City controller tapped to help monitor LA’s compliance with agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people

Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia will now help monitor the city’s compliance with an agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.

Two other people — Ron Galperin, a former L.A. city controller, and Daniel Garrie, a founder and managing partner of a law firm that focuses on cybersecurity — were selected to serve as monitors last month, pending approval by the L.A. City Council.

But city officials repeatedly delayed the vote to confirm their appointment as monitors, despite a representative from the city attorney’s office assuring the court it would help prioritize placing it on the agenda.

In a new order Tuesday, Judge David O. Carter appointed Garrie to serve as monitor effective immediately, despite the city’s objections and complaints about his proposed scope of work, team and budget. Mejia will support Garrie’s work by helping with data access and coordination, according to the order.

“Mr. Mejia is currently the most knowledgeable person regarding the myriad and complex funding streams involved with the homelessness system — he would not require further payment either,” Carter wrote.

What changed?

The third-party monitor is supposed to ask the hard questions on behalf of Angelenos, according to Carter.

The judge’s June ruling found that city officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights. The group of downtown business and property owners sued the city and county in 2020 for failing to adequately address the local homelessness crisis.

The city and L.A. Alliance agreed on Garrie and Galperin as monitors during a Sept. 16 hearing, but the L.A. City Council still needed to vote on accepting them for the role.

City Council repeatedly delayed the vote, despite it being placed on the agenda for the Sept. 26, Oct. 1 and Oct. 7 meetings. Council members discussed it in closed session Oct. 7, according to court documents, but then referred it to the Housing and Homelessness Committee.

The city changed its mind about Garrie and was no longer open to him serving as monitor, according to court records.

In a report to the court last Friday, attorneys for the city cited Garrie’s “unduly expansive and overly broad proposed scope of work, his unnecessarily large and expensive proposed team and his refusal to provide a budget — all especially important considerations given limited resources and the ongoing fiscal emergency that the city is facing.”

The city then proposed having both the current and former city controllers, Galperin and Mejia, serve as monitors. L.A. Alliance, meanwhile, proposed Mejia and Garrie for the role.

About the order

The court appointed Garrie as monitor, with support from Mejia, effective immediately Tuesday.

The monitor is tasked with reviewing city data for its quarterly reports to the court, verifying the numbers, resolving any data issues and providing public reports on data compliance.

The judge wrote in the order that “Garrie and his team have the technical expertise and prior experience to review the city’s data, as well as verify validity of that data,” adding that Garrie’s technical qualifications are better suited for the role.

Carter said he understands the city’s concerns about Garrie but added that he’s still the “most economical choice of the options presented.” Garrie’s discounted rate for the work is $750 an hour, which Carter noted is lower than the other candidates, including Galperin’s $800 an hour rate plus fixed fees.

Carter also acknowledged the city’s comments about being in a fiscal crisis but wrote that it “cannot be excused because there will always be a crisis.” He pointed to the L.A. Alliance’s argument that “if the city is concerned about budgetary issues, [it is] surprising given its publicly disclosed $6 million spend on outside counsel in this case.”

Garrie told LAist he’s honored to have been selected for the role and is in the process of establishing the details. He declined to comment further, citing confidentiality.

Mejia’s office didn’t immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment. However, Mejia said in a video last month about the case that his audit team has decades of experience with technical expertise and data, pointing to the website his office created tracking the city’s spending on homelessness.

What’s next

The city and L.A. Alliance are due back in court for the first quarterly compliance-review hearing Nov. 12, according to court documents.