The Brief

L.A.’s top homeless services official Va Lecia Adams Kellum engaged in major misconduct, including hiring unqualified friends into powerful positions, trying to destroy public records and behaving inappropriately at a conference, according to two whistleblower claim letters obtained by LAist.

The letters were written by an attorney on behalf of two former L.A. Homeless Services Authority employees who alleged they were wrongfully fired for speaking up against wrongdoing by Adams Kellum. Written claims such as these are a required step before filing a lawsuit against a local government in California.

LAHSA arranged for $800,000 to be paid to the whistleblowers — former chief financial and administrative officer Kristina Dixon and former top IT and data official Emily Vaughn Henry — to settle the claims before they became public lawsuits. The settlement amount is equivalent to what it costs to shelter as many as 40 unhoused people for a year, according to a recent audit’s summary of shelter costs.

Legal experts previously told LAist the agency was violating public records laws by withholding the whistleblowers’ written allegations that led to the payouts. But after continued questioning and two articles by LAist about the experts’ analysis, LAHSA attorneys ultimately reversed themselves and released those letters — with extensive redactions that a public records attorney says are unlawful.

Courts have repeatedly ruled that the public is entitled to know the content of misconduct complaints and investigation findings about senior government officials.

A spokesperson for Adams Kellum’s administration said LAHSA denies the allegations, but said no formal investigations were started into the specific allegations against her. Adams Kellum’s administration has not answered whether they reported the allegations to county auditor-controller investigators — something required for all allegations of abuse of LAHSA’s resources, according to an agreement LAHSA disclosed to LAist.

What the whistleblowers alleged

In the newly disclosed letters, the whistleblowers allege that:

• Adams Kellum pushed out experienced staff to hire unqualified friends and former subordinates from her previous job into high-level, high salary LAHSA roles. 
• One of these hires used their personal cell phone for official communications, in violation of agency policy.
• A LAHSA official repeatedly withheld accurate data about Mayor Karen Bass’ signature homelessness program, Inside Safe, “because [Adams] Kellum did not want Mayor Bass to look bad.” (LAist previously reported that officials withheld Inside Safe transparency reports from the L.A. City Council.) Vaughn Henry’s claim letter says Adams Kellum retaliated against her “for not being willing [to] hide the number of clients being served by Inside Safe.”
• Adams Kellum asked LAHSA’s top IT official to violate record retention laws by deleting two official emails that had been sent to Adam’s Kellum’s LAHSA email account. The whistleblower letter claims this was intended to protect the person who had emailed Adams Kellum. The emails were sent “in violation of the City's communication policies regarding using personal email for official business,” according to the claim. The name of the email sender was blacked out by LAHSA’s attorneys — which a public records attorney says is unlawful. 
• Adams Kellum engaged in “inappropriate and unethical behavior” at a conference in Washington, D.C. Vaughn Henry reported the behavior to human resources around August 2023, according to her claim. Adams Kellum subsequently retaliated against Vaughn Henry for reporting the incident, according to the claim letter. The apparent description of Adams Kellum’s alleged misbehavior at the conference was redacted by LAHSA’s attorneys, which a public records attorney says is unlawful.
• Adams Kellum wanted to spend public money on an open bar at LAHSA’s holiday party and responded angrily when told that would be an improper use of taxpayer dollars and create legal liability for LAHSA. Adams Kellum then allegedly suggested a vendor pay for the alcohol. When told that would be a conflict of interest, Adams Kellum allegedly got angry again.

LAHSA leadership failed to commission a neutral investigation into allegations, in violation of the agency’s own policy, according to one of the letters.

[Click here to read Vaughn Henry’s claim letter, and here for Dixon’s.]

Settlements prevented public lawsuit and witness testimony

The claim letters said that if LAHSA didn’t settle the claims, the former executives would file a public lawsuit and gather extensive supporting evidence and testimony for their allegations, which would become public and potentially affect city and county officials.

