Meeting Summary
What Happened
All 14 seated council members were present for at least part of the January 13, 2026 meeting (attendance fluctuated slightly item to item). The session opened with recognition of the 123rd anniversary of Korean American Day, led by Council Member John Lee, and a testimonial from Council Member Ysabel Jurado on the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Keith Porter and a new wave of reported ICE sightings and detentions in Eagle Rock, Highland Park, and El Sereno.
Council adopted a large block of committee reports and district items without debate, including continued rent-escrow-program removals for several properties, a Housing and Homelessness Committee report on Project Roomkey/FEMA reimbursements, and a Personnel Committee ordinance repealing the "Non-Kaiser Full-Network HMO Option" health benefit provision. Council Member Monica Rodriguez's motion seeking a report from the LA28 Olympic organizing committee on the new federal Olympics task force and its implications for city policing plans passed 14-0. A motion from Council Member Hugo Soto-Martinez creating a formal zoning definition for "ghost kitchens" — centralized commercial kitchens preparing delivery-only orders that Soto-Martinez said were generating illegal curb parking and traffic complaints in his district — passed unanimously, as did a motion from Council Member John Lee directing the Fire Department to develop local "zone zero" defensible-space landscaping rules pending final state guidance, and a motion from Council Member Imelda Padilla directing the Bureau of Sanitation to inventory organics-processing capacity ahead of RecycLA 2.0 requirements.
Two Public Safety Committee reports accepting donations from the Los Angeles Police Foundation passed over opposition. Item 23 (CF 25-1399), accepting a donation to fund Automated License Plate Recognition camera equipment for the Wilshire area, passed 10-4, with Council Members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado, Nithya Raman, and Hugo Soto-Martinez voting no. Item 27 (CF 25-1396), accepting a donation to replace iron sighting systems used by the LAPD Training Division, passed 10-3, with Hernandez, Jurado, and Soto-Martinez voting no. Both items were called for separate votes — Item 23 by Jurado, Item 27 by Jurado as well — but neither drew floor debate before the roll was taken.
Public comment ran roughly an hour and was dominated by supporters of Measure ULA, the city's real estate transfer tax funding affordable housing and tenant legal defense, who urged the council to protect the program after it crossed $1 billion in revenue; several identified themselves with Community Power Collective, Inner City Struggle, or ACT-LA. Members of the Trans Latina Coalition and allied groups pressed for a $4 million, two-year investment in a TGI Wellness and Equity Fund. One commenter argued the Item 23 license-plate-reader donation risked the data being shared with ICE despite the LAPD's stated non-cooperation policy, and criticized city street-closure spending tied to a Church of Scientology New Year's Eve event.
Contested Votes
Tallies and member votes are the official record (LA City Clerk CVVS). Descriptions are drawn from the meeting transcript.
Item 23 — CF 25-1399 (Adopted): A Public Safety Committee report accepting a Los Angeles Police Foundation donation to fund Automated License Plate Recognition camera equipment for the Wilshire area.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (10) | Adrin Nazarian, Curren D. Price, Heather Hutt, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park |
| No (4) | Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Nithya Raman, Ysabel Jurado |
| Absent (1) | Bob Blumenfield |
Item 27 — CF 25-1396 (Adopted): A Public Safety Committee report accepting a Los Angeles Police Foundation donation to replace iron sighting systems used by the LAPD Training Division.
| Vote | Members |
|---|---|
| Yes (10) | Adrin Nazarian, Curren D. Price, Heather Hutt, Imelda Padilla, John Lee, Katy Yaroslavsky, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Monica Rodriguez, Nithya Raman, Tim Mcosker |
| No (3) | Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Ysabel Jurado |
| Absent (2) | Bob Blumenfield, Traci Park |