Mayor Bass goes (back) to Washington

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Julia Wick, here with the week that was in L.A. government, with help from county reporter Rebecca Ellis.

Just before the U.S. House of Representatives’ second failed speaker vote in as many days, a who’s who of Democratic lawmakers came through the Rayburn Reception Room to welcome a former colleague: Mayor Karen Bass.

The former six-term congresswoman was joined by City Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Hugo Soto-Martínez, Traci Park, Eunisses Hernandez and Heather Hutt on a trip to the nation’s capital this week, advocating for federal funding and meeting with cabinet secretaries, elected officials and others.

It’s not unheard of for members of the council to occasionally visit D.C. or take meetings while they’re there, but there doesn’t appear to be a precedent for a mayor-led delegation of this kind, with so many high-profile meetings.

Bass was greeted like something of a returning hero on Capitol Hill, according to Krekorian, who said it was hard for the group to stay on schedule “because even just walking from one building to the next, there’s a lot of hugging involved.� The constant warm hellos were a testament to Bass’ deep relationships in Washington, Krekorian said, calling the trip “a great opportunity for the city to be able to really be seen by our federal decision makers.�

Back in the Rayburn Room on Wednesday morning, Bass looked on grinning as Rep. Ayanna Pressley simultaneously shook hands with Hutt and Hernandez. Clad in a hot pink suit, Bass laughed and nodded as she spoke with House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. Soto-Martínez chatted intently with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Blumenfield embraced his former state Assembly colleague Rep. Julia Brownlee and Park stood in conversation next to Rep. Adam B. Schiff.

Reps. Jimmy Gomez, Barbara Lee, Brad Sherman, Tony Cárdenas, Robert Garcia and several other members of the California delegation were also present at various points that morning, according to the mayor’s office.

Housing and homelessness was one of the primary focuses of the trip. The delegation met with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, asking her to ease certification requirements for rental assistance, increase funding for housing vouchers and reallocate unused emergency housing vouchers from across the country to L.A., according to the mayor’s office. The group also spoke with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough about homeless veterans and housing on local V.A. facilities.

The delegation met with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, asking that the city be made eligible for federal funding to assist with migrants arriving on buses from Texas, and for expedited FEMA reimbursements for COVID-related expenses, according to the mayor’s office. They also talked with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Krekorian arranged a meeting with Armenian Ambassador to the United States Lilit Makunts. The group “conveyed L.A.’s support for the people of Armenia and our grave concern about the conditions of refugees from Artsakh in the aftermath of Azerbaijani aggression,� according to Krekorian.

The delegation also met with President Biden’s budget director Shalanda Young, White House domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden, White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs director Tom Perez, Sens. Alex Padilla, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, Reps. Ted Lieu, Maxine Waters and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, among many others.

The group is leaving with a $48-million federal grant from the Department of Energy for the L.A. Department of Water and Power, as announced Wednesday by the mayor’s office. Bass returned to Los Angeles on Thursday after speaking about her approach to homelessness at a Bloomberg CityLab conference that morning.

Watching historic dysfunction play out on the national stage was not on the L.A. delegation’s official agenda, but the group ended up watching parts of both failed speaker votes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I hope, frankly, that Congress is going to be able to get past that kind of division in the next few days, because our country is depending upon it,� Krekorian said. “All of the good work that we’ve been talking about over these last few days — with Cabinet officials and with the [Biden] administration and with Congress — all of it depends on having a functioning government and a federal budget in place.�

State of play

—CITY HALL SCARE: With more than one-third of the City Council gone for most of the week and no council meetings Tuesday or Wednesday, it was a relatively quiet week at L.A. City Hall — save for a hazardous materials scare Thursday afternoon that brought a bomb squad and other first responders to the area. Two mayor’s office staffers were transported to a hospital as a precaution after opening a package with what the Los Angeles Fire Department termed “concerning content.� Investigators later concluded that there were no hazardous substances.

—COMMISSION DRAMA: Mayor Bass abruptly removed a veteran city commissioner from his post days after he led his colleagues in delaying a vote on a new Westside homeless facility backed by the mayor. Eric Eisenberg confirmed Monday that he received a letter from Bass telling him that he had been removed from the city’s Transportation Commission, where he served as president. Eisenberg had been reappointed by Bass in August to serve a third term on the commission.

Eisenberg’s exit is likely to fuel more controversy over the proposed interim homeless housing facility at Pico Boulevard and Midvale Avenue in Rancho Park, as my colleague Dakota Smith writes.

—BOARDROOM BAN: Los Angeles County now has a restraining order against one of its most infamous gadflies. Armando Herman, 56, routinely spews inflammatory diatribes and hurls racial epithets — ugly remarks that are typically protected by the 1st Amendment. But members of the Board of Supervisors said he went too far this summer when he allegedly sent four of them vulgar, threatening emails. (Herman insists he didn’t send the emails.) A judge has now barred Herman from county meetings for three years — though he can still phone in. And he can still attend City Council meetings, where he is a regular.

—D.A. DEBATE: The very crowded L.A. County district attorney field had its first debate, minus one major player: Dist. Atty. George Gascón. (A Gascón spokesperson told LAist that he had a previously scheduled event with a Democratic club at the same time.) Contenders at the forum spent two hours making the case that Gascón is unfit for office and needs to be replaced.

—TRANSITONS: The Rev. Andy Bales is retiring and heading home to Iowa after 20 years at the helm of the Union Rescue Mission, the faith-based shelter on Skid Row. During his time leading the shelter, Bales staunchly defended the recovery model of homeless care — with Christian-centered therapy — against the secular shift to the philosophy that housing should come first without preconditions, as my colleague Doug Smith writes.

—JOURNALIST TURNED CANDIDATE: L.A. newscaster Christina Pascucci announced Wednesday that she is running for the U.S. Senate to succeed the late Dianne Feinstein, joining an already crowded race. Sen. Laphonza Butler, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, announced Thursday that she would not run for the seat in 2024.

Pascucci has never held elected office and faces the steep challenge of raising enough money to mount an effective campaign. The Democrat argues that she offers a centrist option for voters tired of polarization in the nation’s politics, my colleague Seema Mehta reports.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program to combat homelessness did not lead an operation this week.
  
• On the docket for next week: The City Council should be back to its regularly scheduled programming.
  
• A clarification: Last week’s newsletter should have noted that of the $73,000 that Council District 14 candidate Teresa Hillery brought in during the most recent fundraising period, $40,000 came from a personal loan to her campaign.