Many of our City Council Members & Mayor have been in office since 2013. Homelessness has nearly DOUBLED to 40,000+ in the City of LA under their watch. They mention it's a systemic issue re: housing, healthcare, & racism. We wonder who's in charge of & maintaining the system? 🤔 What has been their solution to solving homelessnes?

- Criminalizing homelessness via 41.18 (it doesn't solve anything except push people down a block or 2. It cites or even arrests people for not moving)

- Let 18 months of 100% FEMA reimbursable funds for hotels go to waste

NEW RESOURCE! 🔍

We're proud to launch a first-of-its-kind City of LA payroll app! This database is broken down by dept & employee and is easy to use. We hope this empowers city workers to demand to be paid fairly and in accordance with their colleagues.
payroll.mejiaforcontroller.com As you browse through this payroll app, you may notice glaring inequities in pay. It's unacceptable that women City employees earn 76 cents for every $1 a man makes. This problem is compounded when the data is broken down by race.
payroll.mejiaforcontroller.com

🚨Campaign Finance Transparency Alert 🚨
It’s illegal for lobbyists to donate to candidates in LA, but did you know that they can still host fundraisers?

That’s the loophole my opponent Paul Koretz and five of his lobbyist friends used. Let’s follow the $, shall we? You might not recognize these names, but people in City Hall do, because all five hosts are registered lobbyists, meaning they’re “paid to influence a City action on behalf of another person.”

Who’s paying for that influence? Oil companies, vaping companies, and more.

The LA City Budget & Finance Committee released 259 recommendations to the City's $11.8B FY2022-23 budget YESTERDAY and gave the public and other City Council Members LESS than 24 hours to review those recommendations and give comment on it.

Ridiculous. The outright disregard for making documents accessible in a timely manner and easy-to-understand is one of the MANY reasons why we're running to hold the City accountable.

For important items like the BUDGET, there should ample time for Council Members and the PUBLIC to review.

.@MayorOfLA's FY22-23 HOMELESSNESS BUDGET: $1,163,077,204 🏠

HIGHLIGHTS:
• $71M for Encampment Sweeps
• $8M for LAPD
• $32M for LAHSA
• $415M for Prop HHH PSH
• $130M for Homekey PSH
• $255M for Homekey Rnd 2

@heidimarstonLA, Exec Director of @LAHomeless, resigned today. We are coming for those in power who fail to address the root causes of homelessness and helping our unhoused neighbors get the housing and services that they need.

As City Controller, we will also provide detailed itemized spending so people can match the budget with actuals.

TONIGHT is a BIG fundraising deadline! 🔥

Koretz & the establishment are attacking us because of the work WE'VE BEEN DOING these past 1.5 years - providing financial transparency, accountability, & resources!

Can 165 people donate $25 by 11:59pm? $200K! mejiaforcontroller.com/donate/ WOW! We needed 165 people to donate $25, now we only need 120 supporters to chip in $25! 💚

$3,000 left to go friends till we hit $200,000 raised for our grassroots campaign! <1 hour left!

Can anyone chip in $25! Can you also ask your followers too? mejiaforcontroller.com/donate/

Here on the Westside with Erin Darling (@WestsideDarling) for LA City Council District 11 and Kenneth Mejia for LA City Controller!

If you are TIRED of the status quo not working for ALL Angelenos, vote for Erin and Kenneth! Let's shake up City Hall, Los Angeles! 🔥 First house we canvassed wanted a yard sign and is supporting Kenneth and Erin!!! 💚

You know WHY it's important to have a CPA as City Controller, the city's accountant & auditor? 🤔

Here's a great story from today while reviewing the City of LA's new FY2022-23 budget. I noticed that the numbers were off in the "Unrestricted Revenue" section. So I did a thing.🔎 Here was the issue in the "Unrestricted Revenue" section🔎:

• The FY2021-22 numbers in the new budget didn't match the FY2021-22 numbers in the previous budget (the city used FY2020-21 by accident)

(The 1st image is from the new budget. The 2nd image is the previous budget)

BREAKING NEWS! 🚨 @MayorOfLA released his City of LA FY2022-23 budget! Here are some highlights so far:

INCREASES
• LAPD's budget +$125M to $3.2B
• Homelessness +$361M to $1.2B

DECREASES
• Housing -$34M to $214M
• Transportation -$14M to $329M
• Recs & Parks -$96M to $377M @MayorOfLA @BLMLA @stoplapdspying @PplsCityCouncil @StreetWatchLA @LACANetwork @WP4BL @NOlympicsLA @streetsforall @DSA_LosAngeles @SunriseMvmtLA Please follow this Tweet thread that will discuss all City of LA budget news. We'll break down these thousands of pages!

FY2022-23 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS 💰

• Total City Budget: $11,765,134,959

• General Fund makes up: $7,460,954,839
• Special/Other Funds make up $4,304,180,120

In October, we broke the news about LAPD officers living in places as far away as Florida and New Jersey.

