The Brief

Los Angeles County elections of Superior Court judges are notoriously hard to vote on, but concerns about a committee that issues ratings on each candidate are making it harder.

This election cycle, 28 candidates are vying for 10 seats on the L.A. County Superior Court, which you can learn about in our Voter Game Plan. These are people who could, if elected, end up hearing things like your divorce or traffic ticket dispute.

But it’s a race with notoriously little information, which is why the L.A. County Bar Association (LACBA) — a private, volunteer membership group unaffiliated with the state bar — assesses candidates each judicial election to help you figure out who could be fit for the bench, with ratings ranging from "not qualified," "qualified," "well qualified" and "exceptionally well qualified.”

A good rating is highly sought after and it can help a candidate get more endorsements and votes, but some candidates say a bad rating can sink a campaign before it begins.

This year, for one seat, LACBA rated both candidates running as “not qualified.” It’s renewed concerns the reviewers have a bias against attorneys with certain backgrounds, such as women, people of color and non-prosecutors like public defenders. Of the committee’s 38 members, only five have current public defender backgrounds. It leaves voters with more questions than answers.

A ‘not qualified’ candidate’s perspective

Recently, a reader wrote into us asking what they should do about the seat where both candidates were rated as not qualified.

We’ll try to answer that question in a bit, but first let’s take a look at why multiple candidates are saying LACBA’s whole review process is flawed.

You can learn more about the committee’s process here. In a nutshell, LACBA asks for at least 75 references, details about past employment and case history, and it spends weeks interviewing people who know the lawyer to determine whether they may fit within the association’s standards for judicial fitness. It culminates in an interview with the candidate about their findings before ratings are issued.

The attributes considered in the evaluations process.

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A screenshot of a LACBA presentation via chair Susan Schwartz

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Kim Repecka, one of the two candidates deemed “not qualified” in the Office No. 124 race, is a public defender who’s been practicing law for more than 11 years. According to emails reviewed by LAist, the committee told her before her interview they received information during the investigation that Repecka was “overzealous, rude to opposing counsel, the court, and court reporters, a ‘true believer’, and overly emotional.”

She later learned some of the claims came from opposing counsel and a judge during her time in criminal court.

The committee also told Repecka they had information that indicated “a limited breadth of experience” in terms of the cases. Repecka felt like she’d be able to show that she’d dealt with many different areas of law, but the other issues felt ambiguous.

“The claim of being too emotional, kind of felt like it had a basis in sexism. I certainly do sometimes feel emotionally about my cases,” Repecka said. “[But] I don't think that's a thing that people should not find desirable in judges, provided their judgment is not clouded by being emotional.”

When Repecka appealed her “not qualified” rating to the full committee, she says someone also made suggestions about her being too young to be a judge and that she may want to wait. They also brought up a 2022 Facebook post she made (at the request of her client) that included her concerns about the prosecutor’s conduct during jury selection and trial, and concerns about police brutality.

At the end of the appeals process, Repecka’s rating stayed the same, with the explanation that the rating was due to her “demeanor, judicial temperament, and professionalism.”

“If they don’t think that people should be upset when they see injustice,” she said, “if they don't think that judges or defense attorneys should be upset when they see unethical behavior, then I guess I don't have the temperament that they want.”

Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School who previously served on that committee, says that temperament is a legitimate criteria when looking for a good judge. Patience and the ability to listen well are key.

“We're looking for people that you think would be fair on your case,” Levenson said.

More candidates describe red flags in interviews

Repecka’s experience brings up a theme common to many concerns. LACBA’s evaluation committee is made up mostly of prosecutors and corporate lawyers, while many issued lower ratings are public defenders. The stark divide between the two is often reflected in the adversarial nature of courtrooms.

George Turner, a Black deputy public defender running for Office No. 39 who got a “qualified” rating, says his interview was “less than professional” and that questions “teetered on racism.” Two things came up about what he stands for: Turner’s desire to represent his community and to see the bench be more reflective of the people who are in courts.

“One of the interviewers said, ‘well, you know, Black people only make up about 9% of the population of Los Angeles County,” Turner recalled. “‘Are you saying that I would be a better representation because I'm white?’”

