moved forward on a motion on bike and ebike pathways at LA parks. The LA mayor, City Council leadership and city management staff also met this morning to discuss labor negotiations with the LADWP worker union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 18.
What just happened?
Mayor Karen Bass goes to Chatsworth following Metro bus and NBC4 chopper crash
“This is a heartbreaking night for our city, and my thoughts and prayers are first and foremost with the families and the loved ones that we lost today,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference following an fatal NBC4 news helicopter crash that happened during coverage of a crash between an SUV and a Metro bus in Chatsworth.
Bass was there along with Board Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and LA City Council member John Lee. You can watch that news conference here.
While there were some gripes about Mayor Karen Bass posting about appearing at the scene, it is expected of elected leaders to be present at significant crisis events. Questions would have been raised if she had been absent. Additionally, political consultant Mike Trujillo provided some context about Bass’s background as a physician’s assistant, as well as the fact that she lost her daughter in a freeway crash in 2006.
Padillo pulls Home Depot sponsorship of El Grito event
Imelda Padillo led the El Grito event that commemorates the start of the Mexican War of Independence. In the lead up to the event, Padillo was called out for Home Depot being listed as a sponsor LA’s El Grito event. She responded on Tuesday saying that they have rescinded the sponsorship. “Given the hurt & trauma this partner erupts due to the ICE raids the Federal Government performs so intentionally at their sites; I sincerely apologize for the distress caused by featuring the company. We have rescinded their partnership for this event,” Padilla’s Instagram post said. Izzy Ramirez of LA Taco has a story on this.
LA city Ethics Commission nom in limbo, after watchdog raises questions about her eligibility
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday postponed the appointment of Dena Bloom to the Ethics Commission, after Rob Quan of Unrig LA called in during public comment to raise some questions about whether she was eligible for the role, since she is listed by the state as a major donor. Quan pointed to the charter amendments approved by voters in 2024 that prohibits people who qualified as a major donor within the last year to serve on LA city’s Ethics Commission. “I just do wonder why we reform the charter, if we’re not going to follow it,” Quan said.
The City Council ended up continuing the appointment of Bloom to later, with Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson noting that “there needs to be greater clarity on the charter’s requirements for political donations… none of those things seem to be particularly clear to the City Attorney’s Office and the Clerk’s Office at this time.”
Interestingly, Bloom was appointed by City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who had personally gone to the rules committee earlier the same morning to speak in support of her nominee.
A few more things…
The LAHSA commission decided against applying to lead local homeless services, after being the lead for more than three decades. Both the city and the county are likely to apply for that role, and a statement released by LAHSA explained that this was so that they would not compete with their “founding partners,” and that doing so “would only fracture regional collaboration during an already complex time.”
For those who like to dig into the money behind politics, Social Movement Support Lab on Tuesday released The California Oligarchs Index, which tracks the top financial backers in state politics, in particular, 99 groups that have spent $5.8 billion. They include “the billionaires, corporations, corporate advocacy groups, and law enforcement organizations that exert enormous influence over the lives of California residents, undermine our democracy, and are the primary opponents to creating healthier, safer, and more equitable communities across the state,” the website says.
Mayor Karen Bass skipped out on a congressional hearing on Tuesday probing LA’s homeless services system, upsetting federal leaders and officials, according to Nick Gerda of LAist. Bass was instead appearing with Rick Caruso – her electoral opponent in 2022 – at the groundbreaking of the new Pacific Palisades Recreation Center, which replaces the one that was destroyed in the 2025 wildfires. Reporters asked Caruso about who he planned to endorse, but he declined to provide anything definitive. The question of who the Pacific Palisades would end up voting for – after most of the community voting for Spencer Pratt in the primary – has been a closely watched one amid the heated race between Bass and challenger, Council member Nithya Raman.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors held off on making a decision over Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s motion aimed at holding the Sheriff Department’s deputy gangs accountable, reports Steve Scauzillo of the Los Angeles Daily News. The issue was held for 45 days so that the County CEO could report back on whether “meet and confer” with labor unions was needed. Four supervisors out of five voted to delay the issue, with Mitchell the only one voting against the delay. Scauzillo writes that Mitchell’s original “would launch an inquiry into the Sheriff’s Department in order to create a list of deputy gangs, their names, accompanying insignias and tattoos and from what stations the members work.” You can also check out Cerise Castle’s thread on the meeting here.
