6 incumbents, 25 challengers, fight for seven seats
Seven of the 15seats on the Los Angeles City Council are up for election this year. Voters in the even-numbered districts will cast ballots to determine their representatives on a powerful council that oversees a $13billion city budget — and whose members each represent nearly 265,000people in sprawling districts. Incumbents are running in all but one of the seven races. The open seat is Council District 2where Council President Paul Krekorian is being termed out. With seven candidates vying for Krekorian's seat, District 2is one of the most hotly contested L.A. City Council races in the March 5primary election.
Incumbents usually sail back into office. But with one incumbent facing allegations of ethics violations and another widely criticized for his involvement in a backroom conversation, the primary is being watched closely. In Council District 12, incumbent John Lee is fighting allegations brought against him by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission last fall that focus on a lavish 2017 trip he took to Las Vegas while chief of staff to then-Councilmember Mitch Englander. Lee faces challenger Serena Oberstein, who heads a nonprofit organization and is the former president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission.
Meanwhile, seven challengers are jockeying for the Council District 14seat, hoping to oust Councilmember Kevin de León who faced public outcry over his role in an audio leak scandal that upended City Hall in late 2022.
Below is a summary of the seven L.A. City Council races appearing on the March 5 ballot.
District 2
There are seven candidates and no incumbent in this race to represent San Fernando Valley voters in North Hollywood, Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys. Jon-Paul Bird: is a marriage and family therapist who wants more mixed-use residential and commercial developments. To address the city's housing needs, he suggested that the city buy properties through the county's default tax lien auction system before other buyers come along and dedicate the properties for uses such as social housing. He also proposed that the city invest in more mental health technicians and street medicine teams and to protect public utilities from copper thefts that darken the city's streetlights.
Jillian Burgos: is a small business owner and sits on the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council. She helped create a tenant rights workshop, worked on grants to feed homeless people and helped bring mental health services and mentorships to students. Burgos wants to convert empty commercial buildings into housing and to provide more public housing, renter protections and homeless housing with wraparound services. She wants protected bicycle lanes on heavily traveled corridors and dedicated bus lanes and supports making L.A. Metro free.
Marin Ghandilyan: is an attorney. Her website says she's running to make L.A. a “smarter, safer, and wealthier” city. Neighboring Burbank, Glendale and Beverly Hills are examples of how to create more desirable environments for investors, business owners and residents, and a well thought-out and executed plan can result in “a sound property market and an enhanced place to live and work,” her website says.
Manny Gonez: is policy director at the environmental nonprofit TreePeople. He previously worked at L.A. Family Housing and the Weingart Center, another homeless services provider, and at Friends of the Los Angeles River. He wants to support those most at risk of losing their homes and hopes to provide wraparound services to people in shelters. He wants the city to transition to a “greener” economy, create more green space and parks, and build sustainable public transit systems. He also wants to improve the city's response time to residents who call with service requests.
Sam Kbushyan: is the principal of Sam Kbushyan Group (SKG), a public affairs firm. He serves on several boards including the Respiratory Care Board of California and LA Community Alliance.
He wants to end “violent sweeps” and to remove armed officers from regular homeless encampment outreach efforts. He also wants to convert vacant or underutilized buildings into housing and to open 24/7 drop-in service centers for the homeless. To address corruption, Kbushyan wants to reduce councilmembers' influence on land-use decisions, close loopholes in campaign donation restrictions and reform lobbying regulations. Rudy Melendez: works in the film industry and is a member of a Hollywood labor union. Besides rooting out City Hall corruption, he'd prioritize public safety and improve the delivery of basic city services like graffiti removal, litter abatement and maintenance of bus stops, parks, recreational spaces and streetscapes. He has called homelessness the “crisis of our lifetime” and said that after years of policy failures, the city needs to “throw out the playbook and start over.”
Adrin Nazarian: is a former California state lawmaker who was elected to represent the 46th Assembly District in 2012and served until 2022. He was an aide to then-Rep. Brad Sherman and later served as chief of staff to
Paul Krekorian when Krekorian was in the state Assembly, and then during the early part of Krekorian's time on the
L.A. City Council.
Nazarian has proposed converting existing spaces into emergency shelters. He'd also push for more affordable, low-income, market rate and middle-income housing; support transit and corridororiented developments; and rezone commercial corridors to attract new businesses and housing. Nazarian supports community-based policing and wants to expand the police force while reforming the police department.