The question left Turner taken aback since he didn’t mention race specifically. Ericka Wiley, another deputy public defender running in Office No. 48 who was rated “qualified,” says a prosecutor asked her repeatedly why she’s used mental health diversion in settling cases. (Those programs steer people living with mental illness and drug use issues into treatment instead of incarceration.) Wiley believes this person didn’t know what she was talking about.

“It was very frustrating for me that I was being questioned about what I do and I was going to be rated by someone who had a complete lack of understanding of what's involved in my work,” Wiley said.

Wiley and Turner did not appeal their ratings.

Former LACBA board member Merete Rietveld is also critical of the committee. She says there is an incentive for lawyers interested in being appointed to the bench themselves to join the evaluations committee, and to “tap into that network of people involved in the judicial selection process.” The evaluations committee is also not regulated by outside sources, so people can volunteer for it with only a few years of legal experience.

Did 2022 concerns change anything?

In 2022, LAist ran a story where candidates raised similar concerns of bias in the ratings process against women, people of color and non-prosecutors.

The story prompted candidate Rhonda Haymon, a deputy public defender running for Office No. 12, to ask the committee this election if they’d made any changes since then. Haymon says she did not hear back and did not submit her information for consideration. LACBA evaluated Haymon without her input, as is their rules, using whatever information they could find. The committee deemed her “not qualified.”

LAist did speak to a number of candidates who were fine with their ratings.

Office No. 130 candidate Christopher Darden, an attorney who’s worked in both prosecution and defense, was rated “well qualified.” And while he’s happy with that rating and generally didn’t have issues with his interviews, he noticed how the committee gave him, and his opponent with less experience, the same rating.

“I do have a problem with a system that equates 44 years of experience like mine with 12 years of doing nothing more than being a prosecutor,” Darden said. “I don't feel like I was discriminated against or treated unfairly but I have a concern that public defenders weren't treated the same way that deputy district attorneys were.”

Candidates for Office No. 97, former deputy public defender La Shae Henderson, who received “qualified” and deputy district attorney Sam Abourched, who received “well qualified,” also felt their interviews went normally.

LACBA’s response

LAist asked LACBA to respond to criticisms, and we received this letter from committee chair Susan Schwartz:

In line with the committee’s process, Schwartz says that she’s not at liberty to respond to specific questions on candidates, but says that their evaluations were consistent and fair. Those interviews and findings are kept confidential.

Schwartz said separately in an interview that the subcommittees which conduct the reviews don’t evaluate candidates against each other, so there can be times where both candidates get low ratings — as is the case with Office No. 124 — or when both get the same rating.

Schwartz also said after our investigation came out in 2022, the committee added another defense lawyer to its ranks and rolled out an implicit bias training.

So what can you do with your vote?

The main takeaway is to use the LACBA ratings cautiously and make your own decisions.

Our Voter Game Plan includes links to candidates’ endorsements groups like political organizations and other judges. You can look up attorneys registered to practice law in California through the State Bar website. It will show you their license status, contact information, and whether the attorney has been disciplined.

You could also write someone in. The deadline for new candidates to officially launch a write-in campaign has passed, but you can always put a name of someone you’d like to see on the bench. Unfortunately, there’s no list of “well-qualified” attorneys on standby. This will require some extra research on your part.

In the case of the Office No. 124 race, where both candidates were deemed “not qualified,” Schwartz admitted it’s going to be a hard choice for everyone. As for her, she’ll be consulting outside tools like Vote 411 to make her decision, which is a resource from the League of Women Voters.

Laurie Levenson, the Loyola law professor, says she gets questions about voting on judges all the time. As a former member of LACBA’s evaluations committee, she still uses the ratings they put out. But she says sometimes they don’t end up sharing answers voters want.

“We know that the L.A. Times does a vet and they make their endorsements. We know that newspapers will evaluate [candidates] other than the L.A. Times,” Levenson said. “For example, the Metropolitan News focuses more on the legal community, and then there's the L.A. Daily Journal.”

Levenson says there’s a few ways to think about the criteria for judges: The level of experience, openness to all members of the community, and a potential to add to a diverse bench that serves everyone’s interests.

Reggae star Ziggy Marley has spent decades carrying one of music’s most celebrated legacies. But until now, he had never written a song directly about his father, Bob Marley.

