🐦 The LA Reporter, Issue 7: A week of drama-rama between LA city leaders

Three days before the No Kings protests on Saturday, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto attempted to lift an injunction against the Los Angeles Police Department aimed at preventing officers from attacking journalists documenting protests. 

By Friday, not only had the judge rejected the City Attorney’s request, the Los Angeles City Council had also voted on an emergency measure to rebuke Feldstein Soto, directing her to withdraw her efforts to lift the injunction, which the LA Press Club and investigative news network Status Coup had won back in September. 

The City Council voted 12-0 to approve the motion, which said journalism was under attack nationally, and referenced the $68 million in liability costs that the LAPD had incurred for the city from causing “bodily harm to journalists and protestors.”

“One of Los Angeles’ biggest threats to public safety is the ongoing terror and kidnapping campaign of our neighbors by the Trump Administration, and the City must focus its resources on protecting our communities, not the further degradation of First Amendment rights and the timely need for a free press,” the motion approved by the City Council read.

The motion stated that the City Attorney’s efforts – assisted by private law firm Best Best & Krieger LLP as outside counsel – to lift the injunction had been made “without the consultation of the City Council as the legislative body for the city.”

While the LA City Council waged a battle with Feldstein Soto, LA Mayor Karen Bass took a more genteel approach to the City Attorney’s efforts to lift protections for journalists going out to cover the protests. The mayor’s office gave reporter Joey Scott a statement attributed to Bass that read, “We encourage everyone participating to stay peaceful and look out for one another.”

On Saturday, there were reports the LAPD was again attacking members of the press who were documenting the No Kings protest, during which there were also reports of the LAPD releasing tear gas onto protesters. 

William Gude, an activist who monitors cop activity who posts under the account Film the Police on X.com, captured footage that appears to show officers shooting at LA Taco journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray.

In his video, Gude can be heard shouting, “Why are you shooting? You’re shooting to move the crowd. Why are you doing this? … That’s press! You are shooting the press, you are shooting the press … That’s all press right there! They are exempt from the dispersal order.” Gude also said that officers were calling Ray “fake press.”

Adam Rose, press rights chair at the LA Press Club, wrote on Bluesky that he was investigating, adding that “no doubt LAPD violated court injunction. Just a question of how bad.” He also shared a spreadsheet that tracks the reported incidents and asked that people share any evidence they have.

The LA Times reported that tear gas, less-lethal ammunition, and the LAPD’s horse fleet were used to “push back crowds.”

Reporter Mel Buer shared video from the protest that included footage of a police cruiser driving through a group of protesters.

Studies have found that an overwhelming number of people who responded to surveys after being exposed to tear gas reported adverse reproductive health issues. Chemicals used in tear gas are banned from being used in war.

In September, the LA City Council’s budget committee chair, Katy Yaroslavsky, predicted that the city services that “all of us would agree … suck” will get even worse if her colleagues voted to move ahead with $2.9 billion project to expand the LA Convention Center. 

“We aren’t even going to be able to afford the level of service that we have right now — which is crap,” she said.

Yaroslavsky’s colleagues had argued in favor of the project, saying it was equally risky to pass up on the expansion project. The City Council ended up green-lighting the project at that Sept. 19 meeting. They said a bigger convention center was needed to attract tourism revenue to Los Angeles, as the city hosts the Olympics Games in 2028. 

Cut to three weeks later, and the first indication that things were starting to go in the direction Yaroslavsky had warned it would, came when LA Mayor Karen Bass and the City Administrative Officer informed dozens of city department heads that they needed to find ways to cut 5% from their budgets as part of the spending proposals that they needed to turn in for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2026.

In a 66-page budget instruction memo dated Oct. 6, Bass and the CAO advised the general managers to consider “eliminating vacant positions and reducing expense spending prior to proposing the elimination of filled positions” when meeting the 5% target for cuts.

