The Brief

The city of Los Angeles currently allows landlords to increase rents above what’s permitted in other Southern California cities with rent control. Earlier this year, many L.A. renters received increases of up to 6%.

Now, L.A. renters and some city council members are pushing to lower those limits, saying the current rules are straining tenants who already stretch their budgets to keep a roof over their heads.

Landlords are fighting back in the wake of a nearly four-year rent freeze imposed by the city. They say further limits would be financially punishing as other costs are soaring, from insurance to maintenance and repairs.

How L.A. stacks up to other cities

Renters and lawmakers rallied outside L.A. City Hall on Friday morning, demanding a change to current rules that let landlords give rent-controlled tenants annual increases of anywhere from 3% to 8%, depending on recent inflation figures. L.A. landlords can also add another 2% to those rent increases if they cover a tenant’s gas and electric bills.

When City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez took the microphone, he said he supports setting the city’s maximum annual rent increase at 3%. Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Eunisses Hernandez also spoke at the rally to call for lower rent hikes.

“Cities like West Hollywood, Pasadena, Santa Monica — even Beverly Hills — have better protections than we do,” said Soto-Martinez, himself a renter. “Hopefully we can line ourselves up with the cities that literally, many of them, border our own city.”

Currently, allowable increases in rent-controlled apartments are capped at 2.5% in West Hollywood, 2.75% in Pasadena, 2.8% in Santa Monica and 3.2% for most apartments in Beverly Hills. Those cities did not ban rent hikes as long as the city of L.A. did during the pandemic.

In February, based on current rules tied to inflation, the city of L.A. began allowing rent increases of up to 4% — plus another 2% for landlords who pay for tenants' utilities. These rules apply to rent-controlled housing, generally apartments constructed before Oct. 1, 1978, which make up about three-quarters of all L.A. apartments. Newer housing is covered by a state law that forbids annual rent increases above 8.8% in rental housing built more than 15 years ago.

Cash-strapped renters call for changes

Tenants and renter advocates say L.A.’s rules, which have been in place since 1978, are out of line with other California cities and with the needs of renters. About 63% of L.A. households are renters, according to U.S. Census data. City officials estimate that the majority of those renters (59%) are paying rents considered unaffordable by federal government standards.

Denise Rivera, one of the tenants who showed up at the Friday rally, said she and her husband spend about half their income on rent for the South L.A. apartment where they’re raising four children. Rivera works as a rideshare driver, and her husband works in sanitation. She said they could not afford another big rent increase.

“It would put me, my children and my husband at risk of having to maybe move out of the city, or ending up in the streets,” Rivera said. “We're trying to fight homelessness. It’s gotten out of hand. I think we have to make a change now.”

Some renters are still carrying debts from the pandemic, when job loss or deaths in families caused households to fall behind on their monthly payments. When L.A. launched a $30 million rent relief program last September, the city was flooded with applications calling for help clearing about $475 million in back rent.

Protections against eviction for households unable to pay expired in February. Eviction filings now have risen above pre-pandemic levels.

L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez speaks at a rally calling for lower caps on annual rent increases.

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David Wagner

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LAist

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Landlords say they’re already struggling with today’s caps

Calls to lower the rent increases are being met with opposing calls from landlords, who say the city’s regulations have harmed them financially.

The city banned all increases in rent-controlled housing from the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic through Jan. 31, 2024. This rent freeze lasted much longer than other cities’ temporary bans on rent hikes.

During those years, L.A. landlord Rich Kissel said he watched as his insurance premiums on a 10-unit building rose by thousands of dollars each year. State Farm recently announced it will stop offering apartment insurance policies this summer across California.

Kissel said it wasn’t just his insurance costs that went up. He also faced higher trash hauling fees, spiking mortgage interest rates and rising maintenance and repair costs.

“Many people are under the mistaken impression that the rent gets paid and the landlord just puts all that rent money in their pocket,” Kissel said. “We have many, many bills to pay.”

Kissel recently sold another L.A. building to what he described as a “large corporation.” He said he feared lower rent caps, and potential requirements for landlords to electrify their buildings as part of the city’s decarbonization efforts, would make his profits vanish.

“The business model isn't sustainable anymore, especially for a small player,” Kissel said.