That’s changed with “Many Mourn for Bob,” a track on Marley’s ninth solo album Brightside, his first release recorded in his new studio in North Hollywood.

Marley was just 12 when his father died of cancer in 1981. Now 57, Marley says the song instinctually emerged after years of life experience and producing the biopic One Love, which revisited his father’s struggles like an assassination attempt amid political violence in Jamaica.

“He went through some things that was really tough on a human being – and just understanding him in that light is to have a little bit more emotional, deeper connection to his experience,” Marley said in an interview at his studio.

Searching for the bright side

The deeply personal track is part of a splashy return for Marley, who's touring behind Brightside and will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21.

The new album blends political themes, optimism and musical experimentation.

Its lead single, “Racism Is a Killa,” featuring Big Boi, pairs the heavy topic with an upbeat groove that he hopes will make the song more accessible to young people.

“We just wanna come out straightforward, like I never want to come out tiptoeing,” Marley said. “I want to say something that can catch your ears or catch your thoughts.”

That tension between darkness and hope runs throughout Brightside. Marley described the album as a reflection on enduring difficult periods – from the pandemic to the Los Angeles wildfires – without losing sight of optimism.

“Sometimes we get lost in that so much that we don't realize that there is always a bright side,” Marley said.

The 432 Hz experiment

The album also experiments sonically: Marley recorded Brightside using 432 hertz tuning instead of the standard 440 hertz in most mainstream music. Advocates of 432 hertz believe it produces a warmer, more meditative sound better synced to the natural world. (You can hear the difference for yourself here.)

“It's a lower musical frequency, but it's a higher frequency in a next sense of your spirituality and emotion,” he said. “So even though the numbers go down, the frequency actually go up.”

Marley sees the move as part of a larger search for new creative approaches.

“I'm very open-minded and always trying to evolve and just experiment with life and music,” Marley said.

The Grammy winner, who joins James Blake and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead as the most high-profile artists to record at the lower frequency, floated the idea of a larger movement among artists.

“Let's just have a revolution in the music industry,” he said. “Let's change the frequency.”

Building a dream

Marley works out of his Rebel Lion Studio in North Hollywood, its name a nod to his 2018 album Rebellion Rises while also a play on the word “rebellion.”

He described the studio as an extension of the independent spirit his father built with Tuff Gong Studio in Jamaica.

Musicians set up for rehearsal ahead of the next leg of Ziggy Marley's tour.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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“My father had a dream, and I had a dream too,” Marley said.

Like with Tuff Gong, Marley also plans to expand the studio operation to include vinyl pressing as records continue their resurgence in the streaming era.

“There’s always gonna be a vinyl present going on,” Marley said. “A thousand years from now, people that we're still gonna need vinyl records to listen to music.”

Ziggy Marley in the hallway of his new studio in North Hollywood.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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For years, Marley said, he worked out of smaller home setups and rented facilities before deciding to build a larger permanent space in L.A.

Marley said the city has become central to his own creative evolution over the last two decades of living and working here.

Drawn initially by music, friends and the city's small but tight-knit Jamaican community, he says being surrounded by creatives from different backgrounds helped push his artistry in new directions.

“I left my safety and my community, my tribe, and come out by myself to L.A.,” he said. “But it's a great experience. It really helped my growth as a human being being here.”

What’s next

Fresh off the release of Brightside, Marley says he’s already working on another album – a notably quicker turnaround since his last album, the family-music release More Family Time in 2020,

“We're doing back to back,” he said.

Ziggy Marley will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21 as part of a tour supporting his new album Brightside.

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Astrida Valigorsky

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Getty Images

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He’s also busy writing a children’s book based on his feel-good hit anthem “True to Myself” and eyeing opportunities in front – or behind the camera – inspired by his time working on One Love and making the video for “Racism Is A Killa.”

“Same philosophy, same message, but within visuals, you know?” Marley said excitedly. “I want to create some stories and try out. I feel it coming. I can feel it.”

A new free record shop for survivors of last year’s Eaton and Palisades fires is celebrating with a grand opening party Saturday night.

After losing his home in the Eaton Fire, Brandon Jay founded Altadena Musicians to get instruments back into the hands of musicians who lost their gear in fires.