District 4
Councilmember Nithya Raman: represents District 4, which stretches from the San Fernando Valley to Silver Lake and includes the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Feliz, the Hollywood Hills, Sherman Oaks, Encino and Van Nuys. The district was heavily impacted by the city's 2021redistricting process, when the District 4 boundaries were redrawn and Raman lost many constituents who voted her into office in 2020.
Raman is hoping for another four years, but first she must beat back two challengers. When she ran for office in 2020, she pledged to address homeless encampments and street homelessness more effectively – and she claims that she's delivered. As chair of the City Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee, Raman wants more accountability from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), a countywide body that coordinates housing and services for homeless people. Raman says that one way to address the city `s shortage of police is by dispatching trained workers to deal with nonviolent issues.
Ethan Weaver: is a deputy city attorney who has worked as a neighborhood prosecutor in partnership with police stations, L.A.'s elected neighborhood councils and small businesses. He was part of the state initiative Neighborhood Prosecutor Program, resolving problems like loitering, drug activity and illegal dumping. He wants the city to get out of LAHSA, and instead he favors a city-controlled agency that is accountable to city officials. To build more housing, he said he wants to work with developers and residents, “bringing the community along” to be part of the city approval process.
Weaver also expressed concern over the shortage of LAPD officers.
Levon (“Lev”) Baronian: a software engineer, proposes free, onsite care for unhoused people on the streets, housing assistance paired with vocational training, educational programs and rehabilitation services, according to his campaign website.
District 6
Councilmember Imelda Padilla: is seeking a full term on the council, following her victory in a special election last June to represent District 6. In 2023, she won the empty seat of former City Council President Nury Martinez who resigned over her racist backroom remarks that were secretly taped and leaked to media, making headlines nationwide.
The 6th District includes the San Fernando Valley communities of Arleta, Lake Balboa, North Hollywood, North Hills, Panorama City, Van Nuys and Sun Valley.
Since her special election, Padilla said she's worked to address the unintended consequences of a city code that pushed recreational vehicles out of neighborhoods and into industrial corridors, causing a lack of parking for business owners, customers and workers.
In addition to her priorities of sheltering the unhoused and economic development, she wants to work with local LAPD stations to increase public safety emergency response times.
Ely De La Cruz Ayao: a real estate broker, has emphasized the need to help businesses. Ayao's priorities include addressing crime, homelessness, clean and safe neighborhoods, educational environments and small businesses. He wants the city to tackle low-income housing by using federal tax income to fund construction. He says he has no criticism of Padilla but has better ideas to reduce crime, including an LAPD special unit dedicated to cleaning up streets and homeless encampments. Carmenlina Minasova: is a respiratory care practitioner who said she's a passionate advocate for the homeless, rescue animals and neighborhood safety, and that she stands firm against discrimination and advocates for the rights of all individuals regardless of their background. Minasova is also running in the Assembly District 43race.
District 8
Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson: is seeking a final term to represent District 8. To do that, he'll have to beat two challengers.
District 8includes parts of South L.A. and spans from Baldwin Hills to the border of Watts. Neighborhoods include Vermont Knolls, King Estates, Canterbury Knolls, Park Mesa Heights, Baldwin Hills, Hyde Park, Chesterfield Square, Vermont Vista, Green Meadows, View Heights and West Park Terrace.
Harris-Dawson chairs the council's powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee and became the council's president pro tem last June, replacing Councilmember Curren Price who left the post amid corruption charges. (Price has pled not guilty.) Before joining the City Council, Harris-Dawson was president and CEO of Community Coalition, a grassroots organization in South L.A. led by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass before she entered politics. As a councilmember, HarrisDawson worked on creating an unarmed crisis response to divert nonviolent 911calls and introduced a motion to end the use of armed personnel to enforce traffic violations. Jahan Epp: one of HarrisDawson's challengers, said the incumbent hasn't done enough. Epps, whose family has lived in the district 80 years, cited boarded-up buildings and businesses dating back to the Watts riots of 1965along major corridors that he said have become part of the “oblivious norm.”
Epps, a real estate broker, said District 8needs an economic tax base and lacks opportunities for fine dining, bars, lounges, roller skating rinks and bowling alleys. He said the district isn't a good place for small businesses, and such shortages are why teenagers can't find jobs.
Cliff Smith: the third candidate, is the business manager with Roofers Union Local 36. He served two terms on the South Central Neighborhood Council and was a delegate to the South L.A. Alliance of Neighborhood Councils.
