L.A. on the Record: The changing of the guard

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our local politics newsletter. It’s Julia Wick and David Zahniser, with help from Ben Oreskes and Jim Rainey.

The mood this week in and around City Hall has been part freshman orientation and part final day of summer camp, with a dash of the boarding platform for the last train out of a disappearing nation.

Staffers were seen carrying framed certificates and various trinkets out of the building. Goodbye emails thudded into inboxes at a steady clip. At least one commissioner ducked back into City Hall after a farewell happy hour to remove an official souvenir from an empty office.

Just before 8 p.m. on Thursday night, Kevin James ushered two companions past the massive Christmas tree in the rotunda and toward Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office.

“It’s my last day to give tours! After tomorrow, my badge won’t open the door,” James, a senior advisor and legal counsel to Garcetti, said with a laugh. (The longtime city politico won’t be going far — just across the bridge to incoming City Atty. Hydee Feldstein-Soto’s office in City Hall East.)

The mayor, who has been on something of a goodbye tour for the past year, appears very ready to get out of Dodge.

At the Central City Assn. holiday party, a grinning Garcetti pulled up a countdown app on his phone, showing how much time he has left in office down to the second.

When asked about his upcoming free time and whether he had any shows he was planning to watch, Garcetti said he was excited to catch up on “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

He enjoys dystopian fiction, he said, because it makes him feel better about real life.

As decamping staffers from across City Hall scatter to new posts, incoming electeds and their employees are preparing to learn the cultural mores and byzantine procedures of the building.

At one point, incoming Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez was spotted in chambers with his team receiving a tutorial on how to file a motion.

City Council chambers were also the site of lengthy and at times impassioned goodbye sendoffs for departing Councilmembers Mitch O’Farrell, Mike Bonin, Joe Buscaino and Paul Koretz. (There was no sendoff for outgoing Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who has not appeared in chambers since mid-October.)

A few highlights: Buscaino quoted “Ted Lasso,” played Green Day and apologized for getting emotional at times during closed session.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield jokingly told Bonin, a frequently dissenting voice on the council, that he expected to see him in the audience holding a cowbell, which some protesters have done in recent days.

O’Farrell, who lost his reelection bid last month, used his farewell to warn of the dangers of political polarization and social media. And Koretz, uncharacteristically, signed off with an F-bomb, swiping a line that critics of the council used frequently during meetings following the outbreak of COVID-19.

“To the disruptors and protesters who have done their best to make it difficult for us to do our work in the last 2½ years, in their own words: I yield the rest of my time. F— you.”

The five incoming council members take office on Monday, with their first meeting scheduled for the following day.

State of play

— KDL’S BIG RETURN: Councilmember Kevin de León showed up in Los Angeles City Council chamber on Friday morning, appearing briefly at a council meeting for the first time since fallout from a racist leaked audio tape roiled the city in mid-October. Chaos quickly ensued, followed by a council recess. They eventually got back to business with De León gone from the room.

— CHANGE OF VENUE: If you saw the giant white tent and red carpet on the Spring Street side of City Hall earlier this week and presumed it was for the upcoming mayoral inauguration, you thought wrong.

That was actually a TV set — an FX show was using the building’s steps as a Metropolitan Museum of Art stand-in for a Met Gala scene. (If you happened to venture around the corner to the South Lawn of City Hall on Wednesday, you’d have seen dozens of extras in extravagant formal wear, eating craft services and getting lectured about how to behave around high-profile talent.) But we digress.

The point is, there is no inaugural tent, Sunday’s forecast is full of rain, and plans to hold Mayor-elect Karen Bass’ public swearing-in outdoors at City Hall have been scuttled by the weather. The campaign announced Thursday that they would be moving the event to the Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live.

A Bass spokesperson said they will be paying to use the venue, but did not immediately answer questions about donors or cost. We’ll keep you posted!

— INAUGURAL ENCAMPMENT CLEANUP: The inaugural destination may have changed, but roughly 20 people sleeping in tents on 1st and Spring streets — who were told they had to leave because of the event — have already been relocated to the L.A. Grand Hotel.

The decision to move people into the Project Roomkey hotel on Thursday marked a change in direction for the city, which has spent months working to close facilities that participated in the program.

— COUNCIL PAY TIMES TWO: The City Council voted this week to reinstate the salary of indicted Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is facing federal corruption charges. That means taxpayers will be compensating two council members in the same South L.A. district — Ridley-Thomas, who was suspended from his post in October 2021, and Heather Hutt, who was appointed by the council to serve on an interim basis.

— NO MORE PONIES: The Griffith Park Pony Rides are coming to an end after more than 70 years, following months of protests from animal rights activists and a critical review from city officials. Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose district includes the park, said the city could not in “good faith” extend the pony ride contract. “Griffith Park is in need of affordable amenities that let families connect with nature,” she said in a statement. “But we need to look into alternative models that are safe and healthy for both children and animals.”

— RECALL BID: A recall petition against De León was approved by the Los Angeles city clerk Tuesday, allowing organizers to begin collecting signatures. To qualify for the ballot, organizers must collect 20,437 signatures from registered voters of the 14th Council District by March 31.

— REPLACING NURY: The floodgates have opened in the race to replace former Councilmember Nury Martinez in a district that takes in Van Nuys, Arleta and other San Fernando Valley neighborhoods. As of Friday afternoon, 14 people had expressed interest in running for the seat in the April 4 special election.

— IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR: Newly elected Councilman Tim McOsker isn’t the only member of his family with a new gig. His daughter Nella was named this week the president and chief executive of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles. She’d previously been working on her dad’s campaign and is succeeding former mayoral candidate Jessica Lall, who was named managing director of CBRE’s Downtown Los Angeles office.

Garcetti restrospective

Garcetti’s long tenure at L.A. City Hall ends this week, with the mayor leaving for parts unknown.

In a deep review of Garcetti’s nine and half years as mayor, colleagues Dakota Smith and Jim Rainey found victories and disappointments. With the U.S. Senate failing to confirm Garcetti’s nomination as ambassador to India, it’s unclear what he’ll do next.

Their review credited Garcetti with advancing several light rail projects, which will extend LA’s rail network to West Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport and elsewhere. He pushed through seismic safety retrofits for thousands of apartments and secured the 2028 Summer Olympics.

[Read the story: “Eric Garcetti led L.A. during profoundly turbulent times. How will history judge him?”]

Yet he struggled to respond to a protracted homelessness crisis. When he took office in 2013, outreach workers counted about 26,000 homeless people in the city. That number eventually grew to 42,000.

QUICK HITS

• Who’s running the city? Still Eric Garcetti, until midnight Sunday night.

• On the docket for next week: Newly elected city officials take office Monday morning. Their first meeting will be held Tuesday.