Open seat in L.A. Council District 2 draws 7
District includes NoHo, Studio City, Sun Valley, Valley Glen, Van Nuys
There's an open seat in this year's Los Angeles City Council District 2 race because current Council President Paul Krekorian is leaving his longtime seat due to term limits.
Seven are running in the March 5 primary election to replace Krekorian, including: JonPaul Bird, a mental health professional; Jillian Burgos, a small business owner; Marin Ghandilyan, an attorney; Manny Gonez, policy director at TreePeople; Sam Kbushyan, principal of a public affairs firm; Rudy Melendez, a laborer and artist; and Adrin Nazarian, a former assemblymember.
The winner will represent San Fernando Valley residents in North Hollywood, Studio City,
Sun Valley, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys.
If no candidate captures more than 50% of the vote in next month's primary, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the Nov. 5 general election.
The following information was compiled from written statements to a questionnaire that the Los Angeles Daily News asked candidates to fill out, their comments during a candidates forum Feb. 6, via Zoom hosted by neighborhood councils in District 2, and information published on the candidates' websites.
The Candidates
Jon-Paul Bird, 41, is a marriage and family therapist. He said he'd be the councilmember to examine the mental health impacts in every aspect of the city. Bird previously worked in clinics and with socio-economically disadvantaged families and now has a private practice in Sherman Oaks, where he works predominantly with Blacks, Indigenous people and people of color.
Being a therapist taught him to actively listen to people and to problem solve, he said.
“I have had the experience of counseling people from all walks of life and across the socio-economic spectrum,” he said. “I have learned how we can reform policing by being a therapist for officers as well as those who have been profiled or treated unjustly, improve mobility by working with people who depend on the Metro or fear walking our streets, (or address) the struggle of housing by working with people who fear losing their homes or have moved in pursuit of a more affordable life.”
Jillian Burgos owns a murdermystery theater company and serves on the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council. She has said she's a lifelong renter who experienced housing insecurity much of her life.
Burgos did not respond to requests by this newspaper to complete the candidates' questionnaire, but according to her website, she helped create a tenant rights workshop along with the city and two pro-housing groups, worked on grants to feed homeless people in her community and helped bring mental health services and mentorship to students.
“I am not a politician, but I have been called to lead, and NoHo has been my home for … nearly 15 years, and I have become deeply invested in helping the people of my community,” she said during last week's forum.
Marin Ghandilyan, an attorney, did not respond to our questionnaire or participate in last week's candidates forum. According to her website, she's running to make L.A. a “smarter, safer, and wealthier” city.
Neighboring cities like Burbank, Glendale and Beverly Hills provide great examples of how to create better 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.
“As an attorney, I have a deep understanding of rules and regulations, and I know how to use the law to benefit our residents, enhancing their quality of life, real estate appreciation initiatives, their social well-being, and our local economy,” Ghandilyan said on her site.
Manny Gonez, 41, is policy director at the environmental nonprofit TreePeople. Prior to that, he worked at the nonprofits L.A. Family Housing and the Weingart Center, another homeless services provider, and at Friends of the Los Angeles River.
Gonez said he has fought against luxury housing development along the L.A. River in mainly Latino communities and that he supported a successful effort to close Exide Technologies, one of the worst battery recycling polluters in U.S. history that contaminated 10,000 homes in workingclass and Latino communities.
Gonez said he's running for City Council “to continue my work as a champion for people experiencing homelessness, affordable housing, environmental justice, and to provide residents with the city services they need to thrive, which is of heightened importance given growing inequality and the need to continue to support those who are most vulnerable.”
Sam Kbushyan, 44, is the principal of Sam Kbushyan Group (SKG), a public affairs firm. He serves on several boards including the Respiratory Care Board of California, L.A. Community Alliance and Immigrants Charitable Foundation. Previously he was an organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 434b, which represents healthcare workers.
As a small business owner, Kbushyan said he gets frustrated when he hears about bureaucracy and corruption.
“CD2 has the potential to be a model in the city for people in all income brackets and diverse groups,” he said. “Whether you drive or take public transportation, you deserve well-maintained streets. We must reject business as usual and end the corruption at City Hall.”
Rudy Melendez, 55, did not respond to messages or submit a completed questionnaire. But during last week's forum, he said he works in the film industry and is a member of a Hollywood labor union.
“As a socially progressive, fiscally conservative laborer, artist and environmentalist, I intend to root out the corruption at City Hall, restoring character through public service and rebuilding voter confidence in L.A. city governance,” he said.
Melendez also ran for City Council four years ago.
Adrin Nazarian, 50, is a former California state assemblymember who now serves on the California Public Employment Relations Board. He was elected to the Legislature in 2012 and served until 2022, representing residents in the 46th Assembly District. More than half his constituents also lived in L.A. City Council District 2, he noted.
Before being elected to office, Nazarian worked as an aide to then-Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and later served as chief of staff to L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian — first when Krekorian was in the Assembly, then again during the early part of Krekorian's time on the City Council.
“I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and when I arrived in this city … after fleeing war and persecution in Iran with my family at the age of eight, I learned for the first time what it was like to live and not be persecuted. I'm running for City Council with the commitment to improve the quality of life of our residents,” Nazarian said in his answers to this paper's questionnaire.
