Meeting Summary
WHAT HAPPENED
The Los Angeles City Council's December 5, 2025 meeting combined testimonials on a federal immigration raid at a Mar Vista church, extended Heritage Month presentations, and a contentious first-consideration vote on revising the Rent Stabilization Ordinance's annual rent adjustment formula, which the council pushed through despite an unresolved dispute over how to define "dependent" for purposes of rent increase exemptions.
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT TESTIMONIAL
Council Member Traci Park introduced neighbors and clergy from St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Mar Vista, where federal immigration agents detained roughly 15 people, including gardeners and other neighborhood residents, in the church parking lot on October 10 without the congregation's knowledge or consent. Resident Kim Miller described filming eight vans and numerous armed, masked agents making arrests; Pastor Caleb Kramer said the church responded by supporting community legal-response organizations and urged the city to establish protocols with LAPD for responding to enforcement actions on private property.
RENT STABILIZATION ORDINANCE (ITEM 21)
The council took up, in a special session, a revised Rent Stabilization Ordinance formula lowering the annual automatic rent increase ceiling and eliminating separate rent increases tied to a household's utility payments and to dependents added to an existing tenancy, with tenant advocates from ACE and SAGE urging the council to adopt "version A" of the ordinance without delay so it would take effect before a wave of February rent increase notices. Council Member Adrin Nazarian introduced a floor amendment defining "dependent" using IRS criteria for a qualifying child or relative, excluding residency requirements, saying the ordinance's lack of a clear definition would otherwise be resolved through costly litigation. City Attorney's office staff said they needed more time to ensure the definition did not have unintended effects, and Council Member Eunisses Hernandez asked specifically about impacts on mixed-immigration-status families and same-sex couples that the city attorney's office said it could not yet assess.
After extended procedural debate, the council voted to close debate on a motion by Council Member Ysabel Jurado to move the underlying ordinance forward while referring Nazarian's dependent-definition amendment to the Housing and Homelessness Committee, 9-4 (No: Lee, McOsker, Nazarian, Park), with several members objecting they had not yet had a chance to weigh in. The council then adopted Jurado's motion, advancing the revised Rent Stabilization Ordinance formula on first consideration while sending the dependent definition back to committee, 9-2 (No: Lee, Park). Council Member John Lee said the underlying ordinance had bypassed a full committee hearing and that a separate amendment he had proposed to give smaller landlords owning ten or fewer units an additional 1% rent adjustment had not been taken up alongside it. The ordinance was held over for a second reading the following week.
OTHER CONTESTED VOTE
The council adopted, 11-2 (No: Nazarian, Rodriguez; Price recused), a City Attorney report on appropriations for outside counsel contracts.
PRESENTATIONS
The council marked Salvadoran American Heritage Day, sponsored by Council Members Monica Rodriguez and Eunisses Hernandez, recognizing the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles-San Salvador sister city relationship and the 30th anniversary of the Salvadoran American Leadership and Education Fund, and honoring six Salvadoran American media figures. The council also marked Heal the Bay's 40th anniversary, with Council Member Traci Park citing the organization's role ending large-scale sewage discharge into Santa Monica Bay in the 1980s and its ongoing water-quality testing after the January 2025 Palisades fire; recognized retiring 26-year City Administrative Officer veteran Patricia Huber; and honored the San Fernando Valley nonprofit Volunteers Cleaning Communities, introduced by Council Member John Lee.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Airport and hospitality workers again urged the council to preserve the Olympic-era minimum wage against a reported rollback effort, and fast-food workers urged passage of a pending fair-work ordinance addressing workplace conditions and scheduling.
Contested Votes
Tallies and member votes are the official record (LA City Clerk CVVS). Descriptions are drawn from the meeting transcript.
Item 13 — CF 25-1225 (Adopted): A City Attorney report on appropriations for outside legal counsel contracts.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (11) | Bob Blumenfield, Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park, Ysabel Jurado |
| No (2) | Adrin Nazarian, Monica Rodriguez |
| Absent (2) | Curren D. Price, Nithya Raman |
Item 21 — CF 23-1134 (vote 1 of 2) (Adopted): A procedural motion to close debate on a motion advancing the revised Rent Stabilization Ordinance rent adjustment formula while referring a proposed definition of "dependent" to the Housing and Homelessness Committee.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (9) | Bob Blumenfield, Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Imelda Padilla, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Ysabel Jurado |
| No (4) | Adrin Nazarian, John Lee, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park |
| Absent (2) | Curren D. Price, Nithya Raman |
Item 21 — CF 23-1134 (vote 2 of 2) (Adopted): A motion advancing the revised Rent Stabilization Ordinance rent adjustment formula on first consideration, while referring a proposed IRS-based definition of "dependent" for rent-increase exemption purposes to the Housing and Homelessness Committee for further work.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (9) | Eunisses Hernandez, Heather Hutt, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Imelda Padilla, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Tim Mcosker, Ysabel Jurado |
| No (2) | John Lee, Traci Park |
| Absent (4) | Adrin Nazarian, Bob Blumenfield, Curren D. Price, Nithya Raman |