What Happened
All 15 members were present for the August 26, 2026 meeting, with Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson presiding. Council Member Curren D. Price Jr. recused himself from Item 17 (CF 23-1022-S39), citing his wife's former employer and his own status as a landlord; that item and Item 40 were taken while he was off the floor and passed 14-0. Everything else on the 48-item agenda passed either 15-0 or, on Items 5 and 6, 12-3.
The bulk of the agenda moved in two large consent rolls, both 15-0. Among the items adopted with no debate: a 30-year lease with County Sanitation District No. 20 for sewer pipelines at LAWA's Palmdale landholdings (Item 2, CF 26-1034); a maintenance contract with Solar Turbines for the two Mercury 50 gas turbines at LAX's Central Utility Plant (Item 3, CF 17-1446-S4); an RFP for South Region Transit, Paratransit and Microtransit services (Item 4, CF 26-1035); three CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) appeals (Items 8, 9 and 11); the addition of the Fox Apartments on Santa Monica Boulevard to the Historic-Cultural Monuments list (Item 10, CF 26-0622); technical corrections to Chapter 1A of the LAMC implementing the new zoning code (Item 13, CF 26-0987); four Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP) removals (Items 24 through 27); and the Litigation Disclosure Ordinance exempting certain contracts from disclosure requirements (Item 29, CF 26-0215). Council also approved three shelter ground leases: 26 family units at 3061 Riverside Drive in CD4 with L&R Construction subleasing to PATH (Item 15, CF 23-1022-S37), a 75-bed Tiny Home Village at 1221 South Figueroa Place in CD15 with The Salvation Army (Item 16, CF 23-1022-S38), and a 100-bed A Bridge Home site at 3210-3248 Riverside Drive in CD4 with the Weingart Center Association (Item 17, CF 23-1022-S39, 14-0 with Price recused). Council Member Eunisses Hernandez moved adoption of the Public Works report on Item 1 (CF 25-0481), shifting responsibility for maintaining city bicycle and multi-use paths to the Department of Public Works, which carried 15-0. Item 14 (CF 24-1399), the rewritten Landscape Ordinance establishing landscape and site design standards with a point system, passed 15-0 as amended by a technical amendment from Council Member John Lee (14-A, Lee-Blumenfield); the clerk confirmed the ordinance itself would not be adopted that day because of the late changes. Council Member Tim McOsker moved the late-arriving PLUM reports on the Paseo del Mar historic cafe appeals — Item 22 (CF 26-0975-S1) to adopt the findings, deny the appeal and add conditions, and Item 23 (CF 26-0975) to receive and file — and both were sent forthwith.
The one real fight of the day never made it into debate. Council Member Ysabel Jurado pulled Items 5 and 6 (CF 26-0008-S12 and CF 26-0008-S13) for separate votes. Both establish oversize vehicle parking restrictions in Council District 15 — Item 5 on a segment of Pacific Avenue, Item 6 on segments of West 130th Street and West 132nd Street. Each passed 12-3, with Hernandez, Council Member Hugo Soto-Martinez and Jurado voting No. Neither item drew any floor discussion; the three members registered their opposition through the votes alone.
The Boyle Heights recovery package moved as a bloc, all 15-0. Item 18 (CF 26-0936) instructs the city to suspend CARE+ encampment cleanups in areas under a declared city or state environmental emergency, as amended by 18-A (Jurado-Hernandez). Item 19 (CF 26-0906-S14) temporarily prioritizes Boyle Heights for bulky item pickup, street sweeping, power washing and dead animal removal, as amended by 19-A (Jurado-Hernandez), which Jurado noted substitutes for Recommendation No. 2. Item 20 (CF 26-0906-S7) covers water quality testing of stormwater runoff from the Lineage warehouse fire and the status of the Cleanup and Abatement Order. Item 40 (CF 26-0906-S15), as amended by 40-A (Jurado-Padilla), directs the Los Angeles Housing Department to prioritize investigation of Boyle Heights tenant complaints under the housing code, the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance and the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LA's rent control law covering roughly 650,000 units); it passed 14-0 during Price's recusal. On Item 21 (CF 26-0906-S9), Jurado spoke at length before the 15-0 vote: the motion instructs the Civil, Human Rights and Equity Department, with the City Attorney, to report back within 90 days on establishing an Environmental Justice and Advocacy Advisory Commission, including how commissioners would be appointed by the Mayor and Council. "For generations, East Side residents are too often forced to bear the economic consequences" of climate-related disaster, she said, arguing the city must "learn and change the systems" rather than only fund immediate relief.
Two other items drew comment. Council Member Bob Blumenfield explained Item 35 (CF 11-1705), which reactivates the dormant citywide sign ordinance council file from 2021. He was emphatic that he does not intend to move any version of the 2021 ordinance — the point is to preserve the accumulated work product and restart the conversation, with a list of questions for Planning and Building and Safety before he leaves office. He framed an updated ordinance as a revenue source, citing digital signage programs in Inglewood and West Hollywood and the existing transit-property sign program that helps pay for the Convention Center. Council Member Katy Yaroslavsky, who has a separate active sign file focused on enforcement against illegal signs, supported reactivation but insisted enforcement come first: "We need to get the enforcement done before we change what we allow." On Item 45 (CF 26-1121), as amended by 45-A (Blumenfield-Harris-Dawson), the Council President explained why he is asking LAHSA (the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) to investigate 2026 Point-in-Time Count discrepancies. Homelessness in CD8 was reported up 128 percent, and one census tract in his own neighborhood jumped from about 19 people in prior years to 277. "I know for a fact this cannot be the correct number," he said, calling LAHSA's and HOPICS' answers "wholly unsatisfying." He said the stakes are federal: the current administration will seize on any appearance of overcounting to claim the city inflates numbers for money. Blumenfield, who asked that the motion be expanded citywide, described the same problem in reverse in CD3 — a reported drop of 288 sheltered people that turned out to be an uncounted Homekey family shelter in Woodland Hills, corrected only months after the press coverage had run. Council Member Imelda Padilla asked that corrections be reported back publicly, and Harris-Dawson committed that if LAHSA does not publish recounts, the Council will. The motion passed 15-0.
Public comment was small in number but organized. Multiple speakers appeared on the Boyle Heights items: a 30-year resident, a member of Unión de Vecinos speaking through an interpreter, the organizing director of Ground LA, and a director from Dolores Mission, who walked through Items 18, 19, 20, 21 and 40 one by one and told Council that "residents should not have to fight to become a priority." Several tied their support to the Lineage fire contamination and asked that landlords be compelled to repair buildings. The sharpest single ask was on Item 42 (CF 26-1200-S48), the Mayor's appointment of Daniel Tenenbaum to the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. The Ground LA organizer opposed the nomination on the grounds that Tenenbaum is a board member and former vice chair of the apartment association, one of the state's largest landlord lobbying groups and a heavy spender in city council elections, and argued that a body overseeing tens of thousands of low-income and Section 8 units — with the nation's largest share of mixed-status immigrant families — should not be shaped by landlord interests. Immediately after public comment, Soto-Martinez moved to refer Item 42 to the Housing and Homelessness Committee rather than confirm it; the referral carried 15-0. The other two appointments moved forward: Laura Orellana to the United to House LA Citizens Oversight Committee (Item 41) and the reappointment of Lucelia Hooper to the Housing Authority board (Item 43), both 15-0.
Jurado closed the meeting with an announcement marking Women's Equality Day, reading into the record a statement from the Commission on the Status of Women and welcoming several commissioners in chambers. Council adjourned in the memory of Charlena Price, Curren Price's mother, who died at 100.