Guide to LA City Council election

By LAist Staff

Originally published February 5, 2024

What is the L.A. City Council’s role?

Those who follow city government closely say the Los Angeles’ City Council is the most powerful city council in the United States. At just 15 members, each person elected to serve represents about 260,000 residents within a specific geographic area.

How does that stack up against other big cities? Well, two other big cities in the nation — New York and Chicago — have 51 and 50 city council members, respectively.

Back in 1925, when the city made the switch from at-large representation to districts, each council member represented fewer than 39,000 people. Some observers of L.A. politics, including the Los Angeles Times editorial board, argue it’s time to expand the council. But for right now, we’re talking about 15 council seats, of which eight are currently up for election.

Note: These districts went through an extensive review and reshaping based on the results of the 2020 Census. So you might not be voting in the same city council district as you did in 2020.

With so much power in relatively few hands, the relationship the mayor has with the council is particularly important. The mayor needs the council’s support to enact policy. Think of the council as L.A.’s legislature. While the mayor can make proposals and rally public support, it’s the council that writes and passes the laws.

What exactly do members of the City Council do?

Create local laws, known as ordinances (the mayor then approves or vetoes those ordinances)
Order elections
Impose and regulate city taxes
Authorize public improvements
Approve city contracts
Adopt traffic regulations

Council members also vote on the mayor’s proposed annual budget, which allocates funds for city departments. In all, the city employs about 50,000 people — second only to New York City — in more than 40 departments. It’s a lot of money to hold the purse strings for: The city’s proposed FY 2022-23 budget totals just under $12 billion.

Here are some of the things they don’t do

Oversee the Los Angeles Unified School District (the school board does that)
Oversee social services like mental health (this is handled at the county level)
Make decisions regarding people who live in unincorporated areas of the county (places that aren’t part of the city of Los Angeles or any other city) or people who live in other incorporated cities, like West Hollywood or Inglewood

How does the city council work?

The council is governed by a set of rulescovering everything from when and how often it meets to who runs the meetings (the president, who is selected by fellow council members) and how the public can participate.

In addition to regular meetings of the full council, there are numerous committee meetings focused on areas like transportation, public health, budget and finance, immigrant affairs, public safety, and information and technology. Some cover a range of topics, including the “Energy, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and River Committee” and the “Personnel, Audits, and Animal Welfare Committee.”

See a full list of council committees and their meeting schedule.

A City Council term is four years; a council member can serve a maximum of three terms. The current annual salary for a council member is about $224,000.

You might recognize their work from…

The City Council works as a collective to pass laws that affect the entire city, but your council member can have a big impact on your community. That’s because council members have a lot of power to direct funds within their districts.

For example, council members typically have discretion over money earmarked for transportation safety improvements in their district. LAist previously reported on how this played out in two different districts where pedestrians were killed at intersections — in District 5, traffic safety upgrades came less than two months after the pedestrian died, while the other community, which sits in District 10, has been waiting for more than two years for similar improvements.

Council members also have a lot of discretion over how strongly to enforce city ordinances, like the anti-camping ban, which forbids people who are unhoused from camping on public property that’s close to schools, parks, libraries, underpasses and other locations. If the ordinance is not enforced consistently, this means a person living outside in a tent might have a significantly different experience depending on which district they live in.

What’s on the agenda for next term?

Policing: The city council sets the budget for the L.A. Police Department, and funding for law enforcement remains a contentious issue. Some residents continue to call for cutting the LAPD budget, some call for defunding the police altogether, and others want more police hired to combat crime.
Homelessness: The number of people living on the streets continues to climb. The city council is the main check-and-balance to control how money is spent on the homelessness crisis. Under L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ administration, that’s big money. The mayor ushered in unprecedented spending on homelessness during her first year in office. City council members have a lot of control in their districts over how city dollars are spent, what type of housing is allowed where, and how LAPD officers handle enforcement against unhoused people.
Housing: City council members play a big role in where development is allowed in their districts, as well as what types of housing is built. State law requires the city of L.A. to plan for 185,000 new low-income homes by 2029. That means those decisions have urgency. Council members will be working with constituents to update community plans that set rules for housing density and other future development. They’ll also need to cut down on bureaucratic delays that have slowed down housing approvals and made the city vulnerable to lawsuits. The end of COVID protections for renters is likely to mean new challenges as rents rise again and some worry a wave of evictions is coming, which could worsen the homelessness crisis.
Transportation and mobility: The city is falling far short of promises to end traffic deaths by 2025, with the death toll instead rising sharply. The city council recently called for an audit of Vision Zero, the program created to meet that ambitious goal. In the recent past, council members who tried to implement what’s known as “traffic calming” measures to increase pedestrian and bicyclist safety have faced sharp pushback from constituents.
Government reform: In the last few years, three former city council members have been convicted of corruption. Two more stand accused of it. In response, the city council has placed on the November ballot a measure to create an independent redistricting commission that would draw council boundaries instead of council members doing it themselves. More reforms are being considered, including the council considering two more measures on the ballot. One would expand the size of the council in an effort to make it more representative of L.A. residents. Another would enact a series of reforms to make the city Ethics Commission more independent and better able to guard against corruption. Candidates who win outright in the March election will be a part of those decisions, and they may still be on the docket by the time the runoffs are concluded in the general election.

What seats are up for election?

The following districts are on the March 5 ballot: District 2, District 4, District 6, District 8, District 10, District 12 and District 14.

District 14

State of the race: Kevin De León has been representing the district since 2020 and is running for his second term.
Number of candidates: 8
Where: Northeast L.A., spanning Downtown L.A. to Highland Park.
Key issues: Restoring trust in government, housing affordability, homelessness (the district includes Skid Row)
Notable: Wondering why trust in government is such a key issue? De León was one of the three councilmembers caught on tape in 2022 having a conversation tinged with racist remarks that centered on using the city’s redistricting process to amass more power. De León has faced continued calls to resign over his participation in that conversation. His predecessor, José Huizar, was suspended from the city council in 2020 after being arrested by federal agents. Huizar was recently sentenced to 13 years in prison for racketeering and tax evasion while in office.
March outcome: If a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, they’ll win the election outright. Although it’s often a safe bet that an incumbent will reach that 50% threshold, that seems unlikely here due to De León’s fraught history. The top two candidates are probably headed to your November ballot.

Go deeper: Get our full guide to the District 14 candidates and their positions on key issues

Follow the money: Track campaign contributions in District 14