Irma Vargas, a landlord who also works as a property manager for apartment buildings across L.A., said stacking the city of L.A. against cities like Pasadena is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

“L.A. has had rent control for over 40 years,” Vargas said, noting that many long-term tenants are paying well below market rates. “It's a lot different than, let's say, Pasadena,” where tenants have largely been paying market rents until very recently, Vargas said. Pasadena’s rent control law took effect in late 2022 after voters approved a ballot measure to cap increases.

When will rent hikes come up for a vote? 

The L.A. City Council voted in October to commission a study of the city’s rent control rules. That study is now being carried out by The Economic Roundtable, an L.A.-based nonprofit research organization. The study is expected to come back to the council in upcoming months.

Tenant advocates want the city council to limit annual rent hikes to 3% — or 60% of the region’s most recent inflation rate — whichever is lower. They’ve also asked lawmakers to end the additional 2% increase for landlords who cover utilities, as well as the 10% upcharge landlords can impose when tenants add another member to their household.

Some lawmakers say rent increases don’t only impose a high cost on tenants — they can also impact the city’s budget to address homelessness. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said many low-income families are already on the edge, and large rent increases could potentially cause them to fall behind on rent and face eviction.

“We talk about our homelessness crisis almost every single day in city hall,” Hernandez said. “But we will not be able to truly solve homelessness until we stop the flow of people falling into housing insecurity.”

If you care about housing policy

For people who live in L.A., the Board of Supervisors and City Council have the most direct impact on housing affordability in your neighborhood.

• Learn more about who influences local housing policy
  

The best way to keep tabs on your own local government is by attending public meetings for your city council or local boards. Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Find meeting schedules and agendas: City councils usually meet at least twice a month, although larger ones may meet weekly. Committees and boards tend to meet less often, typically once a month. You can find the schedule and meeting agenda on your local government’s website, or posted physically at your local city hall. Find more tips here.

  • Find L.A. City Council agendas and meeting dates
  • Find meetings for L.A. city boards and commissions
  • Find L.A. County agendas and meeting dates
• Learn the jargon: Closed session, consent calendars and more! We have definitions for commonly used terms here.
• How to give public comment: Every public meeting allows community members to give comment, whether or not it’s about something on the agenda. The meeting agenda will have specific instructions for giving public comment. Review more details here.

Community advocates and elected officials are amplifying Know Your Rights information and rapid response networks as an increase in immigration enforcement once again hits California.

On Saturday, neighbors in North Long Beach rushed out of their homes and blocked federal immigration agents from detaining a man they violently knocked to the ground.

Unión del Barrio has shared video footage of immigration agents spotted in Inglewood, Koreatown and East LA in recent days and is urging residents “to be cautious during this wave of deportations” and to “not surrender to fear.”

With just weeks before the Nov. 3 election, community and labor organizations, including InnerCity Struggle, have hosted voter-protection trainings to ensure voters understand how to protect their votes and what they can do in the face of any interference. 

While there are no known examples of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at California polling places, organizers at a recent training said even rumors can create fear and urged trainees to encourage voters to stay in line and to observe and document what’s happening. 

The Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network last week said it is continuing its rapid response efforts and seeking volunteers to spread the word about what people can do when they spot ICE agents. 

“Sharing this information and encouraging people to commit to these different opportunities is the best thing we can do to help protect our community,” said Ken Campa, director of programs at Proyecto Pastoral. 

Here’s who to call if you spot ICE:

Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network

Hotline: (323) 805-1049

Instagram: @boyleheightsirn

Los Angeles Raids and Rapid Response Network

Hotline: (888) 624-4752

Unión Del Barrio

Hotline: (213) 444-6561

Instagram: @uniondelbarrio

Immigrant Defenders Law Center

Hotline: (213) 833-8283

Instagram: @immdef_lawcenter

Have this information ready, advocates say:

• Date and time of the sighting or activity
• The street name or description of the area where officials were seen
• Pictures or videos with time stamps of the current interaction
• First-person witness testimony

Join Know Your Rights workshops

The Immigrant Defenders Law Center is offering free virtual Know Your Rights webinars.

Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m. (Spanish)

Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. (English)

Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. (Bilingual; Detention-focused)

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/cNo_v5Z6RVu7ahDCsfn2ig#/registration

The post Rapid response groups say ICE is surging in California. Here’s what you can do appeared first on LA Local.

As the Nov. 3 election draws closer, many of us have yet to vote. Why? ‘Cause the ballot is long! Voting guides can help.

