What Happened
Item 28, an Economic Development and Jobs Committee report directing the City Attorney to draft an ordinance extending the Fair Work Week Ordinance's predictive-scheduling and know-your-rights protections to fast-food workers, dominated the meeting and drew extended debate over competing amendments. The underlying committee direction — which does not raise wages but would require fast-food employers to provide advance scheduling notice and rights training, with the Office of Wage Standards, Bureau of Contract Administration, and City Attorney reporting back on enforcement resources — had passed committee unanimously.
Public comment during the item was repeatedly interrupted by a disruptive attendee who was ultimately ordered removed from the chamber under Council Rule 7 after multiple warnings, delaying the discussion.
Contested Votes
Amendment 28B (Blumenfield-Park), which would have directed the Chief Legislative Analyst to issue a request-for-proposals for an outside economic-impact study of the ordinance's effects on small and franchise restaurant businesses before proceeding, failed 7-8, with Harris-Dawson, Hernandez, Hutt, Jurado, Price, Raman, Soto-Martinez, and Yaroslavsky voting no. CLA staff testified that such a study would likely take a minimum of four to six months and require identifying new funding, given competing demands from the city's budget season and other major reports already in progress. Soto-Martinez argued the economic and public-health impacts of fast-food scheduling instability had already been extensively studied in prior reports and that further delay would harm workers who had waited years for the protections.
Amendment 28C (Soto-Martinez, amending Council Member Rodriguez's own amendment 28A) softened 28A's language directing the CLA to report on small-business protections from "will" to "could," and struck a separate instruction directing a report on carving out exemptions for businesses located in the city's designated "Good Food Zones" and food-desert/"JEDI zones." It initially passed 13-2, with Park and Rodriguez voting no.
Reconsideration of Amendment 28C: After Council Members Nazarian and Padilla asked to change their votes, the council reconsidered 28C, and it was re-adopted 10-5, with Lee, Nazarian, Padilla, Park, and Rodriguez voting no. Rodriguez argued the underlying exemption-study language was needed to protect the "Good Food Zone" and "JEDI zone" incentive programs the city created to attract businesses, including fast-food restaurants, into underserved neighborhoods like South Los Angeles, warning that removing it risked discouraging investment in those communities. Council Member Padilla said she was concerned the council was moving away from data-driven policymaking, drawing a contrast with the deliberative, multi-report process behind the city's 2015 minimum-wage increase. Council Member Hernandez and Council Member Jurado argued further delay or data-gathering was not warranted given the extensive existing research on wage theft, poverty, and instability in the fast-food industry.
Adoption of Amendment 28A as amended by 28C passed 11-4, with Lee, Nazarian, Padilla, and Park voting no.
Final adoption of Item 28 as amended passed 14-1, with Hernandez casting the lone no vote.
Public Comment
Dozens of fast-food workers, several represented by SEIU Local 721, urged the council to pass the Fair Work Week extension without further delay, describing wage theft, unpredictable scheduling, and retaliation for organizing. Several identified themselves as parents or as experiencing homelessness while working for large restaurant chains. In opposition, multiple small and franchise restaurant owners — including operators with locations in Northridge and elsewhere in the city — argued the ordinance would duplicate existing state Fast Food Council regulations, was unaffordable on top of the $20 minimum wage, and would force further cuts to staff hours.