What Happened
The council met on May 9, 2025, with 10-14 members present. The council marked the 60th anniversary of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale, the resident chorus of Walt Disney Concert Hall, with a presentation led by Council Member Ysabel Jurado. The council also recognized Croatian American Heritage Month with the Croatian consul general and community members, and celebrated European Union Day with EU consular representatives, hosted by Council Member Traci Park. Council Member Park separately honored three Pacific Palisades teenagers — students from Harvard-Westlake and Windward — for organizing fundraising efforts to support local businesses destroyed in the January wildfires.
All items passed unanimously, including revenue bonds of up to $65 million for the 116-unit Oaks on Balboa affordable housing project in Council District 4, which converts former office space to housing (Item 1, CF 25-0477); the Innovation and Performance Commission's 2023-24 annual report (Item 2, CF 25-0332); a report on resources needed to host citywide gun buyback events (Item 4, CF 24-1012); and, after comments from Council Member Adrin Nazarian, resolutions adding city support to the state legislative program for Senate Bill 630 and Assembly Bill 1138, both aimed at modernizing and expanding California's Film and Television Tax Credit Program to address runaway production (Items 6-7, CF 25-0002-S28 and CF 25-0002-S30).
Public Comment
Public comment was dominated by workers from Flying Food Group, an LAX airline catering company, and organizers with Unite Here Local 11, urging the council to approve the pending hotel and airport worker minimum wage increase (the "Olympic wage") at the following week's vote; several workers said they earned $20.73 an hour after years on the job and described rent increases and multiple jobs needed to make ends meet. A Unite Here organizer also raised sexual harassment allegations from several Flying Food Group employees and called on the council to hold the company accountable. Other public comment opposed a reported LADOT budget proposal to lay off roughly 460 crossing guards and replace them with traffic officers, arguing the change would not save money once overtime costs are factored in and would eliminate a well-known form of neighborhood-level safety presence. A speaker also questioned why the Oaks on Balboa project's revenue bonds were awarded to a New York-based for-profit developer rather than a local nonprofit.