The Brief

The Los Angeles City Charter Commission on Tuesday approved a set of recommendations aimed at improving how the city operates, including streamlining the City Attorney’s Office, creating an anti-corruption office and doubling the charter-mandated amount of funds set aside for the city parks.

The commission also recommended spelling out more clearly how to suspend any councilmember who is accused of a crime. But the panel stopped short of creating a legislative recall process where the council could trigger a recall election on its own. Right now, the only way to recall a member of the council is to launch a signature-gathering drive.

The commission was created in the wake of the 2022 City Hall tapes scandal, wherein members of the council were heard on audio discussing how to hold onto power. The conversation was laced with crude and racist remarks, triggering calls for resignation. Council President Nury Martinez resigned, but councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon remained.

The commission’s recommendations will go to the City Council, which will decide whether to place the proposals on the June ballot. Any changes to the charter require voter approval.

Tuesday’s meeting was the latest in a series of commission meetings to discuss various reforms. There’s another one Thursday, where commissioners are expected to propose increasing the size of the City Council from 15 to 23 members.

Bifurcating the City Attorney’s Office

Right now, the City Attorney’s Office handles both civil litigation and criminal prosecution of misdemeanors. The proposed charter change would make the city attorney responsible solely for the criminal prosecution of misdemeanors and create a law department (or similar office) appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council that serves and represents city officials for all other legal functions.

The idea arose out of concerns over conflicts of interest.

Commission staff wrote in a report that bifurcating the office and making the position that represents the city civilly an appointed position “without the need to fundraise or garner endorsements” reduces the possibility of conflict of interest.

Creating an Inspector General’s Office

The commission recommended creating an Office of Inspector General that would be part of the Ethics Commission and would be designed to root out corruption within city government. The inspector general would launch investigations on behalf of the ethics commission, other commissions and on its own.

The idea is to “reduce political influence, enhance accountability and rebuild public trust in local government,” staff wrote in a report.

Increasing funding for parks

Right now, the city charter requires an annual appropriation for the Department of Recreation and Parks of at least .0325% of the assessed value of all property in the city. The formula has remained unchanged since the 1930s.

The commission recommends doubling it to .065%.

Dozens of people who showed up to the panel’s meeting and on zoom spoke out in favor of this reform.

“Literally the infrastructure is crumbling,” said Sakae Koyama, co-president of Friends of Elysian Park. “The lack of staffing is breaking the parks system. You have terrible morale.

“I don’t understand why something that everyone can use is not being funded properly.”

The commission also recommended installing language in the charter that would enshrine the right to an attorney for somebody facing deportation. But the proposal was watered down amid concerns it would cost the city too much to provide attorneys.

Instead, the proposal said any right is subject to the City Council’s decision to fund it.

What’s next

The commission will consider even bigger charter reforms at its meeting today, including expanding the size of the City Council and changing L.A.'s election system to ranked-choice voting.

The panel meets in the Board of Public Works session room 350 in City Hall at 4 p.m.

You may also join via Zoom.

Residents and City Council members are raising concerns about Long Beach’s plan to shut down a fire engine, lay off dozens of firefighters and reduce fire station staffing on a rotating basis.

They said city management should consider other options to balance the budget before making cuts that would drive up response time and limit how effectively first responders can handle emergencies.

Objections came during a City Council meeting Tuesday night when officials discussed potential cuts at the Long Beach Fire Department, which are part of sweeping cost-saving measures City Manager Tom Modica proposed to close a $58 million deficit in the coming fiscal year.

Modica’s plan called for trimming $11 million from the LBFD’s $201 million budget. It would mean shutting down Fire Engine 14 in East Long Beach, eliminating 34 positions overall — including 28 currently filled jobs — and taking one engine out of service on a rotating basis among the city’s 23 stations.

Four fire captain positions would be cut, including roles tied to the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center, community services and public information, and training and recruitment, along with a vacant battalion chief position in the Operations Bureau. The Fire Department’s headquarters front desk would also lose its in-person staffing and shift to a remote receptionist system.

