Full NBC4 broadcast: Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt, Nithya Raman debate for LA mayor

[0:01] and a good evening everyone i'm colleen williams thanks so much for joining us tonight [0:05] our double header debate kicks off right now with the race for la mayor there are a number [0:10] of issues for angelenos and with the primary election now just four weeks away the stakes [0:16] are very very high joining me for the debate tonight are my colleagues conan nolan nbc4 [0:22] political reporter and enrique quiabra telemundo 52 news anchor and we welcome tonight the 43rd [0:33] mayor of the city of los angeles the honorable karen bass and her two challengers nithya raman [0:38] who is a member of the los angeles city council district 4 and spencer pratt a media entrepreneur [0:44] and a former reality tv tv host we'll be asking questions tonight on behalf of viewers and voters [0:50] we are proud to broadcast and stream and stream this debate in english and spanish on nbc4 [0:56] and telemundo 52 in partnership with lmu all right there are a couple rules tonight each of the [1:01] candidates will have 60 seconds to answer our questions and then 30 seconds for rebuttals [1:08] and or responses to follow that is up to the discretion of the moderators here if a candidate [1:14] goes over their time we'll give them a warning if it happens repeatedly the candidate could get fewer [1:21] questions and of course to our live audience here at the skirball center please hold your applause and of [1:27] course we're expecting a dignified debate uh we can uh certainly no um no name calling obviously uh [1:37] we're interested in uh some precision here uh some uh effort at um giving the people of the city of los [1:45] angeles uh a some specificity as to how you're going to handle some of these problems and let's start [1:51] with one it gets to january 7th of last year uh so mayor this is for you i know that you have [1:57] apologized for being out of the out of the country uh during those wildfires but still um there are [2:05] plenty of people who believe that the city let them down the los angeles fire department uh for some [2:11] reason didn't have a strike team or a brush unit uh where there had been a fire just days earlier and had [2:18] been reports it was still smoldering that appears to be inexcusable l-a-d-w-p had a reservoir that was [2:26] dry uh the the fire hydrants went dry so based on that issue alone articulate for us why you should [2:34] get a second contract as the mayor of the city absolutely well first of all thank you very much [2:40] for the opportunity to speak with you you know when uh i took over as mayor la was definitely facing an [2:46] awful lot of tough problems and obviously january 7th was horrible and i as i have told you before [2:53] it was one of the worst moments of my life to not be here when my city needed me and it didn't matter [2:58] where i was or why i was away to me it reminds me of like if you're away and a family member is in an [3:05] accident but i think that i deserve a second term and i'm going to fight for that because we have made [3:12] significant progress in a variety of areas for example homelessness was going up year after year [3:19] and under my watch it is the first time we've had a decrease in street homelessness while it went up in [3:24] the country 18 it came down in los angeles 17 and a half percent i have expedited the building of housing [3:33] because our number one issue in this city is affordability and uh one of the main drivers for [3:39] affordability is housing right so let me follow up on the fires though one gets the impression based [3:45] on what we saw that you prioritized wages and benefits a a hike in the salaries of the of the [3:51] firefighters union over the operations budget we saw those pictures of those engines that were [3:57] inoperable because they they didn't have enough mechanics to fix them well was that a mistake [4:02] explain that decision let me just say first of all the primary uh problem there was that the [4:09] chief sent home a thousand firefighters we actually had fire trucks with not enough firefighters there [4:17] so yes there were fire trucks that were broken but there were also fire trucks that were out of use [4:23] because she had sent the firefighters home you are correct there was supposed to have been deployment [4:29] and pre-deployment in the area that did not happen but the same way that la was not prepared [4:35] neither was the county thank you mayor mayor bass mr pratt this question's for you your desire to run [4:41] for office for mayor of los angeles really born of your own experience you lost your home in the fire [4:49] you lost your neighborhood how does that really color your view of what needs to happen at this point [4:54] and how does that help others moving forward yes thank you for the question uh to the mayor karen [5:00] bass's a thousand firefighters that were available but there was no engines for them because of the 17 [5:07] million dollars that chief crowley had asked the mayor for nine weeks before and mayor karen bass denied [5:15] it so they may have been available but they didn't have the equipment they needed not to mention janice [5:20] quinones who mayor karen bass put into a position of power at the ladwp she drained both of these reservoirs [5:28] that these firefighters needed to put out these fires a lot of people talk about climate change [5:34] and hurricane force winds the winds in the pacific policies never reached higher than 40 miles per [5:39] hour for those first six hours they didn't go above 27 miles per hour so without those two reservoirs [5:46] filled with 117 million gallons and 5 million gallons these firefighters had to fly all the way to [5:53] malibu and encino to get water so that to me is the most dangerous thing that this the mayor put us [6:00] up against mr proud of follow-up here though what would you do moving forward uh that would make this [6:05] better two years from now if we face the same situation well first off as mayor i will never drain [6:11] the reservoirs that we need for wildfire protection there's this conspiracy now that they're empty [6:17] that they were for drinking water but if you research it they were actually made for wildfire [6:22] protection as mayor i'm going to add 20 dip sites all around the communities connecting to pools so [6:29] god forbid the water system goes down again these dip sites that will be connected to individuals pools [6:35] will fill up for the helicopters to have water mayor perhaps you have a response to that absolutely [6:40] he's saying several things that are completely inaccurate first of all there was one reservoir that [6:44] was out of commission he is correct a million years ago it was for wildfires but over the last [6:50] 30 40 years it's been for drinking water he talked about the winds that is just completely inaccurate [6:57] if that were accurate then the planes would have been able to fly and so the winds reached close to [7:03] a hundred miles an hour and the planes were unable to fly so if there were reservoirs if that reservoir [7:09] had been open it would not have worked we had two other reservoirs totaling eight billion dollars [7:15] eight billion gallons that were available thank you could not fly yes she uh she mentioned me so this [7:21] is she's an incredible liar everyone on their phones google it 40 weather stations in the pacific [7:29] palisades it never went above 40 miles per hour she is referencing the altidina fire i have to interrupt you [7:36] um um no name calling please yeah but no name calling um we should call me a liar i don't believe she did [7:44] i did not hear that i did not we're not going to debate the issue we have a question now for [7:50] yes councilmember raman councilwoman raman so your district four is a fire prone district my question [7:55] to you is we've seen that you've introduced fire preparedness motions after january 2025 [8:01] a lot of them happen after the fire the palisades fire my question to you is what did you do before [8:06] that because this seems like it's more reactive rather than proactive so any motions you introduce [8:12] before january 2025 yeah so uh my name is nithya i'm a council member for the fourth district [8:19] representing a huge percentage of the hillsides i'm a for those of you who haven't met me before [8:25] i'm a mother of young twins i'm an urban planner by training and i've been in this role for about [8:30] five years and in my role as the council member for a hillside area we have to do a lot of work [8:35] preparing for uh really extreme weather before rainy seasons actually in the past mudslides have [8:43] been the biggest issue in my district entire homes have gone off of their foundations and we go in [8:48] advance and make sure that traps are cleared that areas are available for flood and clearing we do brush [8:56] clearance and make sure that all of the departments and all of the inter-jurisdictional areas that are [9:00] supposed to be doing brush clearance are actually doing that work before this set of fires we sent [9:06] out an email we made sure that we were connecting but is that enough to send in an email especially [9:10] for your district the hollywood hills and seno that's a very big fire prone area well we didn't have [9:16] a single home that was lost during these fires uh i was at the emergency operation center i was making [9:22] sure that i was in communication with all of our partners i also want to make sure that we understand [9:27] that the mayor's role is to be the ceo of the city they are the executive authority in the city [9:33] as a council member you're a legislator you push for your district which i did and i will always do [9:38] and i will always keep doing but really it is the mayor's role to be prepared and to coordinate [9:44] before and during and after emergencies to ensure that the city is ready thank you councilwoman as i said [9:50] we have a lot of topics to cover tonight the next one is public safety lapd is reporting the overall crime [9:56] rate is down but people repeatedly say that's not their perception they do not feel safe we're [10:02] seeing yet another series of home burglaries in the san fernando valley and just today federal [10:07] authorities arrested at least 18 people connected to a drug trafficking investigation they called it [10:14] save macarthur park mayor bass you have 60 seconds for this who ordered this operation with the feds [10:20] is it a sign that our communities are not safe no actually that operation was ordered by the feds [10:27] however we have been working in collaboration because we were very well aware of the drug dealing [10:32] that was taking place there we have used a comprehensive approach when it comes to macarthur park [10:37] multiple things are needed and so what happened a couple of hours ago was an action that had been [10:44] in the works for many many years but let me just say or many many months let me just say also that lapd and [10:50] that los angeles is understaffed in terms of lapd for the nation's second largest city and so i have [10:58] been fighting to hire more officers unfortunately i have not had the cooperation from the city council [11:06] including unfortunately my colleague next to me who has voted repeatedly against hiring officers [11:12] including when we were finally able to increase the class size and the council would not fund it [11:19] what is in my current budget now is 512 officers which still is not enough we at least that will deal [11:27] with attrition we cannot shrink our department uh councilmember raman you have 30 seconds to respond [11:33] to that you know i've supported multiple budgets thoughtful budgets that maintained and sometimes even [11:39] increase the size of the police force i did vote against a big contract a contract that gave the [11:45] police union more money than the city had a contract and its knock-on effects which ultimately led to the [11:52] city having a billion dollar budget deficit last year that led to us having to cut essential services [11:58] across the entire city if you're wondering why your street lights are out on your block and the bureau [12:03] of street lighting is telling you that it's taking a year to fix a street light that's why [12:07] remember raman thank you mr pratt um there were 100 lapd officers working with the feds today your [12:14] response to what went down in macarthur park it's unbelievable i hope we have the fbi the dea the cdc [12:21] the atf the more resources we can make the streets of la safe with federal money amazing i talk to [12:28] thousands of moms a week they do not feel safe in the street no matter what these crime statistics are [12:34] telling anybody it's not how people feel on the street there's a difference between people reporting [12:39] crime and feeling unsafe on the street and with councilwoman ramen people are more concerned about [12:45] getting stabbed in the street than the lights being out so i think mayor bass funding the police was [12:50] important actually mr pratt i have a follow-up question for all of you here um like this jelly so [12:55] do i get to respond to that um just a moment okay this is a response to some of that langer's deli [13:01] which as you all know is a staple of downtown los angeles uh is asking all of you on the stage right [13:08] now to end the needle run giveaway program so my question mayor first of all to you yes or no um [13:18] it's run by the city the city run needle program right yes or no yes council member raman uh no mr pratt [13:30] absolutely no needles and pipes for drug addicts on the street ever got it i'll take that as a yes [13:37] sorry so uh go ahead you have 30 seconds well i did want to say in response to this question that [13:44] the way you address homelessness the way you address people living on the street is by bringing them off [13:49] the streets and indoors i think we need to absolutely invest in shelter we need to invest in services we [13:55] need to actually get people off the streets for people to be safe that's what i've done in my district [13:59] we've had a 54 reduction in tents and encampments in council district four just over three years and [14:05] i'm very very proud of those results that's how you achieve real public safety outcomes that's how [14:10] you ensure that the people of los angeles are safe so mr pratt uh the chief of police uh said the other [14:15] day that there he doesn't think we're gonna have enough officers for la 2028 now the federal [14:20] government's responsible for security for the olympics but um lapd is part of that plus you have to [14:26] patrol the rest of the city uh hiring more officers is expensive um it's extraordinarily so in many [14:34] cases what is your strategy for getting more people uh recruiting more officers and paying for them [14:40] you know it's more expensive than high uh hiring them is overtime because that's what these salaries [14:45] for the fire department that everyone's complaining about these everyone's understaffed [14:49] so first off i'm going to bring hiring back to the lapd right now the lapd is hired by the same [14:55] people that hire sanitation and we need to bring it back like it was 20 plus years ago so that [15:00] police hire police and we need a 10-year plan it's going to take 10 years to get to the 12 500 [15:07] officers that we need and that needs to be a priority our sheriff's partner they're the same [15:12] size they have a billion dollar more budget for the same size so this idea that councilwoman rama [15:18] keeps saying that the police department is overfunded public safety should be our number one [15:22] priority and we're going to find all this money when we stop her useless open bed plans that [15:29] actually doesn't put drug addicts in these housing that we're spending billions of dollars and we're [15:33] going to actually start checking where this money is going not to mention when you get rid of all the [15:38] drug addicts off the street the police won't be responding to the drug addicts all day long thank [15:43] you councilwoman you can respond you know i have not argued against paying police officers what they're [15:49] worth they do some of the hardest jobs in our city and all they and all of our city employees deserve [15:54] a living wage they deserve to be paid what i am arguing against is bad fiscal management which is [16:01] what has gotten the city of los angeles into this moment the police union is the most powerful force [16:06] in la city politics and when you give contracts to people because they are going to fund your campaigns [16:12] and by the way i'm the only person on this stage that is being spent against because i had the courage [16:18] to speak out about bad budget decisions thank you councilwoman that is what happens appreciate that [16:22] we're going to stay with you councilwoman brandman so you said even last night you said it that you're [16:26] okay with the current staffing levels at lapd my question to you people say that's just ridiculous [16:32] it's not enough we need more officers my question to you is what do you tell people especially victims [16:38] who say the vic the city has let them down yeah and i think this is this is a very real issue [16:44] the city's most important response is public safety it is so important to me i'm the mother [16:49] of young children the safety of people in los angeles is absolutely essential but that's why i think [16:54] we have to start getting honest with people about how we're actually going to respond to public safety [16:59] needs how will we make sure that when they call for help someone picks up the phone and 9-1-1 [17:04] and someone comes when they call the right person comes when they call right now we have not built [17:10] out that system because we have funded in uh more police officers but haven't been able to hire [17:16] our police force is actually shrinking we have shrunk right now so no more officers stay the same [17:22] what are you saying i would love to keep it the same we have funded them more the police force has [17:27] been shrinking so let's get real about how we actually deliver public safety outcomes i'm going [17:32] to work as hard as i can to maintain our police force where it is but we also need to make sure [17:37] that we build out responses that can actually take call load off of lapd so many calls that are [17:42] coming into lapd do not require armed officer response let's take call load off of them and [17:48] let's make sure that police can come when people call your time is up quick reply let me just say [17:53] that uh unfortunately my colleague has contradicted herself because on the one hand she says that if you [17:59] pay officers what they need then we're going to bankrupt the city and then on the other hand she [18:05] doesn't understand that frankly we have to pay the officers had to give them a raise had to expand [18:12] recruitment because officers were going to other cities we were not competitive we have to make a [18:19] decision and frankly my job as mayor my number one job is to keep la safe and we can't keep la safe [18:26] with the size of the problem thank you we're going to talk about homelessness of four years ago when we [18:32] did a debate it was the number one topic it is right up there again this is an issue that continues [18:39] to challenge the city homelessness many residents say the homeless in their neighborhoods make them feel [18:45] unsafe they feel the homeless have more rights than the residents do so these are two yes or no questions [18:52] for each of you right now getting off the street is voluntary should that change if a bed or a shelter [18:58] is available mr pratt we're going to start with you yes or no it's illegal to live on the street so [19:05] yes everyone needs to go inside okay mayor bass everybody needs to go inside making it illegal [19:11] and arresting people is not the way to solve this problem ms raman yes people people need to go inside [19:18] when they're offered shelter they go inside you don't get an opportunity to say no it is so it's unanimous [19:23] here next question do you support the ordinance that restricts encampments in front of schools or [19:29] daycare centers mayor bass i'm going to start with you yes or no miss raman yes or no i i you know i [19:36] i support keeping our streets safe i did vote against the structure of this particular ordinance [19:43] and it is because at its best yes or no it does not the way this ordinance was structured [19:50] it does not keep our children safe it does not keep our children safe no i [19:55] it doesn't keep our children safe enough it's a simple yes or no question mr pratt what i was saying is [20:01] she's fighting because she doesn't think there's a difference between one foot or 500 feet for [20:06] kids safety with drug addicts with machetes yes or no of course we do not want encampments in front of [20:13] schools parks daycare okay i don't want vehicles where you talked about inside safe let's go into that a [20:19] little bit um you've suggested that there has been progress made but even the los angeles homeless [20:25] services authority which the city contracts with has said that upwards of 40 percent uh have left and [20:32] gone back to the street i mean there's uh there's a concern that a lot of money is being spent uh there's [20:38] been some progress certainly not enough i'll you i'll have you defend your program so conan i declared a [20:44] state of emergency on day one because i know that what angelenos want to see are their streets clear [20:50] uh inside safe is the only citywide program that we have had that has reduced homelessness two years [20:58] in a row prior to that there was no citywide strategy and homelessness was going up year after [21:05] year we need to have an entirely new system that is frankly independent in the city of los angeles [21:12] because we need to build out services once we get people off the street the same report also said [21:18] that sixty percent of the people in insight say stay inside so it is a program that is working [21:26] absolutely does it need to be better does it need to be more cost effective and we're working on that [21:31] right now by building temporary structures on city-owned property we can do this los angeles we have been [21:38] doing it for the last three years and it's the first time homelessness has gone down council member [21:46] ramen so you promised to clear half of the encampments by the olympics and all of it by the end of your [21:53] term if you get elected my question to you you've been in the city council for five years why are we [21:58] barely seeing this plan yesterday i think it was posted on your instagram and is this realistic [22:03] absolutely it's realistic and it's realistic because i've done it in my own district this is exactly [22:09] the plan that i've uh i've operationalized in my district to get a 54 reduction intense in my [22:15] district in three years okay three years yes and i am one council member and proposing a plan for an [22:24] entire city at this time it is absolutely realistic but i what i want to go back to is the idea that we [22:30] are satisfied with our homelessness system right now i don't think anybody in los angeles right now can say [22:36] that we are satisfied with spending extraordinary amounts of money on our homelessness response [22:41] and getting only incremental progress in response i want to change that let's use the dollars that [22:48] we're spending let's actually build out a real system that can get as many people indoors as possible [22:53] let's not put them into a hundred thousand dollar a year motel rooms for a year or more per person [22:58] this system is not fiscally sustainable and we must work to end this crisis with urgency and with [23:05] accountability right now so you'll make it years into the future you'll make a commitment to clear [23:09] all the encampments by the end of your term if you're gonna like yes that's correct absolutely yes [23:14] ma'am i have to respond because i know the statistics she's talking about in her district but the [23:19] statistics are there because of inside safe because she has called on inside safe repeatedly i took the [23:25] initiative to go into her district to make sure that that encampments were cleared we absolutely need a [23:33] new system and it has to have a comprehensive approach and there's no rooms for a hundred [23:38] thousand dollars we need to move on here mr pratt i you have been critical of what you consider failures [23:45] of the current administration on this issue you advocate for what some have called get help or get [23:51] out of the way what is that and how do you do it i don't know who made up that name first off let's [23:59] i just want to say councilwoman robin acts like she doesn't have any authority with this homelessness [24:04] she was the third most powerful person in city council she runs the homeless housing thing she [24:09] acts like this is just mayor bass first off inside safe i like to say inside safe makes all of us [24:15] outside unsafe the reality is no matter how many beds you give these people they are on super meth they [24:22] are on fentanyl the dea statistics says 93 of this is a drug addiction problem nithya councilwoman robin's [24:30] plan for treatment first i will go below the harbor freeway tomorrow with her and we can find some of [24:35] these people she's going to offer treatment for she's going to get stabbed in the neck these people [24:40] do not want a bed they want fentanyl or super meth these ideas cost us over 400 million dollars to [24:47] house for 70 what is it 3 000 people for 400 million this is an absolute failure for both of them [24:54] they're a team so councilmember raman you have 30 seconds i just i want to just say to everybody [25:00] who's watching today you're going to watch today as mayor bass and spencer pratt attack me because [25:06] they want to run against each other in the general election each of them thinks that running against [25:11] each other is what's going to help them win and they don't want to run against me because my ideas [25:15] which are based on real results in my district which are based on real data a real analysis of the [25:23] system and a focus on accountability and using every dollar as effectively as possible which we [25:29] have done in my district i want to take this city wide this is why this is happening today [25:38] we're out of time i'm going to give each of you 30 seconds to respond to this can i start with you [25:43] and then i'm going to go to mayor first off uh mayor bass and i are definitely not working together [25:50] i blame this person for burning my house and my parents house and my town and all my neighbors down [25:56] i am not working with mayor bass second off if i wanted to run against anybody it would be the [26:00] council member who is terrible mayor bass has at least been a mayor for almost four years and has [26:06] as she talked about earlier the unions all the unions endorsed mayor bass you think it's easier to [26:11] run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions or a random city council member who's been a failure [26:18] for six years i would much rather run against councilwoman ramen thank you very much very much [26:22] mr pat so so uh mayor though uh let's specifically uh there's a lot of money billions that are spent on [26:29] the on the homeless and dance a lot of that money goes to see 501c3s and non-profits uh now we're [26:36] hearing the department of justice has a lawsuit against the director of abundant blessings 23 million [26:41] dollars they allege that was siphoned uh project home key i believe not a statewide project [26:47] to uh real estate developers accused of siphoning you know siphoning off 40 million there's a [26:52] perception that we don't know where the money's going uh and that we have the legislative analysts [26:58] in sacramento said there are 26 billion dollars in state funds we're not sure if that did any good [27:04] so how can we have confidence that the investment we are making in the future is not going into the [27:11] pocket of some director who will end up in federal court first of all i don't think it's shocking [27:16] that you do find corruption in big programs like this and i think it is extremely important to hold [27:23] them completely accountable but i will just say that for the first time we've had a reduction of [27:30] homelessness two years in a row because of policies that i have put in place i also believe we need to [27:37] have an overhaul of the system but i can tell you that streets that we have cleared crime is down [27:43] firefighters don't have to go out firefighters spend 30 percent of their time putting out fires [27:49] that are related to homelessness businesses are able to have customers kids are able to walk to school [27:57] and parents without navigating tents that's what what i would say but i have to say about about [28:03] my colleague here is that yes she is a member of city council she chairs the homelessness committee [28:10] but she also in order to get anything passed in city council she has to build an alliance with [28:17] her colleagues and she has not been successful in doing that which is why she has not been able [28:22] to pass the policies that she's talking about thank you council member ramen so this also happened under [28:27] your watch um your plan calls for fully staffing the bureau of homelessness oversight which the city council [28:34] established under your leadership so the question is why is it not fully staffed as we speak right it's [28:39] not so uh i as part of my efforts to create accountability on homelessness i've been pushing [28:47] for greater oversight within the city right now in the city there is no one who is watching our dollars [28:53] there's no one even as we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year there is no [28:57] accountability in the city there's no staff at the city that are making sure that every single dollar [29:02] that you are spending your tax dollars are going to the issue of homelessness people are not watching to [29:07] make sure those are going towards outcomes they're not watching to make sure that every dollar is being [29:11] spent appropriately that is because the city has not invested in oversight i've been pushing for [29:17] exactly that oversight i created the first data around performance that the city had because i pushed [29:22] and it happened i established the bureau of homelessness oversight through my powers as a council [29:27] member but the mayor is the executive of the city she has the power to move departments to hire [29:33] and to build out the staffing a year after this was established no new staff members have been hired [29:39] for this no leadership has been hired thank you thank you mr pratt this next question is 60 seconds [29:47] mayor bass would like to respond i don't know if you heard we have the time no i'm just go ahead mayor [29:54] well thank you uh let me just say that the bureau that the councilwoman is referring to [30:01] is being staffed half the staff are there now and we have been reducing homelessness again for the first [30:10] time and building out a system that needs to be built the problem with my colleague though and i appreciate [30:17] your interest in data and all of that that is important but i believe it was important to act in this [30:24] city angelinos do not want to see encampments on your street thank you mayor sorry okay mr [30:31] pratt mr pratt thank you for for directing traffic up here we appreciate it um how does your [30:38] professional experience qualify you to make sure and to oversee a budget the size of la's 14 billion [30:46] dollar budget uh we know you're passionate about what you're doing we know you're an entrepreneur [30:51] but this is a 14 billion dollar budget what kind of experience do you bring to the table for that [30:58] well thankfully i have common sense and i i'm humble i have humility i'm going to surround myself [31:04] with the smartest people in the world because i actually don't have to balance the budget the mayor [31:09] doesn't but balance but she has a cao she has a team and we're not going to say she has the best [31:14] team but she has a team and they balance the budget my job is to be as crazy as this will sound [31:21] i'm the adult in the room here at spencer pratt and that's what it's that's what it's come to and so [31:27] i plan on putting people that actually want to make sure all of our money like council councilwoman [31:33] ramen was saying is accounted for pure transparency every dollar all of our tax money and again back to [31:39] what councilwoman ram was saying about that in her own district she let one of these ngos a building [31:45] was on the market for three million it sold for eight million dollars to the ngo with that tax money [31:50] that she's so concerned about she wants to watch it all she can't even keep track of the ngos in her [31:55] own district stealing our tax money so when i'm doing the budget we're gonna make sure no stealing [32:01] our money council member ramen you have a response for that um i'm i'm i'm not sure what specific [32:07] building uh spencer pratt is referring to but i will i will also just say that i will also just say that [32:16] we have pushed extremely hard to build the oversight system so much so that i had to go out and get [32:22] philanthropic support to create the data for performance oversight and accountability at [32:27] the city the city was refusing to put our dollars and our people towards it this is important your [32:33] tax dollars deserve to be watched you deserve a system that responds to you with responsibility [32:38] and accountability that's what i want to establish robin thank you and mayor bast do you have a response [32:43] to that as well sure again what i have done on my watch is reduced homelessness for the first time [32:50] two years in a row we absolutely need a system a system that is able to provide services to people [32:57] it has been woefully act uh moefully unacceptable what has been happening so far i feel we're moving [33:04] in the right direction and under my watch we will continue to do that because we need to make [33:09] comprehensive changes to what has been going on for so many years years before frankly either of us [33:16] arrived thank you mayor uh we we have a question from uh a student from the harvard of the west [33:21] loyal to maramont university uh your name your major and what year are you and your question good evening [33:27] my name is john kasabian i am a senior urban environmental studies major my question for you [33:33] is that los angeles remains one of the most unaffordable regions in the nation if elected what is one housing [33:38] policy you would implement immediately or change mayor we'll start with you yes the housing policy that i did [33:45] implement immediately after i said uh declared a state of emergency around homelessness i expedited the [33:52] building 42 000 units are being fast tracked for affordable housing we have another 43 000 units that [34:01] are potential with our adaptive reuse which means you can change office buildings into housing we also [34:08] change the zoning codes so we have the potential for another half million units i know that one of the [34:15] primary drivers for the lack of affordability in our city is housing and making sure that people can [34:22] afford to live here so that is how i have focused on addressing the affordability issue now there's a [34:28] lot of other factors that come into affordability that we can't control such as the price of gas or what [34:34] is happening 3 000 miles away but every single thing we can do rent stabilization reducing the price of rent [34:43] eviction prevention i started the mayor's fund that allows us to do that thank you mayor councilwoman [34:49] thank you for that question this is one of the driving factors behind my candidacy and the work [34:55] that i want to do the cost of housing is driving young families out of the city it's driving young [35:00] people out of this city it is making this into a city that is no longer one of opportunity and it is [35:06] not central to anyone else's agenda on this stage except for mine oh the mayor has not had a deputy mayor of [35:13] housing during a housing crisis for the last two years the ed1 program has entitled 42 000 units but [35:19] only 14 of them are actually under construction what we need to do is make sure that the city gets out [35:24] of the way right now on average the city takes over a year and a half to approve multi-family housing [35:31] apartments exactly the kind of housing that we desperately need in order to bring prices down why is [35:36] the city standing in the way as mayor i will take my executive authority over the departments and [35:42] ensure that they respond to new apartment applications within 60 days if they are zoning compliant so that [35:49] we can build exactly the kind of housing that will make this into a city of opportunity again raman thank [35:53] you mr pratt you have 60 seconds she also mentioned she did i heard it see how nice they are being to each [36:00] other nice person that's good what's going on well first of all i disagree in terms of how much time [36:09] it takes to go through the process we have cut red tape so you can go through much quicker than that [36:14] the 42 000 units of housing that are being fast-tracked 6 000 of those units are actively under construction [36:22] but there are definitely other factors that have weighed into that and some of the factors are the price [36:28] of construction materials just the general economy and we are doing everything we can to make sure [36:35] that we are able to fast track that housing we want to see people move in right now which is why [36:41] we've come up with a variety of ways in addition to that thank you very much mr friday you ready i am [36:46] thank you so much you have a minute to respond well the good news is when i enforce the law and clear the [36:50] street of the drug addicts that have taken over 40 blocks of downtown l.a abandoned buildings that have [36:57] drug addicts just lighting them on fire every other day i will have potentially 20 000 units available [37:04] to build and thankfully i spent a lot of time in a in a town that has a lot of builders and i see all the [37:10] new 3d printing and the potential how fast we can do it and with this ed1 that mayor bass i met with the [37:16] developer this week carlos and he said yes she did an initiative where she fast-tracked it six months [37:22] it's been two and a half years and he hasn't been able to get his permits the best part is some of [37:27] these developers that are taking over tax money are charging 750 dollars a square foot for stuff [37:33] that should be costing 250 dollars and councilwoman raman this plan that she's going to build all these [37:38] use guess what she's going to sue all the people that actually rents to the tenants and then they're [37:43] not going to even want to rent to anybody because she wants people to squat in there for a year and [37:48] not pay so i don't know how her plan is going to work councilmember raman you have 30 seconds to [37:53] respond and then conan has a question that that um coincides with all of this please great i mean [37:59] i don't uh i'm not sure how to respond to that vision of los angeles this is a maga republicans idea [38:08] of what los angeles looks like this is this is really not this is really not uh the city that [38:15] that i love so much we need to we need to make we need to make so we need to make the city so much [38:21] better yeah we have to work so hard to ensure that this city works for everyone who lives in it and [38:27] crucial to that crucial to that is actually ensuring i'm sorry i was still speaking continue council [38:36] okay okay so so if you don't mind uh the governor the other day expressed frustration mayor with with [38:46] you uh it appears the city has delayed uh the uh implementation of senate bill 79 that is high [38:52] density along transit lines um i know that you wanted him to veto that uh law he didn't i know [38:59] councilwoman you supported that law uh mr pratt i'd like you to weigh in just i don't know if we need a [39:05] minute for all of this but can you just tell us with regard to building transit a lot of neighborhoods [39:10] are concerned about this high density up to nine stories at transit lines um why did you want to [39:17] delay that mayor what did i want to delay right well first of all i don't support sacramento saying that [39:24] this is what we need to do here in los angeles especially our city where we are very much committed [39:31] to building housing and i feel especially after all of the units that i talked about we are on track [39:37] to build housing we need absolutely more housing built but sb 79 basically says you can build it in [39:45] any residential area and i don't believe that that is necessary in some areas and i always talk about [39:51] sherman oaks they don't want their individual neighborhoods disrupted but they are very open to [39:57] building housing on their commercial strips councilwoman harris dawson is the perfect example [40:04] where on crenshaw boulevard you see hundreds of units being built but the single family homes are not [40:10] disrupted there's ways to do it we are on our road to do it we did not need sacramento to tell us what to [40:17] do and to mandate what we were doing thank you mayor councilwoman here here's why here's why sb 79 and [40:25] other state laws keep coming down on us because the city of los angeles is not taking responsibility [40:31] for the demand for housing we are not building housing at the level that we need to address [40:37] our housing shortage and when we don't build that housing responsibly when we don't take [40:41] responsibility for it from the very top including from this mayor who has pushed back against these [40:46] state mandates yes they come in and impose these mandates on us here's what i would do instead [40:52] let's actually plan for the housing that we need let's build out the neighborhoods that we want to [40:57] build let's make them beautiful let's actually solve for the kind of density and affordability that the [41:03] state is asking us to do we can do it if we plan for it and as mayor that's exactly what i would do i [41:09] would ensure that i would use the executive authority in the mayoralty to make sure that every department [41:15] was planning for density in ways that angelino's welcomed so that sacramento didn't have to intervene [41:22] in the absence of that this is what happened thank you mayor we'll get to you and mr pratt [41:26] it would seem to me you agree with the mayor on this topic but i just want you to asking you about [41:30] density development imposed by the state yeah to be clear i just said i'm gonna have 40 blocks when [41:36] i get rid of all the drug addicts that are sleeping on the sides of all these empty buildings so we will [41:40] have so much high density i'll have so many bike lanes for mayor or excuse me councilman ramen to [41:47] have all her bike lanes we're gonna have all that we have plenty of places to build we don't need to [41:51] put a seven-story cement structure in a single-family neighborhood with no parking i actually lived the [41:58] consequences of high density on small streets and it's people can burn alive in an emergency or an [42:05] earthquake or any type of evacuation situation adding these high density buildings on these teeny [42:10] tiny streets doesn't make sense of course i'm fine with building where they make sense i love building [42:15] i think it's great i think they should look a little better than what councilwoman ramen wants like [42:19] prison-like boxes but i think they should have some style not to mention the fact that councilman [42:25] ramen is fighting mayor bass on sacramento where she just was telling me this is la this time where's her la [42:31] pride okay mr pratt listen you can answer this next question because it relates to it uh downtown los [42:38] angeles seems to be in a state of crisis the high rises there the office buildings are worth a fraction [42:44] of what they used to be that will impact the budget by the way you have a graffiti tower you have a half a [42:50] billion dollar bridge at six three bridge where somebody ripped out 38 000 feet of copper so it's in the [42:56] dark you have uh restaurants uh cole's at sixth and maine uh clifton's at broadway and eighth that [43:02] survived the depression prohibition and world war ii but they can't survive the human feces outside their [43:08] front door they're closed what is your plan for downtown can we afford to let it die uh and and uh [43:15] ms rama we'll start with you uh would you agree to bring city workers back full time to the office in [43:22] order to help some of the businesses i think we we do definitely need to bring city and county workers [43:28] back i we bring in our office we have people in the office three days a week in order to be able to [43:33] address issues there are some workers that should be in the office much more and there's others that [43:37] that can be there three days a week but absolutely that is not the only intervention that downtown [43:42] needs and right now the lack of care that's being demonstrated in downtown la is part of our broken [43:49] status quo downtown la needs attention and it needs real care it needs more public safety officials on [43:56] the streets it needs work with businesses to ensure that businesses aren't just fleeing downtown la that [44:02] they're actually staying there it needs regular cleanups it needs real maintenance it needs a strategy [44:08] instead what mayor bass has done is to dismantle our economic development department we don't have a [44:13] strategy to keep businesses here in los angeles and we're watching as they walk away from this city [44:19] instead of investing in it that's the kind of investment that i want to encourage people to make [44:24] by actually investing in a real economic development strategy for la mr pratt how do we solve this are you [44:30] want to bring workers back into the city full on i mean what's the solution for this problem he mentioned [44:36] a lot of problems what's your what's your plan thank you sir well first off i was just talking to my [44:42] friend rachel who works in downtown la downtown is so unsafe now that they have to serve the food all [44:48] the employees have to eat inside they they can't risk going out that's why all these beautiful restaurants [44:54] are closing because it's so unsafe so before we require city workers to go back into any buildings [45:00] we need to enforce the laws on the street councilman rahman is talking about safety yet when animal rescue [45:06] activist rebecca corey came in and said the dogs are being tortured and abused on the streets of [45:11] downtown she walked out of the hearing she doesn't care about safety she doesn't care about anything [45:17] she's talking about at least mayor bass pretends to care mayor bass can we afford and you've got a [45:23] minute to answer this question can we afford to let downtown la die as no we absolutely cannot but [45:31] it's in a crisis situation at this point it seems to be going the wrong way so let me just tell you that [45:37] we absolutely cannot downtown is the center of our city and it is an economic engine that absolutely [45:45] needs to be attended to we have a strategy that is working we are working with the downtown business [45:52] associations we are increasing public safety there that's why i did the adaptive reuse ordinance which [45:59] allows for the office buildings that are vacant to be converted into housing and those conversions are [46:05] taking place right now that is why we have to deal with the street homelessness that is there there [46:10] needs to be massive intervention there and then of course there is the convention center and the [46:16] convention center is a long-term investment that we have to make in our city because the more people [46:23] you have downtown whether it's a convention or people coming downtown for concerts is the way to make [46:29] the city more safe and downtown more safe and my number one obligation is to keep our city safe so [46:36] downtown is absolutely critical thank you all right moving to our uh council member ramen would you like [46:46] to respond to that to the mayor and what she's talking about i mean look i i feel like we're having [46:52] a theoretical conversation here about the direction of our city which is being led currently by our mayor [46:59] our mayor is the ceo of the city she sets the direction of this city and if you are satisfied [47:06] with the status quo then i've got great news for you the incumbent is on the ballot what i'm here to [47:12] say is that we need more urgency to respond to the issues right now we need real plans we need real [47:18] efforts to make sure that we're keeping businesses here that we're keeping workers here that we're keeping [47:23] residents in downtown la that is the strategy and effort that i want to bring to this role councilmember [47:28] robin councilwoman robin endorsed mayor bass two weeks before she ran for election two hours before [47:35] the candidacy closed she endorsed mayor bass so all of a sudden now she's has all these problems with [47:41] mayor bass they do photos together we have so many more topics and you know what i know we're passionate [47:49] you're passionate about what we're talking about but voters really want some concrete evidence here [47:55] and they want people to direct so she referenced moving along i need to respond to that that's [48:01] supposed to be part of the rules go ahead i i haven't been offered that that uh in a lot of this [48:06] debate well i think i'm joining you there uh absolutely the status quo and breaking up the status quo [48:15] and dealing with the bureaucracy is exactly why i ran and i started doing that by addressing homelessness [48:22] but also by bringing coalitions together to make sure that we can deal with downtown did you know [48:28] that we are the only major city that does not have a comprehensive infrastructure plan so it's been [48:35] haphazard up until now left to the wishes of the every single council member i have instituted and [48:42] started a comprehensive infrastructure plan and moving right away into replacing 60 000 solar lights thank you [48:50] mayor but we're good on this topic now because this next topic a lot of viewers um when we put up the [48:58] qr code wanted to know about this it has to do with a film and television industry um a lot of people think [49:06] we're nowhere close to where we should be i know it bounced back the first part of this year but it's [49:11] at least 30 percent below what it was pre-covid um pre-covid time so the question becomes and mayor i'm [49:18] going to start with you uh do we do enough to keep production in southern california well let me just [49:25] one minute let me just tell you what i have done in working with the industry we have expedited permits [49:31] i established one person who is a czar to provide concierge services for the industry we also lowered the [49:39] costs to do filming in in los angeles so for example the observatory we reduced those amounts by 70 [49:47] percent we are beginning to bring uh the industry back and i'll tell you this has been a long-standing [49:53] issue of mine when i was in sacramento and served as speaker i did the first tax credits and also [50:00] promoted and advocated for those tax credits here in uh sacramento we have a long way to go but we are [50:07] absolutely making headway because of policies that i put in place mr pratt are we doing enough to bring [50:13] hollywood back absolutely not and that's great mayor bass did those uh credits back in the day [50:20] but we don't have tax credits that even massachusetts has better tax credits than hollywood we needed a [50:26] mayor three years ago that was going to sacramento and fighting the governor to get uncapped tax credits [50:33] we need post-production taxes and councilman rahman will tell you my husband's a producer blah blah blah [50:39] the reality she's been in power for five years now all of a sudden she has these tweets and these [50:44] posts she's doing sub stacks both of these people have been the reason why there's no more hollywood [50:50] not to mention even if they do you know these things we're still gonna have drug addicts all over [50:55] the street because they're treatment first open beds not mandatory treatment do you know i talk to [51:00] producers they have to pay gang members right now to keep the streets safe to go film anything on the [51:06] streets of la so absolutely no these two politicians have failed hollywood times a thousand council [51:14] member rahman if elected what would you do yes uh differently here is enough being done i would say [51:20] you know this issue is very personal to me my husband has been a long time writer in the industry [51:24] and we desperately need to keep hollywood here and i feel like the mayor's role is really to be the [51:31] loudest advocate for the best possible version of the policies that we need including [51:36] a tax credit that has no cap that is guaranteed years into the future so that production so that [51:42] studios can actually invest here and they know that they can invest here we need to make sure that [51:48] we're reducing red tape in city hall to make sure that productions have no bar to being able to film [51:55] here i also would create a real film office here we don't have enough people at the city to make sure [52:01] that filming can happen quickly and efficiently we need people who know the industry and know the [52:06] city and can make sure that we're working across county jurisdictions that's what happened in baywatch [52:11] city and county weren't talking to each other let's make it possible for us to actually do the work [52:16] i feel so strongly about this and angelinos in the industry need a fighter i will be that thank you [52:22] excuse me thank you excuse me we have to move on really quick 30 seconds in her time in there she feels [52:29] very strongly about it but never offered one motion and when motions came up on the industry she either [52:35] recused herself we gotta move on thank you thank you both we gotta move on sorry i am so sorry we have [52:41] to move on we have a very important topic so let's talk about immigration immigration after what happened [52:46] last year that was a really big deal so i want to ask you all three if this is a yes or no question [52:52] an answer so there's an la council member he wants voters to decide he is saying that non-citizens [52:58] should they be allowed to vote in local elections is this a yes or no mr pratt no mayor bass it depends [53:06] it's not a yes or no depends on what well first of all when you say non-citizens it doesn't mean [53:11] they're here illegal it doesn't mean they're undocumented they could have green cards they could [53:15] be here perfectly legal and there's a lot of states and cities that do that on very very local elections [53:21] we have to see what the councilman is proposing council member bremen yeah i would say again it [53:26] it does depend in other places school boards have was a yes non-citizens non-citizens mr fred i have [53:33] a question for you you told nbc news a few months ago that um you want lapd to take care of so if you [53:42] don't want ice to be here in the city so the question is you want lapd to do enforcement as ice [53:49] not that's not what i said what i said is when i'm mayor i want to enforce all the laws and get [53:54] all the drug dealers the murderers the child traffickers the rapists and if they're legal or [54:00] illegal if they are a danger do i say i want them off our streets so that's why i said ice won't be [54:06] coming here because i'm going to end up everybody they're supposedly looking for they're going to be [54:10] in jail when i'm mayor so that's that's not what ice was doing we're moving on ice was chasing people [54:15] in car washes ice was chasing people in home depots and picking up vendors selling fruit the majority of [54:23] them over 70 percent had no record no police record whatsoever that is not what was going on in here [54:29] i was against it i physically went out and did everything i could to stop it and we'll do that [54:35] again was that that phone call when you were like hello please don't come here um just to be clear i [54:40] didn't say what she said i said i'm gonna target all criminals so she just put words that's not what [54:45] ice did okay he asked me what i said final question for all three of them uh in another hour there's [54:52] going to be uh seven candidates for governor the governor's going to be theirs at one point uh very [54:57] quickly uh just we'll align what do you what do you need from the next governor to help this city [55:03] ms raman uh we need support from we need financial support when our federal administration has abandoned us [55:10] we need to make sure that we are able to fund the programs that we need we need to be able to make [55:15] sure that we can ensure that the city is vibrant into the future we absolutely need a governor who [55:20] is going to fund that full film tax credit that we need we need the support in the absence of support [55:25] from the federal government mr pratt what do we need for the next governor what would what do you need [55:30] from that person personally the governor needs to clear all his dead fuels around our community so [55:36] more communities don't burn down all the dead brush the surrounding sunland to hunga bel air [55:42] brentwood the valley so there's a lot of dead fuels that they leave because they care more about plants [55:48] or fuels i would start with there second we need to make sure this home key this homeless billions [55:54] that's laundered through these ngos we need to have where you require treatment right now they make it so [56:02] someone like mayor bass has to fight even if she wanted to require treatment they have to fight [56:07] mayor bass because they say no you can do drugs inside of these million dollar rooms so i would say [56:14] we got to stop the money laundering we need cooperation from the governor for example we need the governor [56:21] to support us in cleaning up our highways doing the landscaping it looks a mess we need the graffiti [56:27] removed we need the governor to restore the money for homelessness that was cut by 50 we need the [56:34] governor to front fund the money for fema because while we're waiting for it to come from dc we need [56:40] to do undergrounding in the pacific palisades and there's a lot of things that we need from sacramento [56:46] it is fortunate that i serve there i know how to work in sacramento i know how to make it work for us [56:53] i've had to change laws to help us here i've also had to do the same thing in washington dc need them [57:00] to advocate for the insurance industry and the banking industry so that people can rebuild in the [57:06] pacific palisades all right thank you so much time flies special thanks to our candidates tonight our [57:13] partners at lmu and of course the scobal cultural center balance for the second primary have been more [57:19] that you can submit your vote now and we want to hear from you as well scan the qr code that you see [57:25] on your screen to tell us your thoughts about the debate tonight stay with us though we will be back [57:30] here in one hour with more on the gubernatorial debate and of course keep watching on our news at [57:37] six for complete analysis of what went down we'll also be broadcasting and streaming live right here on [57:43] nbc4 and telemundo 52. we will see you back here in just one hour