Bass, Raman spar over policing, homelessness in mayoral debate

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman slammed each other Wednesday over their handling of homelessness, public safety and many other issues during the first face-to-face debate of the Nov. 3 election campaign.

During a series of sharp-edged exchanges before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., Bass said Raman struggled to work collaboratively with her colleagues, treating city business as a series of academic exercises.

The mayor also accused Raman of missing thousands of votes during her six years in office. Raman countered that many of her absences were the result of her attendance on regional boards and oversight bodies.

Raman chided Bass over her track record on homelessness, saying she achieved big reductions in her Hollywood Hills district even as the numbers worsened citywide.

“Guess what that takes? Work,” she said. “That takes action. That takes leadership. That takes management. That takes data. That takes oversight. That’s what’s missing in City Hall right now.”

Bass said her Inside Safe program, which has moved more than 6,200 homeless people indoors, is one of the reasons Raman saw success in her district. The mayor also criticized Raman’s leadership on the council’s homelessness committee, saying its meetings were repeatedly canceled — including on Wednesday, after Raman failed to show up.

“You have lots of plans and lots of ideas, but have done very little,” Bass said.

Bass and Raman were the top vote-getters in the June 2 primary, with the mayor winning 34% and the council member securing 29%. Reality television star Spencer Pratt failed to make the runoff, coming in third.

The most recent campaign finance reports showed Bass with a big financial lead, taking in more than $510,000. Raman raised just over $170,000 in the same reporting period.

Wednesday’s debate was acrimonious almost from the beginning, with the two interrupting each other throughout the night. At one point, Raman told her opponent: “You’ve got to let me answer, Mayor Bass.”

A few minutes later, Bass shot back: “Wait a minute now, it’s my turn.”

Raman hit Bass early on in the debate, saying the mayor negotiated an expensive package of police raises that the city couldn’t afford. That, in turn, forced city leaders to cut basic services, such as street resurfacing and streetlight repairs, she said.

Even after those raises went into effect, the LAPD has lost officers and has been struggling to fill its Police Academy classes, Raman said.

“Our city’s hiring and personnel programs, which she’s promised to change, have never been changed,” Raman said.

Bass said the LAPD pay raises were needed to keep more officers from leaving for other law enforcement agencies. She argued that Raman had “a lot of nerve” talking about the police hiring after voting against the hiring of 170 officers in January.

“I think that she’s irresponsible in what she talks about, because she talks out of both sides of her mouth,” Bass said.

The two candidates spent much of the night skewering each other over their respective track records.

Bass said Raman had been unresponsive to her constituents, forcing the mayor’s office to step in and work with them when Raman’s office wouldn’t. District residents reached out to the mayor’s office over homelessness in the Sepulveda Basin and problems facing local businesses, Bass said.

“[Your constituents] were very concerned when you decided to run for mayor,” Bass told Raman. “Because their concern was, if you treated them this way … then how on earth were you going to manage the city?”

Raman quickly shot back, saying she hears criticism of Bass from residents across the city who have had to contend with diminished services and deteriorating streets and sidewalks.

“Two-thirds of primary voters said no to this incumbent mayor because they see the evidence in front of their eyes,” Raman said.

Bass and Raman also fielded questions about their judgment, and the consultants that they have worked with.

One of the moderators asked Raman about her campaign’s decision to retain the Fight Agency, a consulting firm that guided the Maine Senate campaign of Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race following a sexual assault allegation, which he denied.

“We wanted to make sure we were hiring good people to make our ads,” Raman said.

The councilmember then called out Bass for working with a communications consultant who was simultaneously advising her and Lineage, the company whose warehouse burned in Boyle Heights in June.

Bass agreed that those overlapping roles were not a good look, saying the consultant stopped advising her once she learned about it.

“If I had known that person was doing that, that person would not have been advising me,” Bass said.

Bass and Raman were political allies at one point, with Raman even endorsing the mayor before launching a campaign to unseat her.

A veteran lawmaker who served 12 years in Congress, Bass has attempted to torpedo Raman’s image as a foe of the status quo, pointing out she’s been on the council for nearly six years. She also criticized Raman’s tenure as the chair of the council’s homelessness committee.

Raman, first elected to council in 2020, countered that she is just one out of 15 council members and lacks the power wielded by Bass. She also contends that Bass failed to act with urgency on the city’s most pressing problems.

The two candidates tangled over the future of single-family neighborhoods and Senate Bill 79, which requires that cities approve taller and denser development near certain public transit stops. An opponent of SB 79, Bass said she does not like Sacramento “telling us what to do” on land use decisions.

Bass argued that the city has shown it is serious about building more homes, particularly affordable housing. Raman, on the other hand, said Bass mishandled the city’s response to SB 79, even as the city failed to produce enough new homes.

“We have a housing shortage that is so extreme that this city is actually pushing out working families every single day,” Raman said.