major problems<\/a> with the handling of tax dollars by the regional L.A. Homeless Services Authority. The failures stem from poor bookkeeping and accounting of taxpayer money at the agency, which spent over $800 million in public funds last fiscal year.<\/p>\nRaman also promised to lobby L.A. County more forcefully than Bass for mental health, drug abuse and other social services for the unhoused.<\/p>\n
Housing<\/p>\n
The two also sparred over housing policy, with Raman saying the city needed more density in housing to address a severe shortage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a massive problem for the future of Los Angeles,\u201d Raman said. \u201cLet\u2019s have a Planning Department that does the work to build these units, zone for these units.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raman said the city is \u201cnot zoned for more housing,\u201d adding that\u2019s why the state has stepped in with mandates for more dense housing in cities and counties across California.<\/p>\n
Raman supported the law.<\/p>\n
Bass opposed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not support Sacramento telling us what to do,\u201d Bass said. \u201cThe best way to build is to reach agreement with communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass has billed herself as someone who would do more to preserve residential neighborhoods in the city and protect them from density. She added that 42,000 units of affordable housing were in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Policing<\/p>\n
The two tangled over the hiring of police officers, too.<\/p>\n
Bass pointed to a 2020 social media post by Raman that declared \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s irresponsible in what she talks about,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Raman returned the verbal jab, arguing that Bass was irresponsible for backing a big raise for police officers in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about fiscal management of public tax dollars,\u201d Raman said. “This contract gave raises to the [Police Department] that our city couldn’t afford and we suffered as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe cut street lighting, we cut pothole repair \u2014 we have more potholes on our streets than we did before,” she continued. \u201cWe do less graffiti removal than we did before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass has said the raises were necessary to recruit new officers and keep current officers from leaving the department.<\/p>\n
Raman also criticized Police Chief Jim McDonnell\u2019s response to federal immigration raids, noting he refused to enforce a state law that largely prohibited federal agents from wearing masks. The council member said she didn\u2019t believe the chief\u2019s response to ICE raids \u201cmet the moment,\u201d stopping short of saying whether she would seek to remove him.<\/p>\n
Supporting business<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman also fought over whether the city had sufficiently supported the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a tax credit and advocacy in Sacramento for the kind of tax credit that Georgia has, that\u2019s the same as New Jersey has that\u2019s taking jobs away from here,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n
Bass said she appointed a film czar to fight for such policies and criticized Raman for doing nothing on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have been on the City Council for six years,\u201d Bass said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been at City Hall twice as long as I have. I realize you want to pitch yourself as somebody from the outside. But where were you? You\u2019ve introduced no motion for the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass said Raman would not be a good mayor because she lacks support from any of her colleagues on the City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has no support from the council members because nobody can work with her,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Raman said she works well with colleagues and that Bass had locked up their endorsements before she made her last-minute entry into the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two candidates for Los Angeles mayor, incumbent Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman, traded sharp jabs Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-438273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}