In arguing to shut down Engine 14, which operates out of the fire station near Colorado Lagoon, officials said it responds to about 2,200 — mostly medical — emergencies each year but only about 200 fire calls, which is fewer than other engines. Fire Station 14’s ambulance crew will continue without interruption, they added. Eliminating the engine, along with laying off the firefighters assigned to it, is expected to save the city $3.88 million.

Long Beach Fire Engine 14 pulls into Station 14 at the intersection of Colorado Street and Elliot Street in Long Beach Tuesday, November 29, 2022.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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Taking an additional engine out of service on a rotating basis would save an additional $3.82 million.

But after pushback from the public and City Council members, Modica said his office would bring back other options to consider within the next week.

The City Council must ultimately vote on any cuts before they take effect.

What would the cuts mean?

Cuts of the magnitude proposed would invariably affect operations, Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan told City Council members. “When I say operations, I mean I have to impact the community,” he said.

The cuts would lead to an increased strain on firefighters and paramedics, leading to longer response times and instances where there is no engine available to respond to an emergency.

“Even a mild adjustment can affect the way we respond to calls,” he said.

Lamont Nguyen, president of the city firefighters union, said that the loss of Engine 14 would reverberate through the city. He said the engine, unlike some others, is also a paramedic-assessment unit, meaning it’s equipped to respond to medical calls and administer IVs and life-saving medication, or use heart monitors that could save someone in the time leading up to the arrival of an ambulance.

Firefighters and paramedics responded to more than 67,200 calls for service in the past fiscal year, department data show, with 85% for medical emergencies and 11% for fires.

The pushback

Councilmember Kristina Duggan, whose district includes Station 14’s coverage area, said the calls for service won’t stop just because the engine does.

She noted her district has more than 1,200 new housing units coming online in the next two years, along with an expanded battery storage facility next to a natural gas power plant.

“It still does respond to 2,200-plus calls per year,” Duggan said of Engine 14. “If Engine 14 is eliminated, that doesn’t mean the calls disappear.”

Calls currently handled by Engine 14 would be redirected to Engine 4 in Belmont Heights, Engine 8 in Belmont Shore and Engine 22, which serves the area near Cal State Long Beach.

Councilmember Daryl Supernaw said that redistribution could overextend Engine 22, whose coverage area already stretches north to Cal State Long Beach, sometimes along the 405 Freeway and south to the border of Seal Beach.

“To say it’s going to be impactful is an understatement,” Supernaw said.

Supernaw also noted that Engine 22 sits near the 405 Freeway and sometimes must respond to time-consuming freeway incidents and must go into the coverage area of Fire Station 18, which does not have its own engine.

During the City Council meeting Tuesday, resident Patrick Pianezza urged the council to reconsider the cuts, arguing that removing Engine 14 would leave a gap that ambulances alone can’t fill, since they typically don’t carry fire-suppression equipment.

“When you remove resources for public safety and public health, nothing good happens,” Pianezza said.

What’s next?

Mayor Rex Richardson has already proposed revising a portion of the cuts, specifically the rotating engine closure.

However, he said Long Beach has survived prior budget crises that also required public safety cuts.

“We know that budgets are cyclical. Sometimes there’s good years, sometimes there’s bad years,” Richardson said. “The last three mayors had to deal with it, the last three councils had to deal with it.”

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson outlines his budget proposals during a press conference at City Hall on Thursday, July 30, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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He and others pointed out that Long Beach has closed and later restored fire engines before.

Engine 12 was shut down and took roughly a decade to be structurally re-funded, according to city officials, while Engine 17 was restored in 2019 after seven years without full funding.

Both engines, along with Engine 8, have since been brought back into service. Some council members and residents argued that history shows how difficult it can be to bring back a unit once it’s gone, even as the surrounding neighborhoods continue to grow.

Richardson expressed optimism that the current shortfall is temporary and that the city is on track to reach a structural surplus within two years.

“But the good news is, once it is structurally addressed through this plan, you know, forecast long-term fiscal stability that we haven’t had since the pre-pandemic era,” Richardson said. “That’s what we’re doing in this budget.”

