Part 116: "A Failure of Moral Judgment" - Judge David Carter and the Crisis of the Unhoused
By Ruth Roofless & Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalists
Published October 4, 2024
The city of Los Angeles is undoubtedly going broke, warned Controller Kenneth Mejia on September 26 in social media posts on Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter: “In the last year, the City has spent HALF its RESERVES,” he wrote, noting that “Just ONE year ago, the Reserve Fund was historically strong, at $648 million.”
Controller Mejia cited three reasons for the impending financial crisis:
1. Lower revenues (short $222 million)
2. Higher labor costs, starting w/ a $1 billion raise for LAPD over four years
3. Record level liability payouts.
This last Wednesday, October 2, 2024, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA-LA) aligned controller, who won in a landslide victory, was testifying before U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter in another LA Alliance for Human Rights hearing for the lawsuit launched by the City’s business interests. The suit had been filed with the secret backing of real estate developer Izek Shomof, a shadowy figure also known for proposing a mega-shelter in Boyle Heights in the abandoned Sears, Roebuck & Company Mail Order Building. The project has stalled due to community and political opposition. To assuage the concerns of the LA Alliance that the City and County hadn’t been transparent enough about its spending on homelessness, Controller Mejia’s office created a dedicated website cataloging spending as part of the legal settlement.
For the calendar year 2024, according to the Controller’s website, the City of Los Angeles, in response to the LA Alliance settlement concluded on March 20, 2020, under Mayor Eric Garcetti and former City Council President Nury Martinez. Along with Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program and the Freeway Agreement, which is much like the LA Alliance settlement, the deals locked in spending by both the City and County of Angeles to meet the crisis of the unhoused. We’ll be the first to admit, as journalists, one whistleblower, and one unhoused, that the legal landscape here has become exceedingly complicated and difficult for laypersons to understand, but the dollar signs are unignorable.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-116-a-failure-of-moral-judgment