City Council Meeting

What Happened

The Council confirmed James P. McDonnell as Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department, 11-2, with Council Members Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez opposed and two members not voting. The confirmation was the single item on a special agenda (CF 24-1194), carried on a Public Safety Committee report resolving that the Mayor's appointment "is APPROVED and CONFIRMED."

The Committee moved the appointment with McDonnell's financial disclosure statement filed but his background check still recorded as pending. The South Central Neighborhood Council was the only body to file a community impact statement, and it registered as neutral rather than for or against.

Public comment ran heavily in favour of confirmation. Speakers described McDonnell as the candidate the city needed for the scale of what is coming, one urging the Council to confirm him with an eye to "global events like the 2028 Olympics," another crediting his record in office — "I'm here to support Jim McDonnell because he did a lot for us." A speaker for an organisation commended the Mayor for running what they described as a cross-section process and said the Council had secured "the commitment to make sure the next chief embodies the qualities that we need."

The two votes against came from the Council's most consistent critics of LAPD expansion, and they were the same pair — Hernandez and Soto-Martinez — who had opposed the Police Foundation donations and the recruitment marketing transfers earlier in the year.

The rest of the session was given over to ceremonial business, including presentations honouring city employees and the Department of Aging's intergenerational cookbook, which Soto-Martinez introduced by noting that Council District 13 had submitted the most recipes and that "the most powerful tool to bring people together and build community is to have a meal."