Bryant Acosta, Los Angeles mayor candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire – Daily News

Ahead of the June primary election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.

Name: Bryant Acosta

Current job title: Chief Creative Officer

Age: 44

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: None

City where you reside: Los Angeles

Campaign website or social media: acostaforla.com

What are the three most urgent challenges facing Los Angeles, and what actions would you take in your first year to address them? (Please answer in 200 words or less.)

Transparency and accountability, homelessness and affordability.

First, we must restore transparency and accountability in City Hall. Too many decisions about taxpayer money happen behind closed doors, and people are tired of seeing the lack of progress. In my first 100 days, I will launch the LA Clean Budget initiative and the LA NOW app I designed, allowing residents to track city spending, contracts and major projects in real time. When the public can see where money is going, government works better.

Second, I will tackle homelessness with systems that actually deliver results. I will expand transitional housing, streamline approvals for faster construction and better coordinate services so people can move from the street to stability more quickly. I will also eliminate third-party agencies that are not delivering results and bring key services in-house to ensure stronger oversight and accountability.

Third, we must address affordability, especially in housing and everyday costs that are squeezing Angelenos. I will use city-owned land and underused buildings to develop permanently affordable, community-owned housing and push to end algorithm-driven price gouging in groceries and other essential markets that quietly drive up costs.

My first year will focus on building modern systems, replacing outdated ones and redirecting resources to programs that actually work.

Los Angeles faces ongoing budget pressures while demand for funding continues in areas such as public safety, homelessness and infrastructure. How would you approach balancing these priorities? (Please answer in 200 words or less.)

Los Angeles doesn’t have an ideas problem — it has an execution and accountability problem.

My approach starts with how City Hall spends money. I feel like current leadership has shown an inability to manage money; unfortunately, a lot of it is buried in deals the public has no visibility into. I will implement real-time transparency tools so Angelenos can see where every dollar is going and whether programs are delivering results. If something isn’t working, we stop funding failure and redirect those resources to solutions that do.

Many of the systems City Hall operates on are decades old, wasteful and clearly not working. I want to build next-generation systems that replace outdated bureaucracy with smarter, more responsive government.

That means modernizing how the city operates, using technology, better data and streamlined processes to reduce waste and improve service delivery. The savings from those efficiencies can then be reinvested into our top priorities: public safety, homelessness solutions and infrastructure. I also feel that with smart money management, we might find that we have enough money from our budget to fund city initiatives.

Lastly, we should expand partnerships with universities, local businesses and innovators to pilot bold, practical and out-of-the-box solutions.

In the aftermath of the Palisades fire, questions were raised about emergency preparedness and transparency. What changes, if any, would you support to improve disaster response and public accountability after major emergencies? (Please answer in 200 words or less.)

We need to both finish the recovery for families still rebuilding and build a next-generation emergency preparedness system.

First, we must expedite recovery for residents affected by past fires. I support a Fire Recovery & Resilience Initiative that helps families still facing rebuilding costs, rent gaps and insurance deductibles. The city should cut rebuilding red tape with permit amnesty, fee waivers and a dedicated case manager to fast-track rebuilding.

Second, I support creating a City Insurance Accountability Office to help residents fight unfair claim denials and identify repeat bad actors.

Third, a Fire Recovery Dashboard in the LA Now App will allow residents to track rebuilding progress so no family is forgotten.

Finally, we must shift from reacting to fires to preventing them, burying power lines in high-risk areas, using drones for early fire detection, restoring inactive reservoirs and expanding brush reduction programs.

As a systems reformer, I pledge to replace outdated systems for faster recovery, real transparency and proactive wildfire prevention.

If elected/reelected, which city department or agency would you prioritize for reform or improvement, and why? (Please answer in 200 words or less.)

If elected, I would prioritize reforming the oversight system for the Los Angeles Police Department, starting with strengthening the effectiveness of the Police Commission.

Many Angelenos are at odds with the LAPD and feel the Commission has not delivered the transparency or accountability the public deserves. As mayor, I will ensure City Hall takes a more active role in strengthening that oversight by appointing commissioners committed to transparency, accountability and community trust.

My administration will modernize oversight by making more commission data, disciplinary outcomes and policy decisions accessible to the public. Through the LA NOW app, residents will be able to track public safety metrics and oversight outcomes so accountability isn’t hidden behind bureaucracy.

At the same time, we must modernize how public safety operates. We need a layered response system where mental health professionals, community safety officers and trained police each respond to the situations they are best equipped to handle.

We need strong oversight, modern systems and clear accountability to rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement.

What steps would you take to improve transparency and public trust in City Hall? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)

Los Angeles already has the foundation for this. The city controller has built great internal dashboards that track city spending and performance. My administration will expand and modernize these tools so they are fully accessible to the public, giving residents the same level of visibility into city finances that insiders currently have.

Through my LA Clean Budget initiative and the LA NOW app, Angelenos will be able to track city spending, contracts, permits and major public projects in real time from their phones. Residents should be able to see exactly where their tax dollars are going and whether programs are delivering results.

We will also strengthen oversight by empowering the city controller by removing his current hurdles, protecting whistleblowers and ensuring misuse of public funds is investigated and prosecuted.

Finally, we will modernize outdated systems across City Hall so decisions can no longer happen behind closed doors. Departments will be measured by outcomes, and the public will have the tools to see what’s working and what isn’t.