Now he’s doing that with vinyl records, too.

“We want to be here to help replace those items and support music in people’s lives that can’t necessarily afford it right now because they’re saving all their pennies just to live and also just to rebuild their homes,” Jay told LAist.

Jay says they’ve seen roughly 3,000 records donated so far. Now they have a dedicated space on Lincoln Avenue where fire survivors can sign up for time slots and shop for up to 10 records a month.

“It’s a really lovely distraction but it kind of keeps me going as well just to know that we’re trying to build something great for the community and keep us all moving forward,” Jay said.

The store will carry copies of the benefit album, Gimme Shelter: Songs for LA Fire Relief. The compilation features cover art by Shepard Fairey and L.A. specific tracks from artists like Elliott Smith ("Angeles" of course), Norah Jones, The Flaming Lips, as well as a cover of "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads performed by Jay and about 50 other fire-impacted musicians.

A City Council committee voted Friday to shelve a proposed ballot measure aimed at cutting L.A.'s “mansion tax” nearly in half.

The ad hoc committee on Measure ULA voted 2-1 to set aside a proposal by Councilmembers John Lee and Marqueece Harris-Dawson that would have asked voters in November to reduce the ULA transfer tax rate for multifamily and mixed-use properties to somewhere between 2% and 3.5%, down from the current rate of up to 5.5%.

However, the ballot measure proposal was also referred to the City Council’s rules, elections, and intergovernmental relations committee, which could still choose to move it forward.

Instead, the ad hoc committee advanced a narrower pilot program that would reduce the property transfer tax only for newly built affordable housing projects.

The pilot program won't need voter approval in the form of a ballot measure. Committee Chair Ysabel Jurado, who introduced the substitute language, said she believes the city should avoid a ULA ballot measure because it’s still too early to evaluate the measure’s long-term effects.

“ I'm against going to the ballot, but I'm for making fixes that make this better,” Jurado said.

Voters will see a separate proposal on their ballots by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to effectively repeal Measure ULA.

If the L.A. City Council does not approve reforming the measure, the only decision on the ballot in November may be whether to keep the mansion tax in its current form or end it.

About the mansion tax

L.A. voters approved Measure ULA in 2022 to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention. The measure taxes real estate sales over about $5 million. Since taking effect in April 2023, ULA has raised just over $1.1 billion from 1,633 real estate transactions, according to the city’s housing department.

The city projects it will generate about $500 million in the coming fiscal year — about half of what proponents initially promised. It has funded about 800 new affordable units and helped stabilize thousands of renters facing eviction, according to the housing department.

But critics say the tax has suppressed housing development. Several studies link the tax to a slowdown in apartment construction in Los Angeles, but ULA supporters say high interest rates and broader economic conditions are to blame.

The City Council's ad hoc committee on Measure ULA was formed earlier this year to study how the measure is working and develop potential reforms. That work took on more urgency inside L.A. city hall after the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association qualified a statewide ballot measure for November that would effectively repeal Measure ULA entirely.

Joe Donlin, director of the United to House LA coalition, which campaigned for the original measure, said the City Council committee made the right call by rejecting broader exemptions.

“By not taking up the extreme calls for broad, 15-year waivers that could cost the program about a third of its revenue, the committee acknowledged that ULA is working,” Donlin said in a statement.

A separate group of housing developers, union workers and advocacy groups calling itself the “Mend It, Don’t End It” coalition has been urging city hall to make changes to ULA. On Friday, the group said it supports the measure, but believes targeted reforms are still needed.

“Independent research shows that Measure ULA has slowed housing production in Los Angeles at a time when we need more housing, not less,” said Melanie Mendoza, a coalition spokesperson.

What the data show

The debate over ULA's impact played out in the committee room Friday morning. The city's chief legislative analyst reviewed seven independent studies on ULA’s impact. Three of those studies concluded ULA had suppressed housing production and reduced property tax revenues, while four found no meaningful negative impact.

Before ULA took effect, Los Angeles collected about $22 million a month in transfer tax. After that, it dropped to about $13 million. But city legislative analyst Henry Flatt told the committee a similar decline happened in cities without the tax, including Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena and Santa Clarita.

“We are not currently convinced that Measure ULA has had an extremely negative impact on general fund revenues,” Flatt told the committee.

