County supervisor criticizes LA homeless services chief for ‘sloppy work’ in ethics breach

Responding to an investigation by LAist, a county supervisor is publicly criticizing L.A.’s homeless services chief for signing a $2.1 million contract with her husband’s employer, calling it “sloppy work.”

Through a public records request, LAist recently revealed that Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, signed the contract and two contract amendments with a nonprofit that employs her husband in a senior leadership role. Adams Kellum had previously told LAist she followed rules barring her from any matters that involve the group.

Her husband, Edward Kellum, has not responded to requests for comment.

A government ethics expert told LAist that the signatures appear to violate state conflict of interest laws, which forbid government officials from signing contracts with their spouse’s employer, even if it’s by mistake.

“This is about just plain old sloppy work by [executives at] LAHSA, and quite frankly the executive director who signed it,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Tuesday evening at the L.A. County Board of Supervisors’ public meeting.

“If my spouse was working for A-B-C Corporation and I saw something come across my desk, I would know I shouldn't sign that,” Barger added.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger during an Eaton Fire press conference on January 09, 2025 at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena.

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Barger served on LAHSA’s governing commission for about a year during Adams Kellum’s time as CEO. Her spokesperson told LAist earlier this month that Barger was unaware of the family tie until after she left the commission last fall.

A LAHSA spokesperson previously told LAist Adams Kellum “mistakenly signed” the three agreements after staffers at the agency inadvertently sent them to her.

The spokesperson and Adams Kellum have not responded to follow up questions from LAist asking how her signatures could be a mistake, given her husband’s employer is named as the other party just below her signatures.

Supervisor Horvath criticizes ‘lack of accountability’

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath also criticized LAHSA executives during Tuesday’s meeting.

“I have seen firsthand for two years how there is a lack of accountability” at LAHSA, Horvath said.

She pointed to the agency’s long delay in following a state law that requires dozens of staff members to disclose their financial interests on publicly-accessible forms to help prevent conflicts of interest. LAist discovered the delay and reported it in December.

LAist reported at the time that LAHSA was out of step with other local governments by not requiring any staff besides the CEO to file the disclosures. LAHSA executives acknowledged to the county in September 2022 that the agency was required to make more staff disclose. The agency was required by state law to submit the proposed changes to the county within 90 days. It ended up taking more than two years for the agency’s staff to propose the changes for the commission’s approval in late October. County supervisors approved the changes during the board meeting on Tuesday, during which Barger and Horvath made their remarks.

“If we can’t get simple things right, like quickly updating a conflict of interest policy, that should concern us,” Horvath said at the meeting.

On Wednesday, LAist asked Adams Kellum for her response to Barger and Horvath’s comments. A response was not provided Thursday.

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath speaks at a meeting of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's governing commission on Friday, March 22, 2024.

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Horvath served on LAHSA’s governing commission from January 2023 to the end of last month. Her spokesperson has said Horvath was not officially notified that Adams Kellum’s husband worked for a LAHSA vendor.

Questions swirl around oversight issues

At a news conference for the region’s annual homeless count later Tuesday evening, an L.A. Times reporter asked Adams Kellum about Horvath’s criticism that LAHSA lacks accountability.

A LAHSA spokesperson responded he would follow up with the reporter. But the reporter pressed again for an answer, and Adams Kellum then responded that she supports accountability and transparency.

“ I've said that we needed increased accountability. It's one of our five pillars. I came to LAHSA to make it better. And of course, we need increased accountability and transparency,” Adams Kellum said.

An LAist reporter then asked Adams Kellum for her comment about her signatures on agreements with her husband’s employer.

LAHSA spokesperson Ahmad Chapman immediately declared the news conference over.

The LAist reporter pressed for an answer, but Adams Kellum referred reporters to a written statement. The statement said Adams Kellum was not involved in decisions about her husband’s employer.

It also said that “LAHSA had no decision-making power over” the $2.1 million contract Adams Kellum signed. The contract itself states that Adams Kellum would be administering the agreement and that she or someone she designates could increase or decrease how much is paid to the vendor.

Horvath and Barger’s remarks come as they and their fellow supervisors weigh whether to pull the vast majority of the county’s $350 million in annual funding out of LAHSA and instead have the county directly oversee the contractors who do the work.

LAHSA is jointly funded by the city and county, and administers more than $700 million in annual contracts with nonprofits to provide homeless services.

Horvath and Barger introduced the proposal to pull out of LAHSA in November, following a scathing county audit that found LAHSA was failing to properly oversee contractors and recoup over $50 million in tax dollars that vendors were supposed to pay back.

Supervisors are slated to make a decision on pulling the county’s funding after receiving a proposed plan in the coming days.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Horvath said the way LAHSA is set up is problematic, in that the city and county are ultimately responsible “yet it’s treated like it’s this other agency,” which has weaker accountability systems.

She said she intends to “proceed as planned” when the report comes back on redirecting the county’s funding to a new county department.

“ We know [LAHSA’s structure] doesn't work, and it's now our responsibility to do something about it,” Horvath said. She added that it’s “the right thing” to do, as expanded tax revenues for homeless services start soon under the voter-approved Measure A.

After Horvath brought up the audit and ethics issues at LAHSA, Supervisor Holly Mitchell said it’s important for the county to make sure its own ethics and accountability practices are in order for county departments.

“ I want to remind us that it would also be in our own best interest to ensure that conflict of interest policies are in place for all of our county departments, that we also need to closely watch our own audits, our own contract monitoring, and our contract execution process,” Mitchell said.