“Once litigation is commenced, we intend to take thorough and exhaustive discovery and depose each of the employees, managers, and officers who witnessed, encouraged, condoned, and turned a blind eye to the unlawful acts of the LAHSA, [Adams] Kellum, and elected officials having authority over LAHSA,” the letters state. “There is already a high level of public and media interest in the recent terminations at LAHSA, and a public lawsuit will undoubtedly have far-reaching repercussions for many City and County officials.”

In March, LAHSA’s governing commission authorized $800,000 in settlement payments to resolve the claims and prevent a public lawsuit. The commissioners were not provided copies of the claim letters for their decision on the settlement payments, according to LAHSA.

LAHSA paid $200,000 of the settlements out of city and county general fund money, and the other $600,000 was paid by LAHSA’s insurance provider Chubb, according to the agency.

LAHSA denies the allegations, which weren’t investigated

“The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) denied the allegations presented in the letters and resolved these matters with advice of outside counsel and based upon many factors, including business considerations,” the agency said in an emailed statement attributed to Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA’s spokesperson.

“LAHSA does not wish to ‘litigate’ this case in the media and will offer no further comment on this matter,” the statement said.

The allegations were not formally investigated.

“After a diligent search LAHSA has determined that no complaints were filed related to the allegations described, and therefore no formal investigation [was] initiated against Dr. Adams Kellum," said a public records response to LAist from Holly Henderson, risk management director at LAHSA.

Adams Kellum’s administration has not answered a follow up question about why an independent investigation was not conducted into the demand letters' allegations after they were received. They also have not answered whether the allegations against Adams Kellum were previously reported to human resources or risk management director Holly Henderson.

Other local governments have policies to hire an outside law firm or investigator to look into allegations against high-ranking officials — as Orange County did in recent years with high-ranking officials.

Adams Kellum did not respond to multiple requests for comment. She and her administration’s spokespeople declined to answer what LAHSA’s policy is for retaining official emails.

Bass’ office referred LAist’s questions to LAHSA’s attorneys, who have not responded. The questions included whether Bass has used her personal email account to communicate with Adams Kellum about official business.

LAist requested copies of the emails Adams Kellum allegedly wanted deleted. Adams Kellum’s administration did not respond for 11 days, before saying they needed an additional two weeks to answer whether they exist because they need to consult with a separate, unnamed agency interested in the records request.

Dixon and Vaughn Henry declined to comment. Their settlement agreements with LAHSA state that they cannot “volunteer knowingly or maliciously false and disparaging opinions or commentary regarding [LAHSA],” including on social media or responding to news reporters.

The settlement deals also say that LAHSA will “maintain the confidentiality of the terms, conditions, payment amounts, and other aspects of this settlement and Settlement Agreement to the extent permitted by applicable law” — despite settlement agreements being public records under the California Public Records Act.

LAHSA refused to release the records — until LAist kept pushing back

For weeks, LAHSA’s attorneys at the County Counsel’s office refused to release the whistleblower claims that led to the settlement payouts — despite courts repeatedly ruling that those types of records have to be disclosed.

The fact that the claims have been settled — and taxpayer money paid out — makes it even more clear that the public has a right to see them, said David Loy, a leading public records attorney in California and legal director at the First Amendment Coalition.

LAHSA attorneys Dan Kim and Alyssa Skolnick argued that several exemptions allowed the agency to withhold the records, including attorney-client privilege.

But Loy said none of the exemptions apply. For example, attorney-client privilege is about communications between an attorney and their own client — not claims filed by an outside party.

LAHSA’s attorneys then declined to respond to Loy’s point-by-point analysis of why their reasons for withholding the records go against court rulings.

Dan Kim, an attorney with the County Counsel’s office who had declined to release the records, is pictured on a live stream of the LAHSA Commission’s meeting on April 21, 2025.

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Screenshot of LAHSA public meeting video

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LAist has published two articles on LAHSA withholding the records in apparent violation of state law, and is continuing to question top officials about why they were withholding the documents.

LAist escalated the questioning to the county’s top attorney, County Counsel Dawyn Harrison, who oversees the attorneys refusing to release the documents.