The county assessor's office read the same period differently. Scott Thornberry, an assistant assessor with L.A. County, told the committee that commercial and industrial property sales are falling in the city but not elsewhere in the county.

“We are seeing, we believe, a trend line of impact to property tax revenue growth in the city of L.A. specifically," Thornberry said.

What the committee did

Instead of the ballot measure, the committee voted to develop a five-year pilot program cutting the ULA tax to 1.5% for newly constructed affordable housing projects that meet specific requirements.

Lee, whose ballot measure was replaced with language advancing the pilot program, said he hadn't seen the substitute prior to Friday’s meeting and voted against it.

“This was just placed in front of me,” he said. Lee objected to a provision in the substitute recommendations calling for $30 million in new spending on homelessness support.

“Without knowing where this money's coming from, I'm going to have to vote no,” he said.

Lee told LAist he supports stronger oversight and technical improvements to Measure ULA, but believes a ballot measure is the right approach.

“Voters deserve the opportunity to consider targeted changes that would preserve the intent of the measure while addressing its unintended impacts on housing production and real estate activity in Los Angeles,” the councilmember said, in a statement.

Friday's meeting was the committee's final scheduled hearing. The committee, which is set to dissolve June 1, also voted to advance a narrower nonprofit tax refund limited to organizations that can prove all sale proceeds went directly to affordable housing.

The committee continued a separate motion on fire exemptions for Palisades fire victims, which will be heard by another council committee. A motion to loosen eligibility rules for the ULA Citizens Oversight Committee was noted and filed.

Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who introduced several of the committee's motions, said the process had been guided by a commitment to protect the measure.

"My goal has always been to listen carefully, bring people into the conversation, and protect ULA while honoring the voters' intent," she said at Friday’s meeting.

In her closing remarks, Jurado reflected on the three-member committee’s past work.

“We released $14 million in rental assistance to the most vulnerable Angelenos and $300 million for affordable housing,” she said. “We did in six or seven meetings what others couldn't do in five years.”

The ad hoc committee's recommendations now move to the full City Council.

Harris-Dawson and Lee’s ballot measure motion will be considered by the City Council’s rules committee at a later date, officials said.

Monsterpalooza, the annual movie-monster bash for horror fans, returns to the Pasadena Convention Center this weekend, starting Friday night (May 29) and lasting through Sunday.

What to expect

Now in its 18th year, devotees can rub elbows with legendary beastie creators, browse hundreds of vendors who traffic in the weird and unsettling, and marvel at practical effects that’ll make your flesh creep.

Dozens of panels and presentations are scheduled, including a deep-dive into the 95th anniversary of the Dracula and Frankenstein movies by writer Julian David Stone.

Writer Julian David Stone gives a presentation at a past Monsterpalooza event.

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Perry Shields

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Courtesy Julian David Stone

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Stone said that the two classic movies have left a lasting impact.

“Dracula is a movie about supernatural horror..... and Frankenstein is about technological or man-made horror," he said. "You can just trace those two themes all the way forward to this past year with Sinners and Megan 2.0."

Richard Redlefsen's Armageddon Rat at the PPI Booth at a past Monsterpalooza.

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Steve Jennings Photography

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Courtesy Visit Pasadena

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Stone first attended the convention in 2008, returning over the years as a fan, spectator and presenter.

“It’s just a terrific convention that celebrates all things horror,” Stone said. “There’s a lot of celebrities you can meet who were in these horror films and you can get pictures with them." He added that he’ll never forget when he met Carla Laemmle in 2010 — the last living cast member of the original 1931 Dracula.

Mike Mekash and Chris Nelson re-created Twisty the Clown on Dan Gilbert at the PPI Booth at a past Monsterpalooza.

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Steve Jennings

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Courtesy Visit Pasadena

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Who's attending

If you’re jonesing to be photographed with high-profile entertainers (expect a fee for many), this year's event has a line-up that includes musician Alice Cooper, actress Lin Shaye from the Insidious movie franchise and David Howard Thornton, who plays Art the Clown in the popular Terrifier movie series.

Cosplay and crazy costumes are encouraged, although a T-shirt celebrating a classic horror movie will also do. Just come ready to adore all things that gnaw and gash.