LAist has one: Our Voter Game Plan is a nonpartisan guide to elections in Los Angeles County and in Orange County that lays out the information you need to understand the positions and issues on the ballot and then evaluate your choices to make sure they align with your values and beliefs.

What we don't do is tell you how to vote.

That said, we know it can also be helpful to look to organizations or individuals that you trust to see where they stand on a particular candidate or initiative, and use those endorsements as a guide for filling out your ballot.

That’s where this evolving guide to L.A.'s and O.C.'s many voting guides comes in. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it’s a good place to start. To keep things simple, we have divided this list into four broad categories including guides that lean left — as Los Angeles and California overwhelmingly do — as well as guides that lean right, guides from the top political parties, and guides from news organizations. If we missed a guide that you think would be helpful to share here, please email us and we might include it:

Voter guides that lean to the left

This lists starts with organization local to L.A.:

East Area Progressive Democrats

The EAPD meets every month at a coffee house in Eagle Rock and started in late 2013 to fight for more progressive representation. With more than 1,100 members, they call themselves the largest Democratic club in L.A. County and California. EAPD says its top issues include housing for all, dignity for workers and universal healthcare. The group is led by Hans Johnson, an organizer who specializes in coalition strategy and environmental activism. Their endorsements are short and to the point.

Knock LA

Knock LA started as a Medium blog in 2017 when members of Ground Game LA, a grassroots community organizing group, decided to start their own news outlet for alt-weekly style coverage of the topics they cared most about, including police misconduct, labor abuse and the housing crisis. They are a self-described horizontally organized publication, meaning they try to make all major decisions by group consensus, and they don’t accept funding from advertisers or “any source that may influence [their] coverage.” The Knock team writes that their voter guide is a “labor of love for a better Los Angeles.” If you feel strongly about “building and preserving affordable housing, stopping planet-destroying emissions, reimagining public safety and getting people off the streets and sustainably into shelter and housing,” this is your guide.

La Defensa

This group describes themselves as “femme-led and abolitionist.” They are also affiliated with The La Defensa Justice PAC, which is dedicated to supporting progressive judicial candidates for L.A. County’s Superior Court. The group is led by mostly women of color who are immigration and social-justice minded. Their guide is a detailed one with candidates tagged with a hearty "endorsed," a more tempered "recommended," or a "harm reduction" label, which indicates that while the candidate doesn't earn the group’s endorsement, they are seen as the best alternative. La Defensa also outlines their “vetting criteria” for individual candidates, explaining what factors they considered while determining endorsement.

L.A. Forward

L.A. Forward is a political organizing group working to grow and support a progressive base in almost every L.A. City Council District. Their guide breaks down the races and offers up details about why a particular candidate has earned their endorsement. L.A. Forward hosts a Progressive Campaign Leadership Academy to recruit and train a diverse cohort of Los Angeles County residents to be the next generation of candidates and campaign staffers, along with a Judicial Leadership Academy that helps social justice-oriented attorneys run for seats as Los Angeles County Superior Court judges.

Leyla’s Extremely Opinionated 2026 General Election Voter Guide

Leyla Farah is a self-described political junkie, tech nerd, travel addict and author of the book Black, Gifted and Gay. Her guide is on Medium and is delivered with a healthy dose of cynicism. It includes personal recommendations sprinkled with fun little disclaimers like “Our political system is a giant turducken” and "All candidate qualifications being equal, I’ll pick the non-white, non-guy, non-cis, non-straight (you get where I’m going with this) candidate every time."

California Working Families Party

This one is a little different in that it’s a political party that sometimes runs its own candidates through Democratic Party primaries or on their own. The California Working Families Party was founded in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions. They describe themselves on X as “a progressive grassroots political party building a multiracial, feminist movement of working people to transform America.” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called the party “the closest thing to socialism” in 2016, although they officially endorsed U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren when she ran for president in 2020. Their endorsements are straightforward, and include candidates up and down the state, so you'll need to sift through a bit to find Los Angeles. They also cover races in several other states, including Arizona, Colorado and Texas.