You can give your opinion on the budget by submitting a comment card here until Friday. The City Council and its Budget Oversight Committee will also continue discussing the budget at upcoming meetings, which you can find here. City Council members must adopt a balanced budget by October.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Two pieces of legislation were announced at a press conference on Wednesday at Proyecto Pastoral in Boyle Heights that aim to keep the Lineage cold-storage facility accountable in the aftermath of the fire. 

Here's what you should know about the proposals:

AB 817: Tax-free settlements

One bill — proposed by Assemblymember Mark González — seeks to prevent the city and county of Los Angeles from issuing new building permits to cold storage facilities like Lineage, “unless they maintain a contingency fund that can be accessed in states of emergency.”

The legislation, known as AB 817, also aims to ensure that any future settlements be tax-free for residents impacted by the Lineage fire. It would require local governments to take quicker action on controlling vectors if a state of emergency is declared.

“If you’re going to operate in a community, you have a responsibility to that community, and if something goes wrong, the community should not have to beg for the resources just to survive it,” González said. 

“AB817 will not undo what has already happened, but it can make sure that the next community in California is not left asking the same questions we are asking today,” González added.

SB 716: Fines for violators

The other bill, proposed by state Sen. María Elena Durazo, would increase the amount that cities and counties can fine companies that violate their ordinances. 

Under this proposed legislation — known as SB 716 — violators would face $1,000 per day for a first violation, $2,000 for a second violation, and $5,000 for each additional violation. If the violation results from a state or federal disaster declaration, these fines can be multiplied up to $50,000 per violation, according to the legislative factsheet.

Durazo said the current cap of $2,000 per day on city and county fines is not a “deterrent” for a company the size of Lineage, which has been cited by county health officials for unsanitary and nuisance conditions. Durazo said L.A. County issued six citations to Lineage and imposed $500 fines per day from July 23 through July 29.

“It is outrageous that my constituents, the residents of these communities, are expected to endure these conditions while clean-up continues at the company’s slow pace,” Durazo said. “We need more tools to address this emergency now … and to prevent this from ever happening again.” 

Why now

These proposed bills come weeks after permit applications were filed to restore the Lineage cold-storage warehouse.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who attended Wednesday’s press conference, has directed city departments to pause any approval of permits to rebuild the Lineage warehouse pending an investigation.

Just last week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board ordered Lineage to strengthen odor-control measures, expand air monitoring and improve communication with residents as cleanup of the burned warehouse continues.

The board, however, did not require Lineage to pay any financial penalties, which several elected officials, including Bass, had requested in light of the numerous air quality violations it had been issued.

As local news organizations nationwide navigate funding cuts, rapid changes in technology and shifting audience habits, building relationships directly with communities has become more important than ever. It’s also something newsrooms don’t have to do alone.

On June 27, LAist, The LA Local and 12 other L.A.-area newsrooms came together to meet community members at coffee shops across Los Angeles County. We called it Local News Day LA.

Here are five things we learned from holding this event for the first time, why it was worth it, and how other local newsrooms can organize their own events.

1. Communities will show up when you show up

This pop-up event, organized by The LA Local, allowed residents across the county to meet the journalists covering their communities.

A total of 14 media partners participated. In addition to LAist and The LA Local, newsrooms included CalMatters, LA Public Press, L.A. Taco, Calo News, Long Beach Post, The Eastsider, Los Angeles Reporting Collective, LA Sentinel, Q Voice News and USC Annenberg Media.

More than 400 people participated in the event by talking with a local journalist. For some, it was the first time they'd ever heard of that newsroom.

While LAist and The LA Local have both made it a recurring practice to meet community members in person to hear what's on their minds, many other newsroom partners didn't have experience with this kind of event. Afterward, journalists at some of those newsrooms said they were surprised that local residents actually wanted to meet them and share story ideas or feedback on recent coverage like the Lineage Fire in Boyle Heights.

CalMatters spoke with community members at Yia Caffe in Boyle Heights for Local News Day LA.

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The LA Local

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Others were also amazed at people’s willingness to travel from coffee shop to coffee shop to connect with as many media partners as possible.

