If elected, Nithya Raman could shake up the LA Olympics. Here’s how

If Nithya Raman defeats incumbent Karen Bass on Nov. 3, she’ll become the third mayor of Los Angeles to oversee plans for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games — and the first to have started out as an Olympics critic.

Raman told the Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter in 2020 that she opposed Los Angeles playing host to the world’s largest sporting event, skewering the city for making a “rushed” deal without public input.

Still, she’ll be stuck with the Games if she becomes mayor, and will also oversee the city in the period that follows, when L.A. will be left with any cost overruns if the private organizing committee LA28 runs out of money.

Depending on how she wields the role, Raman could shift the city’s approach to its host duties, ramping up pressure on LA28 to publicly disclose more about its finances and also changing the leadership on key bodies like the Board of Police Commissioners, Metro Board and even, potentially, the LA28 board of directors.

She’ll also have significant power to set the tone for the Games and the city's agenda leading up to them, observers told LAist.

“I think that she will end up being a booster of the Olympics because she has to be,” said Jim Newton, a veteran L.A. journalist and expert on California politics. “But what she does with that authority is what's up for grabs.”

Would Raman keep police chief through 2028?

The 2028 Games haven’t been a major talking point on the campaign trail, but Police Chief Jim McDonnell's fate has.

Bass nominated McDonnell to the post in 2024, and Raman voted to confirm him. But Raman said she’ll replace the chief if elected as mayor, criticizing LAPD’s response to federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. She has declined, however, to say if she’d do this ahead of 2028.

The mayor can’t directly fire the chief, but appoints the Board of Police Commissioners, which can. If Raman appointed a new chief ahead of the Games, the person would need council approval.

“The mayor appoints the Board of Police Commissioners, so they are unlikely to retain a chief that the mayor doesn't like,” said Raphael Sonenshein, an expert on the city charter and the executive director of the Haynes Foundation. He said it’s more typical for new mayors not to appoint a police chief to a second term than to remove them early. McDonnell’s five-year term is up at the end of 2029.

Moderator Conan Nolan pushed Raman to clarify if she’d remove the chief ahead of 2028 at the NBC4 and Telemundo 52 mayoral debate, citing the high-security status of the sprawling sporting event. Raman responded, saying it would depend on conversations with “other decision-making bodies.”

“I will work towards that with all of the responsibility and all of the care that this moment requires,” Raman said of removing McDonnell. “And I promise you Angelenos, I promise you, there is no decision that I will take as your mayor that will put you in danger.”

Bass pushed back, saying Raman didn’t have “any idea” what identifying a new police chief required.

“We are 640 days away from the largest sporting event to ever take place — a major national security event — and if you think that you’re going to find a police chief, you would send the department in disarray,” Bass said.

The U.S. Secret Service leads security for the Games but works closely with LAPD and other law enforcement agencies. In the spring, LAPD estimated its policing costs for the Games would exceed $730 million.

Other leadership roles could change

Raman could also shake up the L.A. Metro’s Board of Directors, which is overseeing Metro’s 28 by 28 initiative and steering the temporary bus system planned for the Olympics and Paralympics. Mayor Karen Bass currently chairs the Metro Board, and if Raman is elected, she would hold that position through June 2027, the end of the fiscal year.

She could replace any of the three mayoral appointees: Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, president of the Ward Economic Development Corporation; and City Councilmembers Imelda Padilla and Katy Yaroslavsky

“I want to use those four seats to push Metro to invest in the biggest bang for the buck in terms of public transit investments,” Raman said at a mayoral forum in September, referencing her own spot on the board and her appointees'.

Alissa Walker, a mega-events expert who writes the popular newsletter Torched, told LAist that the mayor’s role on Metro is another way she can flex power ahead of the Games.

 “You could push forward an agenda,” Walker said, referring to former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s plan to accelerate transit infrastructure for the Games. “Let’s remember Garcetti's 28 by 28, that came from him being on the Metro Board. It wasn't something that he pushed through the city.”

The mayor also has direct influence on the makeup of LA28’s board of directors, a body that has faced scrutiny for its Trump allies and its chairman, Casey Wasserman. The city has six members on the board who were appointed by the mayor without city council approval, the mayor’s office told LAist.

The board mainly operates behind the scenes, but the City Council can require the city’s board members to report back on the board’s progress and decisions that impact the city — a right the mayor could encourage the council to flex.

LA’s financial gamble

Then there’s the question of how Raman would navigate the city’s complex relationship with LA28, and unlimited financial risk as the backstop of the Games. The host deal was championed and brokered by then-Mayor Garcetti, but it’s the coming mayoral term that will oversee the actual event and its aftermath.

The Olympics committee is operating mainly on its own to deliver the Games with a $7.2 billion budget, but will use many city resources to pull them off, including police, traffic control, trash collection and more.

Raman was one of four council members to vote against the city’s agreement with LA28 on how it will be reimbursed for those services during the Games earlier this year, saying it left taxpayers too exposed to unexpected costs. The deal established that the city will seek reimbursement for the cost of policing venues from the federal government, which is overseeing Olympics security.

“Would you agree to cover someone else’s bills without knowing what you might have to pay — or even being allowed to see what they’re spending? Of course not!” Raman wrote on X.

If elected, Raman could throw her weight behind her ally, City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who subpoenaed LA28 this month for financial documents he said the organization owed the city.

“Right now you have a mayor, Karen Bass, who's really highlighted the Olympics as a signature moment for Los Angeles, and certainly as a signature moment for what she hopes will be her second term,” Newton, the L.A. journalist and historian, told LAist. “Raman, if she were elected, is not as invested in that and may see that she has some leverage over LA28.”

She has also said she would appoint “an experienced financial executive to oversee the City’s Olympic costs” in her first 100 days in office. LAist asked Raman’s campaign whether she would remove Paul Krekorian, who currently leads the city’s Office of Major Events, but did not receive a response.

Kavish Harjai contributed to this story.