What Happened
The Friday, September 11, 2026 meeting opened with ten members and a quorum and was given over almost entirely to the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11 attacks. Eleven members were present for the day's votes; four were absent. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson presided. Every item on the six-item agenda passed 11-0, as did a seventh item circulated from committee, and there were no contested votes.
Council Member Ysabel Jurado called Item 7 for an amendment; it was adopted as amended, 11-0, and sent forthwith. The item concerns the city's role in the Continuum of Care (CoC) for homelessness services and its relationship with Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority — the subject of essentially all of the day's substantive public comment.
The remaining items passed together in a single roll: Item 1 (CF 26-0155), the Civil Rights, Equity, Immigration, Aging, and Disability Committee report on legal actions surrounding Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz's statements in the Valley Glen video; Item 2 (CF 20-1536-S6), transferring funds to support staffing and construction of the Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program in Council District 6; Item 3 (CF 26-1116), depositing and appropriating grant reimbursements for the Glendale-Hyperion Bridges Project; Item 4 (CF 22-0022), amending conditions on the vacation of an alley west of Broadway between 87th and 88th Streets in Council District 8; Item 5 (CF 26-1142), receiving Caltrans grant funds for the Bridge Preventative Maintenance Program; and Item 6 (CF 26-1130), sustaining the Zoning Administrator's approval of three Class 2 Conditional Use Permits for a 7,056-square-foot, 176-seat banquet hall with live entertainment, public dancing and full alcohol service at 261 South Kenmore Avenue in Koreatown, on an appeal filed by Nam Kim of Voice of Wilshire Koreatown. None of these drew floor discussion.
Council Member Traci Park led the 9/11 commemoration, joined by Public Safety Committee Chair John Lee. Park recounted that roughly 70 members of the LAFD-sponsored California Task Force One deployed to New York on the first aircraft airborne after flight restrictions lifted, working 12- and 15-hour shifts for nine days at Ground Zero searching in and around the South Tower, and noted that the health consequences of that exposure "is also a part of what never forget means." LAFD Chief Jamie Moore, members of the command staff and Fire Commission, and UFLAC representatives attended, as did retired FDNY firefighter Michael Barberino, who responded to both World Trade Center attacks. Barberino told the chamber that 2,977 people were killed, that roughly 1,100 remain unidentified, and that 453 of his co-workers have since died of 9/11-related illnesses.
Council Member Tim McOsker, who was Mayor Jim Hahn's chief of staff on September 11, 2001, gave an extended account of the city's response: Hahn was in Washington, D.C. and separated from staff; three of the four hijacked planes had been scheduled to fly to Los Angeles; city employees were told not to come to City Hall; and under the newly reformed charter, 28-year-old Council President Alex Padilla served as acting mayor, holding press conferences while the Emergency Operations Center — then four floors underground and built for earthquakes and fires — was stood up. McOsker noted that intergovernmental disaster coordination is "100,000 times better today," recalling that radios could not talk to each other even within the same jurisdiction.
Council Member Eunisses Hernandez, who was in sixth grade at the time, used her remarks to name the aftermath: "I remember what our country was told to fear" — Muslim and Arab American neighbors "surveilled and harassed and constantly forced to prove that they belong." She argued that "our pursuit of safety should not come at the expense of other communities' humanity," and thanked those who fought for resources for first responders sickened by Ground Zero toxins. Council Member Nithya Raman likewise called on the city to "reject division and the Islamophobia that rose," saying she experienced it herself. Jurado, also in middle school in 2001, said terrorism amounts to "stealing people's joy and safety." Harris-Dawson closed by recalling that he had stood atop the World Trade Center 36 hours before the attacks, and by describing a moment when "a white male Republican wealthy president within days of this attack walked into a mosque in New York City and denounced anti-Muslim hate. Hard to imagine in the context we live in today."
Public Comment
Five speakers, all identifying with the Domestic Violence and Homeless Coalition or allied providers, spoke to Item 7 with a single coordinated ask: that any change in the city's Continuum of Care role be made in partnership with Los Angeles County rather than by splitting the system. Meghan, a coalition member, said the domestic violence–specific coordinated entry system and non-HMIS funding streams are essential and that "separate systems mean fewer resources and increased barriers." Christina said LAHSA's DV-specific system represents years of accumulated practice on confidentiality, survivor safety, trauma-informed care and Violence Against Women Act implementation, and warned that a city-only planning area "can harm survivors who cross boundaries for their safety." Dr. Melissa King, an epidemiologist, cited the COVID period as proof of what city–county–LAHSA–provider collaboration can achieve and asked the city to "make DV coordination a principle from the beginning." Two callers, including Maria of a San Fernando Valley domestic violence organization and Linda Kelly of a Council District 8 board, repeated the request, both noting that homelessness tied to domestic violence has roughly doubled since 2018.
One caller objected that the English-language agenda was not marked "revised" while the Spanish-language version was, asserting a Brown Act violation on Items 3 through 7. Several other speakers used their time for abuse or unrelated material.