Elizabeth Chou

Zev Yaroslavsky is at the mic. He's become very outspoken about the city's fiscal responsibility as we're responsible for cost overruns (as is the state).

"I don't know what the city knows about what the finances are. No one knows for sure. Somebody in the city has got to know where they stand"

Many of the mutual groups had been reaching out to Soto-Martinez's office for some time. Last September, they gathered to pass out flyers (it wasn't a protest) as he and his staffers were honored as champions on addressing housing/homelessness issues. thelareporter.la/p/la-city-co...

The mutual aid groups have been posting up some information about the boycott effort on their Instagram page here: www.instagram.com/p/DVfCBbniVj... bsky.app/profile/repo...

And at the moment, 2 days before the fundraiser, the url (bit.ly/hugo0308) in the flyer gets you to a page (secure.actblue.com/donate/hsm03...) that doesn't appear to be taking donations.

Some text on the page says, "At this time, the fundraiser is not accepting donations. This may be temporary."

This week mutual aid groups called for a boycott by participants in Soto-Martinez's comedy fundraiser on Sunday.

Lily Du, who was featured in this flyer, told me today that she is joining the boycott and and that Dropout Improv has pulled out of it.

50 Mutual Aid Groups Demand Repeal of ‘Anti-Homeless’ Zones in Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez’s District ~ L.A. TACO “I have voted against every single 41.18 motion that has come into city council,” Soto-Martinez says in his defense during an interview with L.A. TACO at the protest.

Story from @lataco.bsky.social on recent rally by mutual aid groups to put heat on CD13 council member Hugo Soto-Martinez, as he runs for re-election ...

50 Mutual Aid Groups Demand Repeal of ‘Anti-Homeless’ Zones in Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez’s District lataco.com/soto-martine...

One of the commissioners Melinda Murray had said tonight that this proposal lacked teeth.

They went forward with a proposal to give the council a bit more power. They made it so that the Police Commission would have a time limit to act on any policy the council wants to set (with option to veto the council's policy), and that also let's Council override Police Commission decisions.

At its meeting today on LAPD accountability, the Charter Reform Commission ended up punting on a proposal to give the LA City Council direct authority over the LAPD, which some council members wanted so they could impose accountability measures onto LAPD.

The agenda is up for Friday's joint meeting where LA City Council members will review data on LAPD's pretextual stops.

It's at 2 pm in council chambers at LA City Hall.

Here's the agenda: lacity.primegov.com/Portal/Meeti...

bsky.app/profile/repo...

Nothing's confirmed until the agenda comes out, but I'm hearing that this meeting time will be changed, maybe delayed an hour. The best way is to watch this council file to see what's really gonna happen:
cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkc...

bsky.app/profile/repo...

Nothing's confirmed until the agenda comes out, but I'm hearing that this meeting time will be changed, maybe delayed an hour. The best way is to watch this council file to see what's really gonna happen:
cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkc...

bsky.app/profile/repo...

And you can watch how the pretextual stop discussion went at the Board of Police Commissioner's meeting yesterday, here: youtu.be/dm7rtmOMh0E?...
bsky.app/profile/repo...

Stop the Stops: Ending Racially Biased and Ineffective LAPD Traffic Stops | Catalyst California Catalyst California report on racially biased police enforcement of traffic stops in Los Angeles

At Friday's City Council hearing, Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project) should be presenting their analysis of LAPD's pretextual stops that found the practice to be extremely ineffective, esp. when it's primarily on police discretion: www.catalystcalifornia.org/campaign-too...

Interestingly, while the City Council can decide policy for most other city depts., they aren't allowed to do that with LAPD policy. That authority actually belongs to the Board of Police Commissioners, which heard a report from LAPD officials yesterday: cityclerk.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2...

Stop the Stops: Ending Racially Biased and Ineffective LAPD Traffic Stops | Catalyst California Catalyst California report on racially biased police enforcement of traffic stops in Los Angeles

At Friday's City Council hearing, Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project) should be presenting their analysis of LAPD's pretextual stops that found the practice to be extremely ineffective, esp. when it's primarily on police discretion: www.catalystcalifornia.org/campaign-too...

At Friday's City Council hearing, Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project) should be presenting their analysis of LAPD's pretextual stops that found the practice to be extremely ineffective, esp. when it's primarily on police discretion: t.co/OzCBdsmXcW

A couple of LA City Council committees are supposed to meet at 1 p.m. on Friday to review data on a controversial practice by LAPD officers of stopping drivers by using a pretext -- a minor violation -- as the reason, in order to find a more serious violation.

A few minutes later, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson adds that his legislative staffer's "homeland" is Puerto Rico, and it's good because Quiñones is needed there.

MHD: "I'm excited they were able to make that connection."

Here's LA City Council members reacting to the news that LADWP's general manager Janisse Quiñones is resigning (effective March 27) to go lead an effort to modernize Puerto Rico's power grid.

"Is that serious or a joke?"

"That's interesting news we'll have to deal with now."

Here's the full agenda for the meeting: drive.google.com/file/d/1guBS...

Any reports or material w/context to what's on the agenda, including written comment, letters from elected officials/depts., staff reports, motions, you gotta check their website: reformlacharter.lacity.gov/commission-m...

LAPD and policing have been pretty hot topics at the Charter Reform Commission and it's finally back on the agenda this Thursday (4 pm).

The ad hoc committee tossed out the reform proposals, but there seems to be space on the agenda to bring some ideas back.

I think it should just be staff, who gather information or input from various places. The "ex parte" conversations between staff and elected officials aren't being disclosed, at least not as a requirement, and commission staff already stated they don't think it's a good idea to disclose them.

Here's the library's full statement.

LA Public Library just sent back a statement on letters from @aclusocal.bsky.social and @ncacensorshio.bsky.social

From what I can tell much of it is similar to past statements but this part stood out to me.

bsky.app/profile/repo...

And the inspector general part of Andrades motion got changed, so that the IG would be appointed by the Ethics Commission's executive director. That appeared to be in response to complaints the original motion gave the mayor influence, which some had a problem with.
bsky.app/profile/repo...

Commissioner Melinda Murray, who was previously president of the Ethics Commission, spoke last night about ethics reforms like with lobbying and developers, that didn't get done even as corruption occurred (involving bags of money in Vegas for example)

So the Charter Commission yesterday advanced a proposal to give the Ethics Commission the ability to place measures onto the ballot. There've been measures like a municipal lobbying ordinance that have gone dead because council didn't act, and ballot placement can be a workaround.

There've been concerns throughout this charter reform process of Mayor Karen Bass having a heavy hand, w/Council member Monica Rodriguez calling this out early on, and some commissioners raising concerns that it might be preventing reforms to make the LAPD more accountable.

This is the motion, by Commissioner Diego Andrades, that the Ethics Commission is taking issue with. (The Ethics Commission's letter also takes issue with some parts of the Charter Reform Commission's staff report): drive.google.com/file/d/14G0e...