Harrison ultimately disclosed the two documents, with redactions.

The redactions, however, are not lawful, Loy said. And most of the court rulings Harrison pointed to for the redactions require public disclosure, according to the summaries she provided of the rulings.

LAHSA’s redactions are unlawful, expert says

The claims ultimately disclosed to LAist have extensive redactions — including the name of Adams Kellum’s former employer, the names of allegedly unqualified LAHSA executives she hired, and the name of officials who allegedly used their personal email account for official business.

Loy said courts have been clear that exemptions which might be applicable in other contexts, including privacy, do not apply to written litigation claims or demands to public agencies.

If a litigation threat or demand is made and the agency settles — in these cases for $800,000 — "the public has the right to know all of the evidence claimed by the claimants to be able to assess for itself, was this a good deal or a bad deal to settle these claims,” Loy told LAist.

He strongly disputed the reasons Harrison cited for the redactions.

“The agency cannot claim attorney-client privilege over a document sent to it by their adversary’s lawyer,” he said. "I’m baffled as to how they can claim attorney-client privilege is implicated in a communication from opposing counsel.”

Harrison has not responded to a follow-up email from LAist explaining Loy’s analysis of the redactions as unlawful and asking for an explanation backing up the redactions.

Praise for Adams Kellum after $800,000 payouts

Bass and her LAHSA Commission appointee, Wendy Greuel, brought Adams Kellum to LAHSA and have been two of her highest profile supporters after a series of controversies. Those controversies include a court-overseen audit finding a lack of accountability for taxpayer dollars during her time overseeing LAHSA, and signing a $2.1 million taxpayer deal to pay a nonprofit that employs her husband as a senior leader, despite laws against conflicts of interest and Adams Kellum previously claiming she recused herself.

Bass and Greuel have spoken highly of Adams Kellum in recent weeks, including after the $800,000 payouts were approved over the misconduct claims with no public indication of an investigation into them.

In honoring Adams Kellum at a LAHSA Commission meeting last month, Greuel said she had asked Adams Kellum to apply for the LAHSA job.

“I think I [followed] you at events to tackle you to say, ‘Would you apply?’ ” Greuel said of Adams Kellum at the April 21 LAHSA Commission meeting. It was the first meeting after Adams Kellum announced she would be leaving in August, after county supervisors voted to pull county funding from LAHSA.

Bass’ family has known Adams Kellum for years. Bass’ daughter, Yvette Lechuga, started working for Adams Kellum at St. Joseph Center during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the L.A. Times.

Adams Kellum was an advisor for the mayor’s transition in late 2022, and early in her administration Bass directed LAHSA to hire Adams Kellum as a $10,000-per-week consultant to the mayor on the Inside Safe program — which Adams Kellum helped design — ahead of Adams Kellum becoming LAHSA’s CEO.

In a statement last month about Adams Kellum’s plan to leave LAHSA, Bass praised Adams Kellum’s “leadership and bold vision.”

‘Perfect shield for political responsibility’

LAHSA’s relationship with elected officials came up at a recent federal court hearing before Judge David O. Carter.

He said the agency has protected elected officials from responsibility in how billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on homelessness.

Referring to LAHSA, the judge said: “It's a perfect shield for political responsibility.”

Recent court filings paint two contradictory pictures about what is happening behind closed doors at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, the privately run immigration detention center 90 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

On the one hand, federal officials argue conditions at Adelanto already meet the standards set by U.S. District Court Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes. Sykes ordered the government to make immediate improvements at the detention facility on July 16.

And, in any case, they’ve asked the judge to hold off on enforcing her order while they appeal.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs — people detained at the facility — instead describe routine violations of the court order still taking place today. They argue delaying enforcement will prolong violations of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process and fair treatment before the law.

How we got here

The case was filed in January by lawyers representing people detained at Adelanto after two people died at the facility — two more people have died since then.