Courage California

A nonprofit organization with over a million members, according to their website, Courage California’s mission is to “defend and extend economic justice, human rights and corporate and political accountability.” Their “Know Your Vote” downloadable guide outlines the big-picture impact of each race and which California organizations support or oppose each proposition. Courage California also publishes the highly detailed Progressive Voter Guide, in which they “combine the endorsements of California’s leading progressive organizations with our expert knowledge and research” to provide recommendations for races at the local level too.

American Civil Liberties Union

The ACLU has long been recognized for supporting big-picture issues like criminal justice reform, immigrant rights and reproductive freedom. The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has published a voter guide to propositions on this fall’s ballot.

While ACLU SoCal’s guide doesn’t get into individual candidate races, the organization’s nonpartisan political arm, ACLU California Action, does. They’ve published the survey results of a questionnaire submitted to candidates running for California Senate, Assembly, and two U.S. Congressional districts. The questions posed to candidates were answered with either “yes,” “no” or “no reply.” They’re intended to illuminate candidate viewpoints on larger issues like LGBTQ+ rights, homelessness and ICE activity.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund  

The political arm of Planned Parenthood bills itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization involved in grassroots organizing, education campaigns and electioneering. Their mission is in line with Planned Parenthood writ large, according to their about page: “to improve the quality and affordability of reproductive and sexual health care, protect and expand services that prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease and ensure continued access to safe, legal and confidential abortion care.” Accordingly, their 2026 voter guide endorses candidates based on their stance on family planning and women's health. The national nonprofit endorses candidates for U.S. Congress, while the Los Angeles County contingent outlines who they support in local and state races.

Voter guides that lean to the right

Nancy's Picks

Conservative Republican Nancy Sandoval says her guide aims to help the busy conservative voter who doesn't have the time to do the research, but cares about voting in alignment with their conservative convictions, especially on lesser known items. Each election, she goes deep on all offices and propositions for all of Orange County's city and county races.

Here is her 2026 midterm election guide. She bases her criteria on conservative convictions including securing and sealing the nation's borders, parental rights in education and supporting an "America First" agenda. Sandoval explains her extensive methodology here: "The selections are made from group forums, personal knowledge, interviews, on-line research, questionnaires sent, various outside vote guides, candidate endorsements, voting records, candidate statements, testimonies of reliable secondary sources, and various news media. I also verify the amount of money a candidate has to run an effective campaign."

Election Forum

This is a guide for evangelical Christians who say they're fighting for conservative values locally. Election Forum is a national nonprofit with wings in Los Angeles and Nashville, led by conservative political commentator and author Craig Huey.

Their guide “will help you cut through the rhetoric, election propaganda and biased media coverage of the campaigns” by evaluating candidates based on their views on crime, government spending and the Bible, according to the group’s website. For access to their California guide, Election Forum requires you first register with your name, email and ZIP code.

Reform California

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio leads this group with the goal of “taking back our state from far-Left politicians and special interests.” DeMaio currently represents north and east San Diego County in the California Assembly's 75th District. He’s also served one term on the San Diego City Council, hosts a conservative news radio show and is an enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump.

Beyond that, he is playing a huge role in the Nov. 3 general election: DeMaio is the architect behind Proposition 39, the voter ID initiative. You can hear more about DeMaio's campaign here on the LAist podcast, Imperfect Paradise:

Reform California believes that the Democratic Party's domination in California has become extremist and ineffective. According to Reform, their “Plain English,” all-state Voter Guide supports “the most principled reform-minded candidates” and “provides an easy-to-understand truthful description of deceptive ballot measures that politicians put on the ballot.” The organization also provides county-specific endorsements. Here's the guide for Los Angeles County. Here's the guide for Orange County.

Christian Voter Guide

This voter guide is national in scope but does include a guide to voting in local Orange County elections, including races in the Irvine Unified School District, Orange Unified School District and North Orange County Community College District.

The guide breaks down candidate answers to six questions, including their stance on removing books with explicit sexual content from schools and public libraries and whether individuals should be allowed to access school restrooms based on their gender expression.

Voter guides from political parties

Los Angeles County and Orange County Democratic Party

The L.A. County Democratic Party describes itself as the largest and most influential local Democratic Party in the country. This local chapter of the Democratic party is run by seven elected members who are chosen from each state Assembly district of Los Angeles County during presidential primaries — and serve as the official governing body of the LACDP.

The slate of endorsements go deep, including federal, state and local Los Angeles races. You can find the Orange County Democratic Party Statewide Endorsements here, and their guide to Orange County elections here.