He says he stands for workers' rights and affordable housing, and wants an elected civilian police board with full authority over the LAPD. Smith wants to address the shortage of low-income housing and public housing in L.A. He says everyone who works deserves a living wage, fair labor conditions and union protections, and wants equality for immigrant workers.
District 10
Five candidates – including appointed Councilmember Heather Hutt – want to represent Angelenos in District 10. The district encompasses Leimert Park, La Cienega Heights, Baldwin Hills, MidCity and Koreatown and part of the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.
Hutt served as an interim councilmember for months before she was appointed to the empty City Council seat last April after former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted of bribery and fraud. Ridley-Thomas was recently sentenced to 42 months in federal prison but is appealing his sentence.
Hutt was a senior advisor and statewide director for the office of Kamala Harris when Harris was a U.S. senator.
Hutt was also the first Black woman hired as a U.S. Senate state director in California. Before that, she led environmental justice policy changes in Watts and South L.A.
Hutt said her top priority is to house Angelenos facing homelessness. She said that after her appointment to the council seat, her office housed more than 900people. She also wants to make sure homeless people aren't hurting anyone, committing crimes or living in “vulnerable” places such as near schools.
Eddie Anderson: senior pastor at McCarty Memorial Church in West Adams, is involved with Black Lives Matter and is co-founder of Partnership for Growth L.A., an organization that focuses on food access, jobs, economic security and workforce development.
He supports tenant protections, increased living wages, access to employment and preservation of affordable housing units. He wants to invest in mental health resources, community safety ambassadors, youth and senior programs, street improvements, healthy food access and green spaces. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer: was elected to the California legislature in Assembly District 59in 2012. He's chaired the Assembly Public Safety Committee and has introduced legislation focused on criminal justice and corrections reform, ending the school-to-prison pipeline and creating jobs in South L.A. communities. Before joining the Assembly, Jones-Sawyer was deputy to L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan in the 1990s. His priorities include building more permanent affordable housing and addressing crimes such as street racing and smash-and-grab robberies. Aura Vásquez: is a small business owner, community organizer and environmental activist. She's led the Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign to end L.A.'s reliance on coal, and was appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners. Vásquez supports a “housing first” approach to homelessness and said she'd simplify new construction pipelines and increase mental health and addiction help for unhoused Angelenos. She would address neighborhood safety, promising to keep residential areas lit and to develop community-based policing strategies.
Grace Yoo: is a community advocate, attorney and former city commissioner. She's active in the L.A. County Democratic Party and co-founded the Asian Jewish Initiative and the Environmental Justice Collaborative.
While housing for the homeless is important, Yoo said it's also critical to address what causes homelessness — addiction, mental health needs, the lack of affordable housing and financial insecurity. She wants to incentivize developers to build affordable housing, make public transportation safe and reliable, and provide resources to first responders, social workers, mental health clinicians and outreach teams.
District 12
Councilmember John Lee: elected in 2019, is hoping for another term to represent District 12. To do so, he'll have to beat Serena Oberstein, a former president of the city's ethics commission.
Lee is contesting claims of ethics violations that he allegedly committed while chief of staff to then-Councilmember Mitch Englander in 2016and 2017. Lee is accused of accepting gifts from a businessman and developer far in excess of the gift limit for city officials, including hotel amenities, gambling chips and drinks during a 2017trip to Las Vegas.
The city's Ethics Commission staff alleges that Lee accepted the gifts, failed to report them, misused his position, and aided and abetted Englander, who misused his own position -- and ultimately went to prison. Lee denies the allegations and is suing the Ethics Commission over its case.
Serena Oberstein: is challenging Lee while that controversy plays out in court. Oberstein is executive director of Jewish World Watch, a humanitarian nonprofit that encourages “people of all faiths and cultures to join the ongoing fight against genocide,” according to the group's website.
Lee and Oberstein are trying
to convince voters they're the best person to represent Council District 12, which includes the communities of Chatsworth, Granada Hills, North Hills, Northridge, Porter Ranch, Sherwood Forest and West Hills.
Both candidates cited homelessness and public safety as their top two issues. For Lee, another priority would be supporting local businesses while Oberstein said she'd focus on providing “living wage jobs.”
Lee supports the city's anti-camping ordinance, known as 41.18, which makes it illegal for homeless people to sit, lie, sleep, or camp out on public right of ways for up to 500feet from “sensitive” places like schools, daycare centers, parks and libraries. While not all councilmembers have chosen to enforce 41.18in their districts, Lee has. His district logged more 41.18arrests than any other council district in 2022, according to the city controller's office.