Here are some key allegations in the lawsuit:

• Problems with access to medical care and disability accommodations
• Contaminated water
• Water unavailable 24/7
• Food that doesn't meet dietary requirements

Sykes found enough evidence to support these claims to require immediate action. That’s where the preliminary injunction comes in.

And that did two things: It ordered some changes to be made right away, like 24-hour access to clean water and healthy food. Then it asked the government to prepare a plan for long term improvements. That’s the plan filed by federal officials late Thursday, July 30, which was short on details and also claimed many of the alleged complaints were invalid.

A July 31 filing by plaintiffs’ attorneys fundamentally disagreed, saying “conditions at Adelanto are not a matter of dispute; they are documented by extensive expert testimony, declarations from detained individuals, and the Government’s own admissions.”

The filing calls the government’s request for a stay a delaying tactic, one that would keep in place “conditions this Court found likely unconstitutional, and in which four people have died.”

Sophia Wrench, an attorney for the plaintiffs with Public Counsel, said the government’s request is full of contradictions.

“This request to hold off on enforcing this injunction represents a pattern of behavior on the part of the government to continually delay implementing court orders,” Wrench said. “They are simultaneously arguing that they’re already doing everything that the court order is asking them to do, but also saying that it would irreparably injure them to continue to implement the order. So meanwhile, the 1,800 plus people at Adelanto still don’t have clean water consistently, still don’t have clean facilities, and still experience mold that has not been remediated.”

Asked for comment about the plaintiff’s most recent filing, The GEO Group Inc., the private company contracted to run Adelanto under a $400 million annual contract through 2029, referred LAist to ICE.

The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to a request to comment for this story, but in a previous, unsigned statement, the agency said reports of substandard conditions at Adelanto are false.

Alleged worms in the water

One central area of dispute is over water, both access and quality.

Federal officials say both are adequate. In a declaration filed to the court on July 30, Ryan Smith, an ICE assistant field office director, said conditions outlined in the July 16 court injunction are being met.

Smith’s declaration said the facility already provides clean drinking water 24 hours a day, with access to drinking fountains supplied by the same municipal water company that supplies the town of Adelanto.

Shortly after Smith’s declaration was filed, L.A. Taco reported a man held at Adelanto, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, said he discovered black worms in the drinking water there. An attorney representing Parias said Parias got the water from coolers provided by the facility, and shared the video showing the worms with LAist.

Other people detained at Adelanto complained about the water in new court filings. A declaration filed by Wrench, of Public Counsel, includes reports from four men held inside the facility who all report “significant delays” accessing clean drinking water since the court order.

Water is available from a sink inside the cells and in Igloo jugs, according to the declaration, which also notes those detained said it’s only been since the lawsuit was filed in January that GEO guards instructed them to drink from the sink.

The declaration says that even the water in the jugs “appears to be stale and dirty, with visible black sediment in the water.”

Guards occasionally take the water dispensers away, one plaintiff reported, leading the men in his unit to chant “Agua! Agua! Agua!”

One plaintiff said the men in his unit do not have clean drinking water for four hours at a time nearly every day. He said on July 22, nearly a week after the order, around 25 people in the unit filed a collective grievance and were told by a guard that they could drink water from the sink instead.

While it’s true that the Adelanto Water Department provides water to the facility, Wrench said that doesn’t explain away issues with water cleanliness.

“The city of Adelanto serves water to the entire city of Adelanto. So they are responsible to that point, but once the water is in the detention center, Adelanto is responsible for the storage of the water, the quality of the pipes, the overlay with the sewer system,” Wrench said. “We’re getting things like people saying the water smells, alternatively, like bleach or smells like water, we’re seeing that the water is dark colored. That’s what we’re hearing from folks inside. That doesn’t align with what GEO Group and ICE are telling us.”

Alleged defiance of the order and ongoing staffing issues

The plaintiffs also report in the court declarations that ICE has failed to improve access to healthy food, medical care or exercise in the yard.

According to the declaration, people detained at Adelanto report The GEO Group employees telling them they either have not heard of the order, or that ICE has told them not to make any changes until the appeal is finalized.