Those instructions included a chart that shows the dollar amounts that the 5% cuts would amount to. For example, with the Fire Department, it would be $44.8 million, and for transportation, that target amounts to nearly $10 million. There were no reduction amounts listed for some departments, including the mayor’s office, the City Council, the library department, and the ethics commission.

Read the full story in The LA Reporter here.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez has been agitating to get her motion calling for the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission members to disclose any communications they have with elected officials and their staff to be taken up by her colleagues on the LA City Council. That motion has not been scheduled by Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson to be heard in committee since she introduced it nearly three months ago, on Aug. 1.

And after it did not shown up on this Tuesday’s Rules committee agenda, she stalked into the reform commission’s ‘planning and infrastructure’ subcommittee meeting that was being held on Saturday in her district at Pacoima City Hall, where her office was located, and proceeded to unloaded her frustrations onto the three members on that panel.

Rodriguez’s remarks to the commission on Saturday were unorthodox, especially when compared to the welcome remarks of other host council members who have appeared supportive of the underlying purpose of the charter reform commission. Rodriguez, who often offers a contrarian voice on the City Council, opened by saying, “Well, I’m going to be me, that’s what you’re used to!” before launching into extended remarks intimating skullduggery on the part of those who appointed many of the people sitting on the commission — which were the mayor and council leadership, such as Marqueece Harris-Dawson (some commissioners had been appointed by the prior council president, Paul Krekorian, who is no longer on the City Council after he termed out). There were several people in the audience, from her district, who cheered for Rodriguez.

She characterized the work of the charter reform panel as being used as a “ruse” to misguide people into thinking that proposals like increasing the number of people in City Council or instituting ranked-choice voting would lead to city services being delivered better. And she said having city department officials present to the panel was not a good use of their time, and she also said she felt the panel’s work was being rushed through.

Read the full story by The LA Reporter here.

The LA Times on Friday published a story diving into the delays to LA city leaders’ efforts to take the police out of the city’s enforcement of traffic regulations. The LA City Council’s leader, President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, is quoted in the story as saying he is “very upset about the delay.” 

A bit of progress was made about sixteen months ago, in June 2024, with the LA City Council calling for reports on topics like forming unarmed civilian teams to respond to and investigate traffic-related incidents, limiting fines, and ending stops on infractions on things like expired tags and air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror. But since then, requested reports have remained unfinished, despite a 90-day deadline given at that time, or haven’t been taken up.

Two reports on the issue are pending in the ad hoc committee on alternatives to policing (chaired by Bob Blumenfield and Eunisses Hernandez).

Meanwhile, Sharon Tso, head of the Chief Legislative Analyst’s Office (which reports to the LA City Council), says they plan to put out two more reports by the end of the year. They’ve had some difficulties getting reliable data from some departments, she told the LA Times’ Libor Jany. Tso, however, did not name the specific departments where they were having difficulty getting data from.

Read the LA Times story here.

Checking out the candidates: Here are a few ways to get to know some of the candidates running in upcoming elections. The Working Families Party has launched a new “meet the candidates” interview series, starting with candidates from gubernatorial race. The series’ first three interviews with Tony Thurmond, Katie Porter and Betty Yee can be viewed on their YouTube page here. The election for governor will be held in November 2026. And Streets for All is holding a “mobility debate” on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 for candidates running in the election for Senate District 24. The debate will feature candidates Ellie Evans, John Erickson, Mike Newhouse and Sion Roy.

Mayor Bass signs executive directive cutting red-tape on Olympics projects: A new executive directive signed by Bass this week during a ceremony in Vence aims to cut a bunch of red tape around projects related to the 2028 Olympics, with 1,000 days left before Los Angeles hosts the major event. It includes instructions to create an ordinance that would allow Olympics-related projects to bypass the city’s zoning rules, as well as a process for speeding up mobility projects related to the Games. The directive also sets up an Office of Major Events and directs departments to prioritize activities related to the Games.

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