Meeting Summary
What Happened
Thirteen of fifteen members voted on the day's contested items, with two absent throughout. The 53-item calendar produced five contested votes, three of them Public Safety Committee reports opposed by a single member and two of them halves of the same land use fight.
Item 23 (CF 23-0835) — the Ethel Avenue affordable housing appeal. This was the day's real contest, and the Council took it in two votes that reversed each other's coalition exactly.
At issue was a Priority Housing Project in Council District 4: a 200-unit, 100 percent affordable apartment building at 5501 and 5511 North Ethel Avenue, using state density bonus provisions. The Department of City Planning had ruled the application incomplete under the Permit Streamlining Act, and the developer appealed. The Planning and Land Use Management Committee recommended granting the appeal, which would overturn that determination and let the project proceed.
Council Member Bob Blumenfield moved instead to deny the appeal, leaving the incompleteness finding in place. His motion failed 5-8, opposed by Council President Paul Krekorian, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, John Lee, Tim McOsker, Curren Price, Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Katy Yaroslavsky. The committee report granting the appeal then passed 8-5, with the same five members who had wanted denial — Blumenfield, Kevin de León, Imelda Padilla, Traci Park and Monica Rodriguez — voting against.
The debate turned on the scale of the project against the character of the street, and on what the city's own streamlining directive was meant to do. Members pressed on whether the outcome matched the intent of Executive Directive 1. One member, deferring to the district's own councilmember but declining to follow her lead, put the housing case bluntly: with "hundreds of housing that we need," they did not "know how we can deny the appeal given what we've" seen. Public comment ran the other way, with neighbours objecting to what one called a "billionaire developer... trying to now put a 7-story high-rise" on a small residential street.
Notably, Item 23 was not open for public comment under the agenda's rules — the City Attorney turned away at least one speaker who signed up for it — so residents raised it during general public comment instead.
Items 7, 9 and 11 were each adopted 12-1, with Soto-Martinez the sole opponent on all three. Item 7 accepts a non-monetary donation valued at $1,075,000 in advertising and marketing services for the LAPD Recruitment and Employment Division; neither the City Administrative Officer nor the Chief Legislative Analyst completed a financial analysis of it. Item 9 authorises the Mayor to apply for the Fiscal Year 2023 Urban Areas Security Initiative grant, an estimated $53,932,030 allocation for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Urban Area. Item 11 instructs the LAPD to report on the feasibility of a new police substation at the Westfield Topanga Shopping Center in Council District 3.
Contested Votes
Tallies and member votes are the official record (LA City Clerk CVVS). Descriptions are drawn from the meeting transcript.
Item 7 — CF 23-0945 (Adopted): (CF 23-0945) — Public Safety Committee report approving acceptance of a non-monetary donation valued at $1,075,000 for advertising and marketing services for the LAPD Recruitment and Employment Division, and thanking the donor. Neither the City Administrative Officer nor the Chief Legislative Analyst completed a financial analysis.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (12) | Bob Blumenfield, Curren D. Price, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Kevin Deleon, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Nithya Raman, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park |
| No (1) | Hugo Soto-Martinez |
| Absent (2) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt |
Item 9 — CF 23-0690 (Adopted): (CF 23-0690) — Public Safety Committee report and resolution authorizing the Mayor to submit the Fiscal Year 2023 Urban Areas Security Initiative grant application to the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services on behalf of the city and the Los Angeles/Long Beach Urban Area, for an estimated $53,932,030 allocation, and designating the city entities that will apply for and manage it.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (12) | Bob Blumenfield, Curren D. Price, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Kevin Deleon, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Nithya Raman, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park |
| No (1) | Hugo Soto-Martinez |
| Absent (2) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt |
Item 11 — CF 23-0905 (Adopted): (CF 23-0905) — Public Safety Committee report on a Blumenfield – Lee motion instructing the LAPD, with the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst, to report on the feasibility of creating a new police substation at the Westfield Topanga Shopping Center in Council District 3.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (12) | Bob Blumenfield, Curren D. Price, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Kevin Deleon, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Nithya Raman, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park |
| No (1) | Hugo Soto-Martinez |
| Absent (2) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt |
Item 23 — CF 23-0835 (vote 1 of 2) (Failed): (CF 23-0835) — Councilmember Blumenfield's motion to deny the appeal, which would have left standing the Department of City Planning's determination that the application was incomplete under the Permit Streamlining Act, for the properties at 5501 and 5511 North Ethel Avenue in Council District 4. LA Left Tracker Key Vote
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (5) | Bob Blumenfield, Imelda Padilla, Kevin Deleon, Monica Rodriguez, Traci Park |
| No (8) | Curren D. Price, Hugo Soto-Martinez, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Nithya Raman, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker |
| Absent (2) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt |
Item 23 — CF 23-0835 (vote 2 of 2) (Adopted): (CF 23-0835) — Planning and Land Use Management Committee report granting the appeal filed by 5511 Ethel LLC and Bedrock Properties Group, LLC, and thereby overturning the Department of City Planning's determination of an incomplete application for a Priority Housing Project: a 200-unit, 100 percent affordable apartment building using state density bonus provisions at 5501 and 5511 North Ethel Avenue.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (8) | Curren D. Price, Hugo Soto-Martinez, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Nithya Raman, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker |
| No (5) | Bob Blumenfield, Imelda Padilla, Kevin Deleon, Monica Rodriguez, Traci Park |
| Absent (2) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt |