LOS ANGELES, CA – Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has changed or reversed her public positions on homeless encampments, police funding and Measure ULA since launching her campaign for mayor, issues that now frame her Nov. 3 runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.
Raman, who represents District 4, and Bass are both on the City Clerk’s certified candidate list for mayor in the 2026 General Municipal Election. They advanced from the June 2 primary, where Bass received 34.27% of the vote and Raman 29.02%.
Raman has voted more than 60 times since 2021 against measures that ban homeless encampments near schools, libraries, parks, freeway overpasses and other public areas. In May, she told an audience that if she is elected, she will not stand in the way if the council wants to create new no-camping zones.
Raman and her team say the changes followed new information, changed circumstances or a second look at an issue. Bass and several council members say the shifts raise questions about where the candidate stands.
Encampment votes and the May turnaround
“When I’m mayor, if the council wants to create new [no camping] zones, I’m not going to stand in the way,” Raman said in May. The remark marked a change from her record on the council, where she routinely opposed colleagues’ efforts to restrict encampments in their districts.
Her team has said a mayor lacks the legal authority to block council members from creating new no-camping zones. Raman’s campaign presents the May statement as consistent with that view.
Bass supports the city’s anti-camping law, Municipal Code Section 41.18, and her campaign has criticized Raman’s votes against the zones.
Venice vote and a delayed motion
On April 14, the City Council voted 11-4 to apply Section 41.18 enforcement at 220 Rose Avenue in Venice. Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado voted no.
A spokesperson for Raman said the Venice ordinance duplicates laws that already regulate camping and at best moves homelessness around a neighborhood.
On Oct. 6, the Public Safety Committee voted 3-2 to delay a motion by Councilmember Traci Park to broaden Section 41.18. The motion would extend it to post offices, fire and police stations, fire-hazard severity zones, environmentally sensitive areas and critical infrastructure without individual council resolutions.
Raman asked for definitions, maps and a fiscal analysis of the proposal. “It’s important for us to just understand what we’re voting on,” she said. Councilmember Curren Price said the city lacks enough beds and asked for analysis before any expansion.
From defunding police to keeping staffing levels
During her first run for City Council in 2020, Raman called for defunding the police. She told her followers that “the path is not complicated.”
Two years later, she voted for a nearly 3% increase in spending on the Los Angeles Police Department, an additional $82 million. In an August interview, Raman said her thinking on defunding had changed.
She said she has voted for multiple budgets that maintained or expanded police staffing. She also said she has spoken up when raises for officers unbalanced the budget so much that other essential services could not be funded.
Hiring votes and the budget numbers
Raman also voted this year against a request from Bass to add 170 police officers. The mayor said the hires were needed to replace officers who are retiring and to keep the department from shrinking.
Weeks later, after she launched her mayoral campaign, Raman said in a television interview that city leaders need to maintain the size of the LAPD and keep sworn staffing from falling. Her campaign says she wants to hold the department near its current size, while Bass wants to restore it to 9,500 officers.
Bass wrote to the council on Dec. 10, 2025, in a letter on funding for LAPD hiring. She asked for $4.4 million to support hiring toward 410 officers by the end of summer 2026 and warned that the LAPD would stop hiring in January without the money.
A Personnel Department report filed with the City Clerk on Dec. 5, 2025 under Council File 25-0600-S126 cites city figures on the issue. The 2025-26 budget funded six academy classes of 40 recruits, or 240 hires, while the projected hiring pace was 410 officers, 170 more than budgeted. The report puts the 2026-27 incremental cost of those 170 additional recruits at $23.71 million, including direct and related costs.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky has said additional hiring adds roughly $24 million to the city’s structural deficit.
Mayor’s position on police staffing
In a statement on council action related to police hiring, Bass called the council’s decision disappointing and short-sighted and said it ignored her plan. She said fewer officers means more overtime and higher costs, and that the council chose process over outcomes after hearing Police Chief Jim McDonnell’s staffing plan.
Bass said in that statement that she and Councilmember John Lee found funding to continue hiring needed officers. The mayor’s office later announced that she signed the city’s budget for fiscal year 2026-27, which funds the hiring of 510 new officers, sets a target of 8,555 officers this year and keeps her long-term goal of 9,500. The mayor’s proposed budget totals $14.85 billion.
Raman said at the Aug. 20 debate that the police contract she voted against gave the LAPD raises the city could not afford. She has also said Bass acted irresponsibly by calling for more officers without a long-term plan to pay for them.
At that debate in Sherman Oaks, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, Bass said Raman “talks out of both sides of her mouth” when discussing police hiring.
Measure ULA reversal on new construction
In 2022, Raman urged voters to approve Measure ULA, the tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million that some call the “mansion tax.” She downplayed warnings that it would discourage apartment construction, saying the impact would be “very minor.”
She later said the tax has hurt apartment construction and needs an overhaul. “You can’t address a housing crisis with a policy that worsens our housing shortage,” Raman said in January.
On Jan. 23, Raman introduced a motion to reform Measure ULA. According to her office’s release, the motion directs the City Attorney to prepare ballot language for the June 2 ballot to amend the ordinance.
The proposed changes include a 15-year exemption for newly constructed multifamily, commercial and mixed-use projects, a temporary exemption for fire-impacted areas and technical amendments for nonprofit developers. The release says multifamily and mixed-use housing production has slowed in Los Angeles, and that the motion aims to keep the measure protecting tenants and funding affordable housing.
The proposal missed the City Attorney’s deadline for the June ballot. Raman said she changed her mind after reviewing studies on housing production, and a UCLA study concluded that Los Angeles would have more affordable units if the tax did not apply to new apartments.
Joe Donlin of United to House L.A. called the proposal a tax break for developers and billionaires. Jurado also opposed it.
Park questions Raman’s motives
Park, who has not endorsed in the race, said she believes Raman is changing her positions on police hiring and encampments to appeal to more moderate voters. She said that includes those who backed Republican Spencer Pratt in the primary.
“It makes me question what she stands for, or if she actually stands for anything at all,” Park said.
Pratt finished third in the primary with 217,977 votes, behind Bass with 292,593 and Raman with 247,781. Raman overtook him as later ballots were counted.
Relations with council colleagues
Raman’s tendency to revisit her policy decisions has coincided with strained relations with her council colleagues, nearly all of whom back Bass’s reelection bid. Her backers include the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed her on Sept. 2.
Raman’s team has defended each shift. On Measure ULA, she cited housing production studies, and on police hiring, she cited the lack of a long-term plan to pay for new officers. On encampments, her team points to the mayor’s legal authority.
Election is Nov. 3
Voters will decide the race between Bass and Raman in the Nov. 3 General Municipal Election. The Public Safety Committee’s delayed motion to broaden Section 41.18 remains pending before the council.
