Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off Tuesday in a freewheeling 90-minute slugfest, digging at each other over homelessness, police hiring and other major issues.
The event, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., began politely enough, with the two candidates exchanging niceties and Raman saying she had “incredible respect” for the mayor.
But the gloves came off quickly.
Raman said she ran for office out of frustration with the city’s lack of progress on an array of issues — homelessness, housing production and the city’s continuing financial woes, among others.
“I feel an urgency and a vision to change and address those issues that I don’t feel is reflected in our leadership right now,” she said.
Bass pushed back hard at Raman, pointing out that the councilmember had been at City Hall two years longer than the mayor. She also noted that Raman served until recently in council leadership and spent three years in charge of the powerful committee charged with homelessness and housing issues.
“For you to act as if you’re brand new, or you’ve been on the outside for almost six years, is not accurate,” Bass said.
Raman said she is just one out of 15 council members and lacks the power that Bass wields.
“The mayor is in charge of the departments. The mayor is the leader of the city,” she said.
Bass and Raman were generally viewed as allies until February, when Raman jumped into the race at the last minute. Bass had campaigned for Raman in 2024, when the councilmember was facing a tough reelection fight. Raman, in turn, was a Bass supporter two years earlier, when she faced real estate developer Rick Caruso.
Raman and Bass will square off again Wednesday, during a televised debate from the Skirball Cultural Center hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52 starting at 5 pm. That event will feature another major candidate: reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who has labeled both Bass and Raman as part of the status quo.
Tuesday’s forum was watched by hundreds of people, both in person and on streaming. Raman repeatedly used the event to argue that the mayor’s Inside Safe program, which has moved thousands of people into hotels and motels, is too expensive.
Bass said she is working to move to a less costly approach. But she also pointed out that Raman relied on Inside Safe in her district, which stretches from Silver Lake to Reseda.
The first Inside Safe operation, carried out weeks after Bass took office, was staged in Hollywood in Raman’s district. Last summer, the program cleared a “horrific” encampment next to the 405 Freeway, Bass said.
“You have pushed us around Inside Safe and insisted that Inside Safe come to your district,” Bass said.
Raman said it was her responsibility to lobby for more encampment operations.
“That’s exactly what we should be doing,” she said. “As a councilmember, your role is to be a squeaky wheel.”
Raman said she would, if elected mayor, cut street homelessness in half by the 2028 Olympic Games and remove every encampment from the city by the end of a four-year term.
Bass and Raman also debated the merits of a city law that prohibits homeless encampments near schools, daycare centers and “sensitive” locations, such as libraries and freeway overpasses.
Raman has voted against dozens of no-camping zones sought by her colleagues in other parts of the city.
“I just don’t understand your position around encampments,” Bass told Raman. “You vote over and over again to take tools away from people trying to remove encampments, especially near schools. It is completely unacceptable.”
Raman said she still opposes the law, arguing that it simply pushes encampments down the block. But she said that as mayor, she would not oppose councilmembers’ efforts to use that law in their own districts.
“I’m not going to stand in the way,” she said.
Bass and Raman also butted heads over the four-year package of police raises negotiated by the mayor and approved by the council in 2023. Raman voted against the police contract and has campaigned against it since launching her mayoral bid.
Raman told the audience there is a direct connection between the police raises and last year’s $1 billion budget shortfall, which nearly resulted in layoffs of more than a thousand city workers. The pay increases also did not stop the reduction in police staffing, Raman said.
The raises “did not get us the public safety results that we wanted,” she added.
The LAPD has lost more than 1,300 officers since 2020, the year Raman took office. Bass said the pay increases were needed to keep officers from leaving for other jobs, causing the department to shrink even more.
“We have to be able to compete,” she said.
The crowd was largely pro-Bass, cheering on the mayor and at times booing Raman. The two candidates frequently interrupted each other, talking over each other’s remarks.
Bass has led nearly every public opinion poll in the race, with Pratt and Raman trading places for second and third position. Even so, support for Bass has been tepid and many voters view her unfavorably.
The top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary will advance to a Nov. 3 run off unless a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, in which case they would win the election outright.
The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. didn’t invite Pratt or two other candidates, tech entrepreneur Adam Miller and community organizer Rae Huang. Miller and Huang have trailed behind Bass, Pratt and Raman in public opinion polls.
The group said its goal was to bring two leaders who represent Sherman Oaks — Bass as mayor and Raman on the council — for a robust conversation. That couldn’t be achieved if every candidate was present, organizers said.
The two candidates also traded barbs about Raman’s late entry into the race, and the fact that the two were at one point political allies. Raman, who endorsed Bass’ mayoral bid weeks before declaring her own candidacy, acknowledged they had teamed up on some initiatives.
“We’ve worked together,” Raman said. “I’m just frustrated now.”
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