Top issues for the candidates
Nazarian's top three priorities are to address homelessness, public safety, and housing and affordability. On homelessness, he said the city can't wait for permanent housing before saving lives and should build or convert existing space into emergency shelters. He wants to raise wages and protect renters to prevent more people from falling into homelessness.
He also said he would push to diversify the city's housing portfolio by building a mix of affordable, low-income, market rate and middle-income housing; streamline the building process; and support transit and corridor-oriented developments near the Metro red line stations in North Hollywood and Universal City. “Additionally,” he said, “corridors like Lankershim and Vineland are primed for increased housing options. I will rezone commercial corridors to attract new businesses and residences to these areas.”
On public safety, Nazarian said he'd focus on community-based policing; expand the police force — he supports Mayor Karen Bass' plan to offer incentives to recruit new officers — while reforming the LAPD; and increase funding for the fire department.
Melendez said during the candidates forum that in addition to rooting out City Hall corruption, he would prioritize public safety and improving the delivery of basic city services like graffiti removal, litter abatement and regular maintenance of bus stops, parks, recreational spaces and streetscapes.
He 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” — though he said he's not sure anyone has the answer. “I don't know if I have the answer to solve it. I don't think anyone does really. But what we're doing right now is not working, and I'm not going to make any promises tonight,” he said.
Kbushyan cited homelessness, community safety and rooting out City Hall corruption as his top priorities.
He said he supports a combination of providing housing, services and tenant protections to keep people off the streets. He would support ending “violent sweeps” and removing armed officers from regular homeless encampment outreach efforts. He backs converting vacant or underutilized hotels, motels, retail and office buildings into interim and permanent housing and would open dropin centers with services for unhoused people 24/7. He would support creating union job programs to train and hire homeless outreach workers.
Kbushyan defined safety as “housing stability; zero traffic deaths; road repair and emergency vehicle access; access to jobs and healthcare; aging in place; clean air; programs, and support for youth.”
To address corruption in City Hall, Kbushyan wants a new redistricting process to determine City Council districts and to increase the size of the council. He wants to reduce the influence councilmembers have in land-use decisions; close loopholes in a ban on campaign donations from developers who have projects before the city, and ban campaign donations from corporations; more strictly define who a “lobbyist” is and require lobbyists to identify themselves when speaking at City Hall or neighborhood council meetings; and tighten rules about when councilmembers must recuse themselves from City Council votes.
Gonez's top priorities are to address housing and homelessness, a greener economy and improving city services. He wants to identify, track and support individuals most at risk of losing their homes to prevent homelessness. He supports current efforts to move unsheltered people indoors, then provide them with wraparound services that include mental health or substance abuse treatment services.
In addition, Gonez wants to expand access to green space and parks, to increase the city's tree canopy and to build more sustainable public transit systems.
To improve city services, he said he would work with city departments on faster response times to residents who call in for services and he wants to work to improve roads and create safe passages to schools.
Burgos said “housing as a human right,” public transportation and unarmed crisis response are among her top priorities. She said she would push for the conversion of empty commercial buildings into housing, more public housing, social housing, renter protections and getting the homeless into housing, along with wraparound services.
During the candidates forum, she criticized the city's anti-camping law known as 41.18, which makes it illegal for a homeless person to set up a tent within 500 feet of “sensitive” areas such as schools, daycare centers, parks or libraries. Doing so can lead to arrest. Burgos said enforcement of the ordinance only temporarily beautifies an area but can cause trauma to the homeless person.
In terms of mobility, Burgos supports creating protected bicycle lanes on heavily traveled corridors and dedicated bus lanes. She supports making L.A. Metro fares free.
Bird listed homelessness, affordable housing and public safety as his top issues. He proposed tagging shelter beds with a barcode so that as soon as someone enters or leaves a shelter, the status of that bed's availability is updated to a central system and outreach workers learn in real time if there's space at a shelter for another person. He supports the state's CARE Court program to help people battling mental illness or addiction.
Bird proposed rezoning commercial corridors to accommodate mixeduse residential and commercial developments. He also wants to work with the county to let the city buy properties listed on the county's default tax lien auctions list before other buyers come along. He would dedicate those properties to uses such as social housing or community land trusts.
On public safety, Bird supports unarmed crisis responses and wants more funding for mental health technicians and street medicine teams. He said such teams could also respond to calls when someone is having a mental health crisis, instead of sending the fire department. And he wants to better protect public utilities to prevent copper thefts that darken city streetlights.
Fundraising and endorsements
Here are the candidates who raised the most campaign funds as of Jan. 20, according to filings with the city's ethics commission:
Nazarian raised nearly $610,000 and spent over $456,000. He also received $174,000 in public matching funds through a voterapproved program. Nazarian is endorsed by Mayor Bass, Krekorian — who is his former boss and whose seat he's seeking to take over — the L.A. County Federation of Labor and the L.A. County Democratic Party.
Kbushyan raised about $391,000 and spent about $227,000. He received nearly $134,000 in matching funds. He's endorsed by Angie Reyes-English, the mayor pro tem in Hawthorne; and Mike Schaefer, a member of the California Board of Equalization.
Gonez raised just over $169,000 and spent more than $256,000. He was helped by about $115,000 in matching funds. He's endorsed by former state Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco, former Councilmember Ed Reyes and several unions.
Burgos raised over $68,000 and received close to $80,000 in matching funds. She's endorsed by City Controller Kenneth Mejia, former mayoral candidate and activist Gina Viola.