L.A. on the Record: Bass starts a new tussle over Inside Safe

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Julia Wick and David Zahniser.

This week, Mayor Karen Bass took to the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum, a speaker series that convenes over lunch in the upstairs room at the Palm in downtown L.A.

As agency heads, lobbyists and other besuited attendees picked at their chicken marsala and tiramisu, a surprisingly loose Bass held forth on a number of topics: where she was when she found out Mark Ridley-Thomas wouldn’t run for mayor (Mozambique); whether the City Council’s most conservative member, John Lee, would be accepted as a Republican in Congress (no); and why she has such a “close relationship” with the county (the policy issues she’s long worked on, such as foster care, health and criminal justice reform, are largely at the county level).

The mayor reserved some of her most pointed remarks for her discussion of Inside Safe, which has been moving L.A.’s homeless residents into motels and hotels. Speaking about a recent Inside Safe operation on San Vicente Boulevard near the Beverly Center, she brought up the role of local homeless advocates there, which she described as “really bizarre to me.”

“I am just appalled at people who will tell folks to stay on the street,” Bass said, to much applause in the room.

The question wasn’t whether people had a right to be there, Bass said, but why anyone would want that for them.

“While I was on San Vicente and I was talking to the people in tents, there was somebody right alongside of me telling them that they had a right to be on the street,” Bass continued. “And you know what? I didn’t say this, because I held my tongue. But what I would have said to the person is ‘Where did you sleep last night?’”

Fairfax Mutual Aid, which provides food and other resources to homeless Angelenos in the Beverly Grove and Fairfax neighborhoods, tweeted a response that evening, saying Bass was “lying about mutual aid organizers.” Those volunteers “have been advocating for years” to get folks into hotel rooms and permanent housing, the group said.

Bitta Sharma, an organizer with the advocacy group Mar Vista Voice, said Bass was “making up a straw man” to distract the public from the fact that her program is providing “inadequate” services.

“She’s getting heat for her program. To say that anyone saying ‘Do better’ is saying ‘Do nothing’ is completely disingenuous,” said Sharma, who monitored conditions at one of the motels used for the mayor’s San Vicente operation.

The exchange reflects the growing tensions between Bass, who just received $250 million to carry out a massive expansion of Inside Safe, and mutual aid groups that have formed on the Westside, in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere.

Those groups, which provide food, water and other supplies to encampment residents, have become increasingly outspoken in recent weeks about what they say are the shortcomings of Bass’ program.

Advocates say Bass’ team should not have sent encampment residents to hotels and motels that are frequently far from their neighborhoods, cutting them off from friends, family or jobs. They say some of the hotels and motels used for Inside Safe have insufficient social services. And they contend that the program is not as voluntary as Bass claims.

During her talk on Tuesday, Bass conceded that the Inside Safe program wasn’t without issues, saying she could spend “an hour” running through all the problems.

“I’m not shy about that or embarrassed about it, because we’re building this plane while flying,” she said.

Bass also said she considers homelessness to be too urgent a crisis to wait to spend months designing the perfect program before getting people off the street.

State of play

— TWO-MAYOR LAUNCH PARTY: Councilmember Nithya Raman kicked off her reelection campaign Saturday night at Hyperion Public. Former and current Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa and Karen Bass both attended, along with Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez, Katy Yaroslavsky and Heather Hutt and Assemblymember Laura Friedman. So far, Raman has just one challenger, neighborhood prosecutor Ethan Weaver.

Speaking at the event, Bass appeared to reference the leaked recording that upended City Hall last October, which included talk of chopping up Raman’s district.

“We heard about what was going on behind the scenes. Some people kind of conspired to make sure that she wouldn’t be able to stay as the councilwoman,” Bass said, going on to say that she planned to help reelect Raman “wherever she represents, wherever her boundaries are.”

— SEE SPOT VOTE: After months of controversy, the Los Angeles City Council voted 8-4 to accept the donation of a nearly $280,000 dog-like robot for the Police Department’s use.

— CITY HALL FOOT CHASE: Almost immediately after the vote, someone with a marker tagged the corridors leading to the City Council chamber with anti-police graffiti. Officers attempted to apprehend the vandalism suspect, chasing him to the 1st floor and then into the City Hall parking garage. The vandalism suspect was not apprehended, police said.

— VIENNA WAITS FOR YOU: Speaking of the robot police dog, Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Eunisses Hernandez missed the vote: They were attending a weeklong study of social housing in Vienna, which the New York Times described as a “renters’ utopia.” SoCal Grantmakers covered the cost of the trip, according to Rhonda Mitchell, a spokesperson for Harris-Dawson. Aides to Bass, Raman, Harris-Dawson and Hernandez also went on the Vienna social housing trip, as did Hernandez’s mother. Chelsea Lucktenberg, a spokesperson for Hernandez, said the council member paid for her mother’s expenses “out of her own pocket.”

— MORE CITY HALL MAYHEM: Officers arrested a woman outside the City Council chamber on Friday. Police said the woman got into an altercation with another man, hitting him in the face with her bag -- which had a laptop inside. The man sustained lacerations to his face, according to one LAPD officer. The woman was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Both are regulars at council meetings.

— BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH: Discourse around La Sombrita — the bus stop shade pilot that spawned a thousand Twitter memes — entered its second week, and here’s what Times design columnist Carolina A. Miranda had to say.

—REMEMBRANCE: On the 50th anniversary of Tom Bradley‘s election as mayor, Raphael Sonenshein considers Bradley’s history-making win as L.A.’s first Black mayor.

— PAYING TO INFLUENCE: Over at LA Mag, Jon Regardie took a look at the Ethics Commission’s rundown of lobbying activity in 2022 and found that law firm DLA Piper was the city’s “300-pound gorilla of lobbying, with $5.1 million in payments from clients” last year. Englander Knabe and Allen ranked second and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton took in the third-most client lobbying fees, per Regardie’s report.

Quick hits

• Where is Inside Safe? Bass did not launch any new Inside Safe operations this week. However, she did hold a signing ceremony for the new city budget, which will provide her at least $250 million for the program.
  
• On the docket for next week: Monday is Memorial Day. The council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Reform will be in Cheviot Hills on Thursday.