One example in the declaration: A detained man who raised the court order with a GEO officer, a captain, reported she told him that she had not seen the order and said that the facility was short-staffed. The next day, the man said that the captain called him into her office to explain that, since the order was being appealed, it would not be enforced.

“She explained that once ICE told them to enforce the [preliminary injunction], they would do so immediately, but that ICE had not told them to enforce it,” according to the declaration.

In their application to delay implementing the July 16 order, lawyers for the federal government explain that there are approximately 52 ICE employees on-site, along with 350 security and operations staff and 100 medical staff employed by GEO Group. There are currently about 1,800 people being held at Adelanto.

Wrench told LAist that staffing appears to be a major issue at Adelanto.

“We are hearing that guards have to work 16, 18 hour shifts, and so they’re burning out quickly, either getting fired or leaving, quitting their jobs,” Wrench said. “Almost every time I go to Adelanto, I’m hearing new people being trained on the job when I’m speaking to different staff. That means they don’t have enough guards to clean, they don’t have enough guards to supervise people in their outdoor time, and so that means they have to cut corners.”

Who is responsible for Adelanto?

In court filings, the federal government has argued that the government cannot address the issues in the court order, because the Adelanto facility is run by GEO, its contractor.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs dispute this reasoning, what the recent court filings call the “defendant’s central gambit.” They claim Sykes was briefed on this argument and rejected it in issuing the order for relief. According to plaintiffs’ filings, ICE has the contractual authority to require GEO’s compliance with any conditions the court orders. “ICE need not physically operate the mop to ensure the floors are clean, it need only exercise the contract provisions that already require GEO to do so,” a filing from July 31 states.

“It’s quite frankly ridiculous that they continue to argue that because GEO is not a direct party to the case, that they don’t have levers of control over GEO to be implementing this order,” Wrench told LAist. “They have a contract with GEO Group to be doing the day-to-day operations for this facility. There is a constitutional duty that the government has whenever they are detaining someone.”

In the latest earnings call, GEO’s CEO and founder George Zoley, who immigrated to the U.S. from Greece in 1953, said the federal government was looking to take direct ownership of immigration detention centers.

“As some blue states are considering more active involvement in oversight of facilities, I think the logical solution to much of that is federal ownership of the facilities,” Zoley said. “They are federal facilities to begin with, in my opinion.”

Ice-Age discoveries are still happening at the La Brea Tar Pits while the museum is closed for renovations.

And for the first time in Los Angeles, researchers have found a new species of extinct amphibian, according to a study released Wednesday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The little amphibian is a type of spadefoot toad — which technically aren’t toads but have the word in the common name. The researchers have affectionately named it Spea labreae (spay-ah lah-bray-eye) — a nod to the location where it was discovered.

How they found the amphibian

Spea labreae is now one of only two amphibians found from this era in North America. The other is a tree frog in Florida.

The study’s lead author, José Alberto Cruz, discovered the spadefoot while reviewing a collection of bones that had been barely touched since they were excavated from Rancho La Brea in 1929.

This incomplete sacro-urostyle bone (base of the spine that connects to the hips) is the holotype specimen used to describe the new species, Spea labreae.

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Courtesy La Brea Tar Pits

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At first, he said, he thought the sample came from a sick or injured amphibian in the already known spadefoot family. But as he compared the bones, he realized that couldn’t explain the differences in what he saw.

“[I thought,] 'Oh my god, this is a new species that is [being kept] in a drawer,'” he said. “And now it’s in the light to the world.”

This was Cruz's first discovery of an extinct species. He said he measured the bones to determine the size. According to his research, it was a bit larger than today's spadefoots. (Reporter’s note: Sorry to anyone who was hoping for it to be huge, like I was.)

As for the name, Spea labreae may seem self-explanatory, but there’s another reason.

“ The team [is] amazing,” he said. “All the people inside, the curators, the collection managers, the excavation lab — all the people are great.”

Why the discovery matters for climate change

Amphibians are incredibly sensitive to climate changes and need water. Because of that, researchers can learn more about what conditions were like during the Ice Age, such as precipitation and temperature, just from a frog's presence.

