The incoming Los Angeles metropolis controller arrived for our interview on a scooter.
Kenneth Mejia, 32, is likely one of the faces of a neighborhood political transformation through which a youth corps is changing the outdated guard, strong Democrats are being outflanked by the brand new left, and politicians are being changed by activists.
That wasn’t true in each race on the native poll. However Eunisses Hernandez, who referred to as for abolishing the Police Division, pushed out Councilmember Gil Cedillo.
Hugo Soto-Martinez, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and stated Councilman Mitch O’Farrell may as effectively be a Republican, simply booted O’Farrell out of Metropolis Corridor.
And within the race for controller, Mejia, an accountant whose mom was born within the Philippines, blitzed longtime Metropolis Councilmember Paul Koretz by 20 factors, changing into the primary Asian American to carry citywide workplace in Los Angeles. He’ll succeed Ron Galperin in three weeks.
Mejia rolled as much as his marketing campaign workplace on Wilshire Boulevard just a few days in the past plastered in marketing campaign gear, with “Mejia for Controller” stamped onto his darkish blue hoodie, beanie and sweatpants. On his again was a pie chart with a metropolis finances abstract for the yr 2021-22, with 46% of unrestricted revenues going to the LAPD.
I had related with Mejia final yr, after I was writing about L.A. firefighters who refused to get vaccinated, racked up staggering quantities of extra time pay and lived out of state. Mejia, a candidate on the time, was already performing like a controller, and he had tweeted a listing of the 20 top-paid metropolis workers within the first 9 months of 2021.
Mejia had discovered that 18 of the 20 labored within the Fireplace Division, and that every of them had taken house greater than $500,000 by means of September, counting advantages and extra time pay.
“Folks have a variety of questions on how town operates and the way the cash is spent … and that’s my specialty,” Mejia instructed me in his marketing campaign workplace.
As a part of his marketing campaign, Mejia produced a map of inexpensive housing models with directions on how folks may apply for them. He recognized the areas the place essentially the most parking tickets have been being written. And he crunched knowledge through the Metropolis Council debate on banning homeless encampments close to faculties and day-care facilities, discovering that 20% of town could be off limits to tents.
He additionally managed to interrupt the principles of conventional campaigning in ways in which galvanized assist, particularly amongst younger folks.
He donned a Pokémon costume, the Pikachu character, and danced in Little Tokyo.
He danced once more, with marketing campaign staffers, in a TikTok video drawing consideration to police and firefighters residing out of state.
He used his two corgis as marketing campaign greeters and pummeled Koretz, who led a Metropolis Council animal companies committee, over inhumane circumstances at metropolis shelters.
Alongside the way in which, Mejia ruffled the feathers of the institution, which questioned his {qualifications} and frightened about him politicizing a division that exists as an oversight department of presidency.
Former Metropolis Controller Laura Chick referred to as him erratic and excessive and stated he was “unfit for public workplace.” She famous that Mejia had posted tweets calling President Biden a racist and rapist, and whereas campaigning for the Inexperienced Social gathering candidate for president, he’d tweeted a photograph of himself holding up a photoshopped picture of Hillary Clinton behind bars.
“Undoubtedly, I remorse doing these issues,” Mejia instructed me. He stated that regardless of his political variations with institution figures, the way in which he “expressed” himself is “undoubtedly not how I’d have finished it at present.”
To Chick’s level, I believe Mejia misplaced a variety of votes for these bombastic tweets, and but he received in a landslide. And although Mejia stated he has regrets, there’s an unapologetic, anti-establishment swagger amongst a few of the younger progressives and absolutists banging on the doorways of energy in L.A. Candidate boards have been disrupted and f-bombs fly at Metropolis Council conferences.
You’ll be able to query the techniques, however you possibly can’t dispute the existence of a multiracial motion backed by labor activists, neighborhood organizers and people fed up with Metropolis Corridor corruption, the racism scandal, and all of the crippling unresolved points, similar to homelessness, the inexpensive housing disaster and wages that don’t cowl the hire.
Mejia, who grew up within the San Fernando Valley, stated his mother and father divorced when he was 7 and his mom basically raised him and his three older siblings on the cash she made as a registered nurse. His curiosity in social justice is rooted, he stated, in having watched his single mom’s struggles.
Mejia grew to become an activist with the Los Angeles Tenants Union, he made three unsuccessful runs for Congress on the Inexperienced Social gathering ticket, and he grew to become a Bernie Sanders disciple in 2015 when the Vermont senator ran for president.
“Millennials or Gen Zs, after we see somebody in politics who truly cares about points that you just care about, particularly serving to those that are low-income or those that have been marginalized by programs, whether or not it’s housing or homelessness, or prison justice or police, or the atmosphere … it’s a shock and it’s uncommon,” Mejia stated.
The individuals who supported him and different progressives, Mejia stated, “are sick of the established order.”
That could be true, however the metropolis controller has no direct authority over the mayor or Metropolis Council, who can select to disregard audits and pronouncements. However Mejia thinks that by exposing inefficiencies and questioning spending priorities, he can educate voters and elected officers and probably affect coverage.
As for the LAPD, he stated, “we simply wish to determine … how is that $3.2 billion getting used? Is it getting used … effectively for public security?”
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On homelessness, Mejia stated, he desires to “see the place the cash goes.” On housing, he desires to take a look at what town Housing Division is doing “to facilitate extra inexpensive housing.”
Mejia stated he’ll even be wanting on the animal companies operation and clear vitality and sustainability initiatives.
Mejia stated he has no real interest in utilizing the job as a steppingstone to run for mayor or another workplace. I requested how he’ll draw a line between auditing departments and pushing a political agenda.
He stated the job is to supply knowledge, see whether or not “efficiency metrics” are being met, and maintain the mayor and Metropolis Council accountable.
“No matter how I really feel or see issues, folks must understand how their tax {dollars} are getting used,” he stated.
In three weeks, a younger man shunned by the institution shall be watching over it.
Mejia will run a division of greater than 160 folks.
He stated the costume code shall be informal.