Democratic Socialists of Los Angeles

The local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, is endorsing nine candidates this election cycle, including Nithya Raman, who is hoping to make the jump from Los Angeles City Council member to mayor. The party identifies as “a team of union leaders, renters, tenant organizers, parents, and activists who are committed to working class values and ready to create real change across Los Angeles.”

The DSALA supports a “multiracial working class” and reforms like Medicare for All, defunding the police and the Green New Deal. They say they aren’t a political party or a nonprofit, but rather “a socialist organization,” according to their website.

The Republican Party of L.A. County and the Republican Party of Orange County

The L.A. GOP is chaired by Roxanne Hoge, an actor and business owner who unsuccessfully ran for a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors seat in 2022. "With over 1 million Republicans registered, Los Angeles County is the largest Republican county party in the USA," its website says. Here's the L.A. GOP's guide to the upcoming election and it's goal: "We need you here to stop incompetent one-party rule. We want to connect you with the fellow Angelenos who want good governance and who believe in individual liberty."

The Republican Party of Orange County has published its 2026 General Election voter guide here. The chair of the O.C. GOP is William O’Neill, an attorney who has served on the Newport Beach City Council and as mayor. Here's why this election matters, O’Neill says in a statement on the O.C. GOP’s website: “What we do here in Orange County ripples throughout our state and our nation. We are a beacon of hope, safety, security, and freedom. We are the counterexample to the lawlessness and policy abuses inflicted by Democratic elected officials in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Join us!”

Voter guides from news organizations

CalMatters 

Self-described as, “the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California politics and policy,” CalMatters’ voter guide is exhaustive. It has categories for state offices, the Legislature, and propositions, and includes side-by-side comparisons of candidate campaign finance. This voter guide also includes incredibly accessible explanations of individual propositions and the reasons to support or oppose each measure. One standout feature of CalMatters’ guide is the “proposition quizzes”; it's an interactive series of questions that helps you “weigh your thoughts on each ballot measure to figure out how to vote.”

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times got out of the endorsement game after its owner spiked the editorial board's presidential endorsement in 2024, leading several staff members to resign in protest. As it has for many years, though, the paper's news staff produces thorough, non-endorsement-style guides to statewide and local elections. The outlet's guide can be found here.

The Orange County Register

The Register's Voter Guide goes deep on Orange County candidates as well as candidates whose districts straddle Los Angeles. It also publishes in-depth looks at races and measures that cut across the state. This one leans more “guide” and less “endorsement” in that each candidate is offered the chance to fill out a questionnaire where they answer questions about “housing policy, the state's role in working with or against the federal government on issues impacting Californians, what's next for disaster relief efforts, among other important topics.”

The LAist guide to voter guides was first published in 2024 and written by journalist Gina Pollack, and has since been updated. LAist's Rene Lynch also contributed to this report. If you have a voter guide you think should be included here, email us a link to the guide, with a brief explanation about why you believe LAist readers will find it helpful.

Tens of thousands of state government workers are expected to walk off the job Wednesday in a one-day strike that could affect services at the DMV, unemployment offices and more.

Members of SEIU Local 1000 are protesting what they argue are bad-faith bargaining practices by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. The union has been negotiating a new labor agreement since its latest three-year contract expired on June 30, and the strike would be Local 1000’s first statewide walkout in its 44-year history.

The union represents about 100,000 public workers, with members employed in dozens of agencies across California. They’re accountants, government analysts, nurses, IT workers, custodians and more.

Local 1000 could call off the work stoppage at any time leading up to Wednesday. But if it happens, here’s how the strike could affect you.

Can I still go to the DMV

Yes, you can, but services could be delayed depending on who is participating in the strike. DMV offices might close early, too, a department spokesperson said. The same holds for other public-facing services, including unemployment benefits at the Employment Development Department and food assistance at CalFresh.

State parks could be affected, too, even though rangers are not represented by Local 1000. Hearst Castle in San Luis Obispo County, for instance, adjusted its tour schedule to accommodate people who’ve already reserved spots to see the newspaper magnate’s estate.

This may not be ideal from a customer service standpoint, but union president Anica Walls urges Californians “to give our employees some grace.”

“If you happen to go to the DMV office and the services are limited, make an appointment for another day,” Walls said. “Realize that we are standing up for 100,000 state workers who have not had a good living wage. … It’s not just about state employees. It really is about the working class.”