“ The birds, they can fly. If the conditions are very bad, they move,” he said. “But in the case of toads, frogs … they can’t move a lot.”

Co-author Emily Lindsey, a  vertebrate paleontologist at the La Brea Tar Pits, said the new discovery could offer insights about a much colder, wetter L.A. region.

Reconstructions of the dark Spea labreae at the center and right in the La Brea Tar Pits, compared with Spea hammondii (light spadefoot, left), which is the species in L.A. today. The Mexican burrowing toad is at the bottom.

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Artwork by Arturo Dávalos

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Courtesy La Brea Tar Pits

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“ If we’re trying to understand what Los Angeles looked like during the Ice Age, these are some of our best clues that can give us information about that,” she said.

For Spea labreae, L.A. is its only known home so far. But researchers also found the first record of the Mexican burrowing toad here, which today is only found in southern Mexico.

Lindsey said something big may have happened that made the toad move, such as climate changes during the late Ice Age or the arrival of humans.

Although the new discoveries won’t be in a dedicated exhibit when the museum reopens, they will be incorporated into the format.

“ Toads are definitely going to be represented in the new museum,” Lindsey said, “along with insects, songbirds, pack rats and all of the other plants and animals that make up an ecosystem.”

The second ticket drop for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles launches Monday, and fans will learn this week if they have a slot.

Just like last time, anyone who wants to buy tickets to the Games had to pre-register. That automatically entered them into a lottery for a window to buy tickets.

Those who won a spot will receive an email Thursday or Friday.

Ticket sales for Drop 2 will launch Aug. 10 and run through Aug. 20. Fans are limited to 12 tickets each, with an additional 12 allowed for the Olympic soccer tournament.

Purchases are limited to four tickets maximum for both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Those who purchased fewer than that in the first round of ticket sales — or didn't get a spot — will be automatically re-entered into Drop 2.

Tickets start at $28 a piece, and some will be available at that price in this next round of sales.

In the first drop, cheap tickets went fast, and many were left only with options in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. Ticket prices include a 24% service fee, which raised eyebrows for some people when they reached check-out.

LA28 is counting on ticket and hospitality sales to bring in $2.5 billion to cover the costs of putting on the Games. If they don't hit that mark, public funds could be on the line.

Organizers will launch an official ticket re-sale market next year. Tickets to the Paralympic Games will also go on sale in 2027.

A federal judge on Tuesday held the Department of Homeland Security in contempt for allegedly slow-rolling an order to create digital copies of communications from personal and government cell phones used by immigration agents during operations in the Los Angeles area last year.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong in the Central District of California previously ordered the federal government in January to expedite imaging the personal cell phones of more than 800 agents involved in controversial immigration raids in Los Angeles in 2025.

Judge Frimpong imposed a fine of $500 per day on the federal government until it complies with the order to turn over phones as part of discovery and reimburse plaintiffs’ attorneys for the legal costs of getting the records.

Attorneys for DHS admitted in court in June that the agency had not provided the records. They told the judge they were processing the government devices at a rate of three phones every two weeks, which plaintiffs noted would take nearly four years to complete.

Attorneys representing immigrants caught up in Operation At Large — the name given to the Trump administration’s Los Angeles immigration crackdown last year — argue the phones may contain evidence of a pattern of racial profiling by federal agents.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in May that the Department of Homeland Security “simply proceeded to thwart” Frompong’s order “by dragging their feet on imaging government-issued cell phones and by openly defying the order as to personal phones.”

Last month, ACLU attorneys asked Frimpong to issue another order that would prohibit agents from detaining people based on their race. They cited text messages and body camera footage in which agents used racial slurs, including “wet and “tonks,” to identify working-class Latinos to stop, according to court records.

“Not only are federal agents violating the Constitution on the streets, the government is violating court orders by intentionally withholding critical evidence about its immigration enforcement operations.” said Mayra Joachin with the ACLU of Southern California.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.