The Brief

For years, roughly 700 beds at Cal State Los Angeles that could be occupied by students have sat empty, even in what officials call a “highly housing challenged area.” The reason? Officials say lack of funding and deferred maintenance.

The out-of-commission resource has languished despite the California State University 2025 Systemwide Housing plan stating there’s a need for about 500 beds at the campus.

“The deferred maintenance happened over a period of several years, under previous leadership for the university and housing,” Erik Hollins, a spokesperson for the university, told LAist in a statement. “The pandemic certainly appears to have been a factor. Addressing accumulated maintenance and then getting those units back in circulation has been a focus of new leadership.”

Housing and Residence Life (HRL), which is responsible for maintenance, runs independent of university operations but reports to the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. The department has its own budget with funding coming from the rent and meal plans students pay for.

In the most recent housing budget posted online, from the fiscal year 2024-25, no funds were allocated to maintenance. LAist has requested housing budgets for 2025-26 and 2026-27.

It’s not just the beds out of circulation that need maintenance. Cal State L.A.’s student-run news organization reported earlier this year that “work orders for maintenance by those residents have gone unanswered for months, or even in some cases for several consecutive semesters.”

Hollins told LAist there’s demand for housing on campus in addition to modernizing older facilities. Some of the housing that isn’t being used was built in 1984 to house athletes during the Los Angeles Olympics.

“Under new housing leadership, we are reengaging with our Cal State L.A. students on the benefits of living on campus, resolving perception issues around deferred maintenance, and seeking new partnerships with local colleges, universities, and community organizations,” Hollins wrote.

Hollins added that the university is located in a “highly housing challenged area, while also serving a majority of students who live with their families in the immediate surrounding area.”

Cal State LA’s housing troubles

In 2023, auditors reported years of operating losses at Cal State L.A.’s housing program, leading to reserves being depleted.

Auditors noted that occupancy has dropped to as low as 60% in recent years, and student housing required “unanticipated emergency repairs.” Responding to the audit, Cal State L.A.’s director of housing wrote that the university had taken “sweeping corrective measures.”

“Because its apartment complexes are aging, HRL has also been forced to pay for unanticipated emergency repairs and planned maintenance projects that have challenged its budget,” auditors wrote. “These repairs were partially due to HRL not prioritizing deferred maintenance projects during the COVID-19 recovery. There are also ongoing issues with the water system and fan coil breaks at the newer South Village residence hall.”

At the time, Cal State L.A. said it would address the issues by “implementing short-term strategies to boost occupancy rates, student engagement, and facility upgrades, along with long-term strategies to renovate its older facilities and improve affordability.”

The university also said it would partner with community colleges, expand summer conference programs and require first year students to live on campus. In response to the audit, Cal State L.A. also promised facility renovations.

On Sept. 17, 2017, California Highway Patrol officer Nathaniel Partridge checked in his patrol car almost four hours before his shift ended and drove 35 miles home. That day, and on at least two other occasions, he was paid overtime for the hours he didn’t work.

Partridge wasn’t alone. Dozens of CHP officers at an East Los Angeles patrol division routinely did the same while working traffic enforcement details on highway construction sites. On paper, the practice had been forbidden for five years, but no one objected until a 2019 audit.

“I took the chance to go home and would fall on the consequence if I was called back,” Partridge told CHP investigators, according to court documents.

The result was the smallest patrol division in Southern California running up an overtime tab that was three times that of the region’s largest division, according to the internal audit. That finding led CHP to drop the hammer on the East LA station 2020, when it moved to dismiss dozens of officers, including Partridge.

This week, after Partridge’s case lingered for six years through state personnel hearings, a Justice Department investigation and trial court, a California appeals court found that a one-year suspension without pay was appropriate discipline, over the objections of the California Highway Patrol, which wanted him fired.

David Mastagni, Partridge’s lawyer, said the ruling “reflects fundamental fairness.”

“Accountability and second chances are not in conflict,” Mastagni said.

No one — not CHP administration, the personnel board, nor the officer himself — dispute what happened: Partridge was paid $288.98 for three hours and 45 minutes of overtime he didn’t work, which investigators alleged was part of a long-running grift at the East LA station to fabricate overtime hours.