Local News Day LA gave them a reason to come out and partners to help with the logistics and outreach — and people showed up to meet them.

2. What we heard from residents checked our assumptions and shaped our reporting

LAist spoke with dozens of community members at Café Calle in South Central for Local News Day LA. Among other topics, they shared with us that the effect of the immigration raids is still present in South Central, the neighborhood needs more spaces and resources for school-age kids, and that residents are frustrated by the amount of trash on the streets, even after cleaning it up themselves.

At a few coffee shops around L.A., The LA Local and Boyle Heights Beat spoke with residents in Koreatown, Inglewood and Boyle Heights. At OpenMarket, folks shared their concern regarding street safety.

At Asteroid Vinyl Cafe in Inglewood, residents expressed frustration over what they said was lack of transparency on Destination Crenshaw’s timeline for completion. And at Picaresca Cafe, community members shared their thoughts on the elected officials’ response to the Lineage Fire that impacted Boyle Heights and East LA.

The Long Beach Post staff spoke with community members at Wrigley Coffee in Long Beach for Local News Day LA on June 27.

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Kris Kelley

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The LA Local

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The Long Beach Post connected with residents at Wrigley Coffee in Long Beach. Some asked for more coverage of small businesses, more coverage in West Long Beach and more investigative reporting.

These conversations reflected what people were thinking about long after the day's headlines had faded and gave participating newsrooms strong signals about how to focus their time and energy next.

3. Collaboration can be more powerful than competition

Local News Day LA was the first collaboration held across all our news partners — and it started small. In 2025, LAist and The LA Local shared best practices and tips with each other from our respective experiences tabling and meeting community members to see what we could learn.

We then started brainstorming a larger collaboration, eventually rallying our partner newsrooms and holding a workshop on what we learned about planning a successful tabling event, engaging residents and collecting feedback to influence our journalism.

Q Voice News spoke with residents at Hot Java in Long Beach for Local News Day LA.

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The LA Local

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Local News Day LA showed that collaboration can strengthen local journalism. In an industry where newsrooms often compete for scoops, audiences and resources, the event demonstrated what’s possible when they work together to listen to communities and better serve residents.

4. Partnerships with local businesses can benefit everyone

While Local News Day LA was primarily about connecting residents with their local news outlet, it was also about supporting and elevating local businesses — each newsroom partnered with coffee shops across L.A. The LA Local supported all media partners with $250 to provide free coffee to residents that came out and connected.

Los Angeles Reporting Collective engaged with community members at Spoke Bicycle Cafe in Frogtown for Local News Day LA.

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The LA Local

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Newsrooms got a chance to see the kind of relationships coffee shops already had with people in the neighborhood. LAist journalists learned what a trusted community hub Café Calle was for residents nearby — and we're already making plans to go back. Coffee shops participating in the event also received additional foot traffic while also offering a space for community members to have conversations with journalists and each other.

5. Any newsroom can do this — here’s how

The LAist community engagement team tabled at the Crenshaw Farmers Market on July 11.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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An LA Local cafecito event at Asteroid Vinyl.

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Amir Vera

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The LA Local

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If you're at a newsroom that's never done a pop-up community tabling event, you can get started on your own even without a big collaboration. Here's a quick checklist:

• Reach out to the local business or program in a specific community you want to engage with.
• Clearly outline your goal for tabling. Is it to hear about a specific topic or is it more general?
• Promote your event. Talk about it on your social media, newsletters, website and any other format you have to engage with your audience.
• Tell community members about your organization! Now is the time to distribute merch or resources you might have. LAist has shared a resource on how to talk to a journalist when at tabling events.
• Take notes! You’ll want to reflect on them later.
• Have people sign up so you can follow up. Think about a quick check in through a QR code or physical sign-in sheet.
• Plan out what is next from what you’ve heard. Reflect on the response and share immediate follow ups for news coverage.

For more information about how to be a part of LAist’s reporting, visit LAist.com/Community. If you want to read more about The LA Local’s community engagement work, visit TheLALocal.org.