Kenneth Mejia

[laughs] So we'll see.

DSA just endorsed Ramin, and Kenneth Mejia endorsed Ramin.

So I think people, in theory, will now be more vocally supportive of her, even if she wasn't their first choice.

And also, like DSA can canvas on her behalf now.

Um, but you know, recently, I would say may- maybe, like, a few weeks ago, Nith- Nithya Raman, who's running for mayor, she came to my house.

We had a private meeting with her, Kenneth Mejia, Victoria and Jonathan, the founders of the rescue, and it was a 90-minute meeting.

And I, I said this to her, is that I respect that she came, because I was very, very outspoken with my frustration that in all her years in city council, she never once stepped foot in an animal shelter.

So she has a lot more work to do to, uh, get the vote of animal lovers.

So if I had to pick a winner, Rahman, I think, did what she had to do.

All right, we want to go out now to Robert Kovacic, who's standing by in our courtyard with Kenneth Mejia, the L.A. city controller, with more on this.

And, Robert, we know Mejia is a supporter of Councilmember Rahman.

You think? Do you obviously think she won the debate, but what was it, in your opinion, that maybe delivered a knockout punch for the Rahman campaign?

They believe in, uh, opening up the, the US-Mexico border, just opening it up.

Your biggest sup- supporter at City Hall is Kenneth Mejia, the city controller, who campaigned on defunding police, and you sent out a text a few years ago, "Defund police."

What does it say when everything that Conan said is 100% true and she's leading in the polls? [laughs]

I- again, the problem is not the electeds.

He got his LADWP bill.

and it was more than thirty three hundred dollars i happen to see this video that he posted on social media but now he's getting more media attention and the attention of la city controller kenneth mejia and micah joins us on the phone now mike i opened my ladwp bill for my 1 000 studio loft apartments 1 000 square foot studio loft apartment and it was almost 700 i almost fainted was it really

oh

yeah

But this is a lot.

You're getting attention from L.A. City Hall.

What is controller Kenneth Mejia saying about your specific issue?

um i i don't know exactly what he's saying i thought he made a tick tock video about it that he's uh you know he's heard that people are upset and he's he's looking into it but i don't know what actions he has started to take it

And when when they're not,

Well, and is it also, too, not just having a mayor that will leverage what the city has correctly? Like, Kenneth Mejia and his office being used to the full extent that they can be with all of the budgeting.

Because I think that's a huge part of where Karen Bass has gone wrong as mayor, is her just complete, like... failure to manage the budget correctly, letting the LAPD's budget get inflated beyond pale and everything else being cut.

And we have this incredible city controller who is one of the only people that people actually like.

David? Kelly, you mentioned that nobody wants to defund the police.

I'm worried that the police is defunding us.

This is a graphic from Kenneth Mejia, our city controller, that shows the 2026 fiscal year discretionary budget.

We basically spent half of our discretionary budget on police.