Oberstein is not entirely opposed to 41.18, but it wouldn't be her first choice for dealing with encampments. She would prefer a “people first” approach by offering mental health services and other opportunities to get people off the streets.
District 14
Eight people are running in District 14, including Councilmember Kevin de León who was secretly recorded in a backroom conversation in 2021
with two other councilmembers and a powerful labor leader discussing how they wanted City Council district maps redrawn to their liking during the city's once-per-decade redistricting process.
The discussion was laced with racist and derogatory comments. After the recording was leaked online, a scandal broke and many demanded de León's resignation but he refused. He has said that a comment he made — intended as a joke about thenCouncil President Nury Martinez, who was at the meeting — was misinterpreted.
Seven candidates are hoping to unseat de León in a council district that represents much of downtown Los Angeles as well as Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Northeast L.A.
Kevin de León: is a former assemblymember and state senator elected to the City Council in 2020. He said more than 2,000additional beds or housing units for the homeless have become available in District 14since he took office. But he said there's more to do, including addressing RV encampments.
On public safety, de León said he's invested in fixing street lights, creating youth programs to keep kids safe and ensuring the police department has the resources it needs. Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo: has represented Assembly District 52since 2017. She recently pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge stemming from an incident in November in which she crashed into two parked cars.
Born in El Salvador, Carrillo believes that if elected she'd be the first formerly undocumented person to serve on the City Council.
Carrillo cited housing, mental health and public safety as her priorities. She noted that as a legislator, she secured more than $50million to turn L.A. County General Hospital into a housing and mental health facility. She said that as a councilmember she'd employ “robust solutions” and use her connections to bring resources to District 14.
Nadine Diaz: is a geriatric social worker and professor who serves on the city's Council on Aging. She has served on the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council and as a delegate for the L.A. County Democratic Party and the California Democratic Central Committee.
Diaz worked for a time in Skid Row along with a medical team to provide services to the homeless. She supports measures to prevent homelessness and to increase affordable housing. She also wants to reform campaign financing, reduce the influence of money in politics and elections, and expand the city's first-time homebuyer programs.
Genny Guerrero: is a small business owner whose company works with nonprofits. She was a senior field deputy for then-City Councilmember José Huizar from September 2014to September 2015– before his arrest and subsequent sentencing to 13 years in prison for his role in a corrupt pay-to-play scheme. Guerrero has served on a number of community organizations, including the Community
Police Advisory Board for the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division.
Guerrero said she'd create jobs and “build the bridges that are missing” so people facing homelessness can get help. Her priorities also include tenant protections and protecting hillsides and green spaces from overdevelopment, and addressing crimes and “quality of life” issues like investing in street lights and park programs for youth.
Teresa Hillery: is an attorney who retired from Fidelity National Financial last year. She's a member of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and South Park Neighborhood Association and has served on the Los Angeles Congress of Neighborhoods.
Hillery wants to address housing production and protect against gentrification in Northeast L.A. Also important to her are transportation and mobility – including efforts to promote safe walking and bicycling, carpooling and electric vehicles – and support for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Ysabel Jurado: is a tenant rights attorney who said her knowledge as a legal housing expert and her experiences as a teen mom and a “queer, immigrant-raised, working class, woman of color” make her a “battle-tested representative” for the district.
She called for stronger tenant protections and wants to fight climate change through measures like enhancing green spaces, creating tree canopies and community gardens, and creating green jobs to foster a
fossil fuel-free future. Assemblymember Miguel Santiago: was elected in 2014to represent Assembly District 54after serving as a community college board member. In Sacramento, he represents parts of downtown Los Angeles, along with East Hollywood, Boyle Heights, Vernon, Commerce and Montebello. To address affordable and homeless housing needs, Santiago proposes “adaptive reuse” projects in which old buildings are repurposed for housing, and building more tiny home villages. He also wants to focus on job creation and addressing income inequality and has called for safe and clean neighborhoods and a city government that's responsive when residents request services like street maintenance or tree trimming. Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas: is a high school science teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He calls himself “a proud socialist” and an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Vargas proposed using eminent domain to take over empty housing units to permanently house the homeless and residents displaced by rising rents, banning luxury developments to prevent gentrification and repealing a city law that bars homeless encampments in certain “sensitive” areas including near schools, parks or libraries. His other priorities include addressing police brutality and workers' rights.