Partridge and dozens of other officers were fired in 2020, according to the appeals court decision.

In February 2022, Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a total of 302 criminal counts against 54 officers, alleging they had collectively defrauded the public of more than $200,000.

Those charges didn’t last long. In December 2022, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge offered the officers a deal: Their charges would be reduced from felonies to misdemeanors and then dismissed if they repaid the money.

Fifty-two officers took that deal, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time.

The Highway Patrol called Partridge's actions “inexcusable neglect of duty, dishonesty (and) misuse of state property” when the organization fired him. When Partridge appealed, the State Personnel Board said it was “self-enrichment at the expense of the public’s trust,” but handed down a one-year suspension instead.

Partridge’s bosses found that discipline insufficient, and the CHP asked a California district court judge to override the suspension and reinstate the firing, saying the personnel board abused its discretion in reducing the penalty. The judge denied that petition, siding with the personnel board.

According to his superiors quoted in court documents, Partridge was a good cop. His evaluations recommended him for promotion and his disciplinary record was clean. But the administration at the California Highway Patrol argued at the State Personnel Board and in court that his conduct compromised his integrity.

This week, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals agreed with the district court judge: The State Personnel Board didn’t overstep its bounds in handing down a one-year suspension.

“A reasonable decisionmaker could have dismissed Partridge, and a reasonable decisionmaker could have—and did—impose a one-year suspension without pay,” the court found.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Westminster City Councilmember Amy Phan West caught a break after she was accused of attempting to bribe parking officers who were about to tow her husband's car: A judge ordered her to take an ethics training course and do 20 hours of community service. In exchange, the charge would be dropped.

One year later, Phan West is poised to run for reelection. But the Orange County District Attorney's Office says she has learned nothing from her brush with the law and is asking the judge to revoke the deal and send the case to trial.

In a recent court filing, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bradbury gave examples of what he called Phan West’s “repeated and ongoing misuse of her official position” to argue that the councilmember hadn’t accepted responsibility for the alleged crime or taken the mandatory ethics training to heart.

“The Defendant’s actions only serve to undermine the public’s faith in the justice system,” Bradbury wrote, adding that they “warrant no leniency.” In the past, Phan West has denied wrongdoing and said she is being unfairly targeted for for being outspoken.

LAist called and left a text message on Phan West’s phone requesting comment on the DA’s recent filing. LAist also sent an email to Phan West’s defense attorney, Randy Collins. We will update this story if and when we get a response.

What the court records say

In the filing, Bradbury, the deputy district attorney, said that in the year since Phan West was charged with attempted bribery, she appears to have repeatedly violated rules intended to bar local officials from using public resources for campaign activities. She also mocked the case against her, Bradbury said, showing no sense of accountability.

The DA’s examples of Phan West’s alleged continued ethics violations include:

• At Westminster’s annual Tet parade in February, Phan West handed out flyers for her Congressional race — a potential violation of rules against local officials using public resources for campaign activities. (Phan West lost in the June primary.)  
  
• In May, Phan West gave a media interview about her Congressional run from her Westminster City Council office, a potentially similar violation. 
  
• Phan West has repeatedly downplayed the criminal charge against her and disparaged the legal process in public comments and social media posts. In response to a question at a candidate forum, she called it a “jungle-like court” and compared her legal problems to the President’s. “Like how they’re doing it to Donald J. Trump — it’s the same thing they’re doing to take me out,” Phan West said, according to the court filing. 

What happened at city hall?

Phan West has repeatedly clashed with the majority of her council colleagues in recent years. In 2024, the council officially censured Phan West for behavior that allegedly included improperly disclosing confidential information and lying. The city later sued Phan West and allied councilmember NamQuan Nguyen for repeatedly disrupting meetings and creating a “dysfunctional and raucous” atmosphere.

Phan West has accused her opponents on the City Council of violating her right to free speech and waging a personal vendetta against her.

What's next?

Phan West officially filed papers earlier this week to run for re-election to Westminster City Council in November.

