What Happened
Eleven to twelve members were present for the January 23, 2026 meeting, which took up only two substantive items: a feasibility report on fishing-line recycling containers at Venice Pier and the withdrawal of an appointment to the Board of Animal Services Commissioners, both adopted 12-0 without discussion. The bulk of the meeting was devoted to presentations and an hour of public comment.
Council Members Eunisses Hernandez and Traci Park led a presentation marking the 100th anniversary of Mount St. Mary's University, the only women's university in Los Angeles, joined by university president Dr. Ann McElaney-Johnson and student government president Stephanie Añorve. Council Member Bob Blumenfield recognized the 60-plus-year sister-city exchange between Canoga Park and Taxco, Mexico.
Public comment ran a full hour and was dominated by tenant organizers, labor unions (including UTLA and the LA County Federation of Labor), and affordable-housing advocates opposing a reported council effort to amend Measure ULA — the voter-approved real estate transfer tax funding affordable housing and eviction defense — to add developer exemptions or redirect funds toward interim housing, reportedly in response to a repeal threat from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Speakers argued the proposal had been developed without input from the tenant and labor coalition that built ULA and said it would undermine a measure that has generated over $1 billion and contributed to the city's first sustained drop in homelessness in years. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson responded that he remained a strong ULA supporter but noted multifamily housing production had slowed and framed the amendment discussion as unresolved. No vote on any ULA-related motion was taken at this meeting.
Council Member Monica Rodriguez used her announcement time to highlight a new federal fraud arrest alleging $23 million in misused public homelessness funds, $5 million of it tied to LAHSA contracts, and renewed her call to consolidate the city's homelessness spending into a dedicated department with stronger oversight. Council Member Hernandez separately noted a pending motion, seconded by Blumenfield, to have the city contract directly with LA County on homelessness services rather than through LAHSA.