Which state workers can't strike?

Local 1000 represents almost half of the state’s workforce, and 95,000 workers would be able to participate in the strike. The remaining 5,000 workers are legally excluded from the strike, because their absence “would create an imminent and substantial threat to public health or safety,” according to the union. In general, they work in healthcare or public safety.

Eight state agencies and divisions employ workers who are deemed essential. These include workers such as veterans homes nurses, cooks at state prisons, Caltrans dispatchers and others:

• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Correctional Health Care Services
• Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
• Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Adult Parole Operations
• Department of Education
• Department of Developmental Services
• Department of State Hospitals
• Caltrans

To see which employees at which worksites are deemed essential, check out this list.

How did we get here?

Many state workers are frustrated with Newsom, who has demanded wage cuts to help balance the budget in three of the eight years he’s led the state. These cuts essentially negated the last 3% salary increase he gave Local 1000 members.

Pointing to a $20 billion increase in general fund spending over the past two years, the union wants better pay and more affordable healthcare coverage than the administration has offered. It also wants more flexibility to work from home, pushing back against the governor’s return-to-office mandate for state workers.

But talks have been contentious. In July, the union filed a complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, accusing CalHR, the state agency that handles labor negotiations, of delaying negotiations and rejecting proposals outright. Last month the labor board sided with the union and concluded that CalHR “refused to meet and confer in good faith.”

Earlier this month, union members authorized the strike. Local 1000 members will hold demonstrations in more than a dozen cities, including Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, where members will also hold a march to lawmakers’ offices near the Capitol.

How has the Newsom administration responded?

In response to the labor board’s findings, Angela Musallam, CalHR’s deputy director of communications, said in an email to CalMatters that “the state has been and remains open to negotiation” She added that the state “is prepared to move into mediation to assist the parties in reaching an agreement.”

CalHR also filed an unfair practice complaint of its own to the board in an effort to stop the strike. CalHR claimed that the strike was unlawful because the union did not initially identify which essential workers would be excluded from the walkout. The union disagreed with CalHR’s interpretation of events, arguing that it did identify these employees. The board sided with the union last week, rejecting CalHR’s request for an injunction.

Could there be another strike?

Both parties are scheduled to meet for mediation talks on Oct. 30. For now the union is planning to only strike on Wednesday, but Walls said that if the Newsom administration continues to engage in bad-faith bargaining, the union will “escalate” its actions. This could include filing another complaint with the labor board, and potentially holding another strike.

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

An employee of Los Angeles County’s Office of Emergency Management has sued his employer, alleging he was retaliated against for making whistleblower complaints about the response to the deadly Eaton Fire.

Nicholas Vaquero, an associate director in the Office of Emergency Management, alleges that officials leading the office failed to properly staff the response to the fire, which killed at least 19 people and burned thousands of homes and businesses in January 2025.

He also alleges the county’s emergency alerts were inadequate and that it submitted fraudulent data in order to receive FEMA reimbursement. Vaquero says in the suit that he used official county whistleblower channels to raise his concerns, in addition to speaking to OEM’s top two officials, Director Kevin McGowan and Deputy Director Leslie Luke.

Vaquero’s lawyers and the county declined to comment on the substance of the lawsuit. “L.A. County is going to address the allegations in court,” spokesperson Elizabeth Marcellino wrote in a statement to LAist.

LAist previously reported on Vaquero’s whistleblower complaint, in which he alleged that a now-retired employee with “a long history of sleeping on the job” was put in charge of emergency workers sending evacuation alerts and was asleep during critical moments of the first night of the Eaton Fire, when many of the deaths and much of the devastation occurred. County officials deny this account.

In the lawsuit, Vaquero alleges he has faced retaliation after raising his concerns, including being excluded from meetings he previously was a part of and being treated with hostility by the department’s leadership, among other things.

The complaint comes after county leadership launched a three-year restructuring of the Office of Emergency Management, which includes working to add staff and to conduct regular training for all staff on emergency alert software.

An after-action report from the McChrystal Group highlighted that the emergency management office was severely short-staffed during the fire. The department, which serves 10 million people, had a staff of 37 people at the time the fires broke out. Meanwhile, New York City has a population of 8.5 million and an emergency management staff of about 200 people, the report noted.