A hearing to determine whether Phan West has complied with previous court orders in the case so far is scheduled for Aug. 11 in O.C. Superior Court in Westminster.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

The Inglewood Unified School District headquarters erupted in applause Wednesday as auditors praised the district for meeting state requirements for the first time since 2012, moving it one step closer to leaving state control.

Representatives from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, presented findings from their audit in February, which showed the school district improved in every category for the last three years that ranged from student achievement to personnel management. 

This means the district is expected to exit the first of two phases of receivership next year, according to Michael Fine, FCMAT’s chief executive officer. Entering the final phase means the district can hire a superintendent and the school board will regain voting power while it remains under the guidance of a county trustee who has the authority to override the board’s decisions, if needed, Fine said. 

“Everybody is waiting for it to get back to the way it was,” said Margaret Turner-Evans, Area 4 school board trustee. “People need to know about the good things happening in Inglewood.” 

The report comes as Inglewood Unified continues its efforts to improve overall. Since 2018, the district has closed nearly half of its schools, is facing declining student enrollment and has to pay a $29 million balance on an emergency loan it received from the state in 2012.

Inglewood’s FCMAT score summary, provided by the district, shows that on a scale of 1 to 10, no district can receive a score lower than four in any category and must have an average score of six or more.

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Courtesy of Inglewood Unified School District

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Inglewood can officially leave receivership after it fully repays the loan and the school board can decide if it wants to do that immediately or continue to make payments, according to Fine. 

“I think the community in Inglewood is anxious to have 100% local control and nobody looking over their shoulder, and so the only way to achieve that is to pay it all at once,” Fine said. “So the board will balance that and figure that out.” 

Here’s what was in the FCMAT report

During the presentation to the school board, the report covered five key operational areas including pupil achievement, community relations and governance, personnel management, facilities management and financial management. 

Shayleen Harte, FCMAT’s deputy executive officer who has worked with Inglewood for the last nine years, commended the district’s progress in three of the five areas while also highlighting where improvements can be made in the areas of facilities and financial management. 

With facilities management, some of the areas that need attention include improving the work order system, scheduling preventative maintenance and building internal staff. 

In terms of financial management, some of the areas of improvement include eliminating deficit spending, maintaining long-term financial stability and continuing to improve budget monitoring to align with spending. 

Read the full FCMAT report here.

Local coalition believes district’s financial outlook is far from stable

Led by Inglewood mayoral candidate Fre’Drisha Dixon, the Stop IUSD School Closures Coalition held a public meeting via Zoom to review the FCMAT findings on July 30. 

The coalition of parents and community members worked unsuccessfully to halt Inglewood school closures last year, but they remain tuned in to what’s happening with the district. 

Although the district appears to be exiting receivership based on the scores it received in this year’s FCMAT report, Dixon said Inglewood is far from being financially stable. 

“Cash reserves today do not equal long term stability when the district is predicting major deficits,” Dixon said, referring to the continued deficit spending noted in this year’s FCMAT report.  

This slide was presented by Fre’Drisha Dixon, Inglewood mayoral candidate and head of the Stop IUSD School Closures Coalition, during a July 30, 2026, meeting to highlight Inglewood’s financial standings based on the 2026 FCMAT report.

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LaMonica Peters

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The LA Local

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Dixon said she based her stance on FCMAT’s findings, which stated the district will have a $13.3 million deficit for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. 

Despite reservations from the local coalition, district officials still celebrated the latest news on Wednesday.

“There are a lot of folks in this room and on this board who have worked for 14 years to achieve this goal,” said James Morris, Inglewood county administrator, as he explained the latest district scores for the board. 

Echoing those sentiments, Joyce L. Randall, Area 1 school board trustee, talked about feeling overwhelmed with emotion. 

“After being under receivership for so long, to finally see the goal and we’re about to cross the finish line, I’m very excited,” Randall said. 

Ernesto Castillo, Area 5 school board trustee, approached the moment with the same gratitude and a little bit of humor. 

“You all are great people and I enjoy seeing you but I can’t wait to stop seeing you,” Castillo jokingly said to Fine and Harte. “I can’t wait for this relationship to finally end!”  

The next document review will begin in September and FCMAT will conduct interviews and site visits in February 2027. 

The final report will be issued next year in July and posted to FCMAT’s website.