We also found out that only 6% of LAPD officers live in the City of LA. (thanks to @DotKohlhaas)

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1513593771715297282

In response to our campaign publicizing our surprising findings about LAPD living outside of LA, Joe Buscaino introduced a motion to encourage LAPD hiring and recruitment of City of LA residents.

https://twitter.com/filmthepolicela/status/1469127781413916673

CITY OF LA FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY 🔎💰

The City of LA collected $137M in cannabis business tax receipts this past fiscal year. We're estimated to collect $133M this fiscal year. 🌳

Did you know that close to 40% of cannabis business tax receipts go to the LAPD? 🚔 That's because business taxes go to the General Fund and the General Fund funds close to 40% of LAPD's total budget. The General Fund also pays for police & other city lawsuits as well. 💰

If you live in LA, there is a ballot initiative collecting 65k signatures regarding this.

CITY OF LA FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY 🚨

The City received $639,450,464 from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) in 2021. We did a CPRA of the Controller's office & found out that $317.4M or 50% of our ARP funds were spent on "general government services (LAPD's payroll expenditures)" 🚔 What's odd is that the Controller's office detailed "How ARP funds are helping the City" (COVID-19 recovery, homelessness, justice & equitable neighborhood investments, & itemized details of preserving city services). However, NOTHING on LAPD expenditures.
lacontroller.org/data-stories-a…

The City of LA contracted with a vendor for $2 MILLION to create a database of affordable housing units located in the City of LA - INCLUDING those in mixed-income buildings. Still no idea the status of that website.

We filed a CPRA and did it for FREE.
…ordablehousing.mejiaforcontroller.com Our campaign did what the city failed to do in 2 weeks and for free.

If the city is ever thinking about doing a database of any kind and wants to pay a vendor hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions, just send us a DM and we can probably do it.

We're doing the job already.

WE QUALIFED TO GET ON THE BALLOT FOR LOS ANGELES CITY CONTROLLER! 🥳

We are the FIRST and ONLY 2022 local campaign in Los Angeles so far to qualify for the June 7 ballot WITHOUT paying to get on the ballot! We collected 1,767 signatures in 2 weeks and needed 1,000 valid! 💚 THANK YOU to our amazing team for collecting signatures and to all LA voters for signing our petition. YOU did this! Next stop, Victory!

Please donate in CELEBRATION! 🤗

Our biggest NEED is funding as we wait till matching funds kick in! 97 days! 🙏🏼 Mejiaforcontroller.com/donate

TRANSPARENCY 🚨

Here are the TOP 10 INDIVIDUAL DONORS who gave the most money so far in the 2022 LA local elections. 💰

The Ethics Committee handles transparency of campaign contributions but the data they present may not be that accessible or easy to understand.

(THREAD🧵) The #1 or TOP Donor is Thomas Safran - Owner of Thomas Safran & Associates.

"Thomas Safran & Associates has developed over 6,000 units of luxury, affordable and mixed-use rental housing in Southern California"

tsahousing.com

BREAKING:
@MayorOfLA's proposed budget has just been released.

In FY 2021-2022, Mayor Garcetti has proposed an increase to LAPD over this year's current budget with a total of $3,078,227,589.

Other agencies have also seen slight increases. Today, we will be breaking down the budget for you all. Transparency is key & part of our platform for City Controller is to make financial information accessible & easy to understand. If you support our work, please join us & donate to help us win! ✊🏼

mejiaforcontroller.com

.@MayorOfLA said he is presenting the city budget to City Council tonight. He said it is the biggest budget yet. Also that "you are its co-authors and co-owners."

Did he ask you for input on the budget? 🤔

@BLMLA-led People's Budget LA has a survey! peoplesbudgetla.com/survey

https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1384299443097276425

On small businesses, @MayorOfLA proposes:
-an ordinance to cut 90% of time to secure alcohol approval
-$8,000 of expiring fees for 3 years
-"let’s make al fresco dining permanent!"
-$25 mil in "come back" checks for $5,000 to 5,000 businesses

Hi friends, here is what I did to find out the fiscal year 2020 LAPD settlement payouts. (Mind you this is what, I also use Excel as my data tool).

1st go to the City Controller's Control Panel website linked below, then scroll down & click on Checkbook.

lacontroller.org/controlpanel-l… 2nd scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Checkbook and click on "View the Raw Data"

Guess how much WE paid in LAPD legal settlements in FY2020? 🚔

$30,412,523! 💰

- Largest payout was $6.7M related to sexual harassment by an LAPD Sergeant. What happened to the Sgt? He was transferred to another group (Internal Affairs) which investigates police misconduct. 🤦🏾‍♂️ - 2nd largest payout was $6M related to an LAPD officer who locked up someone for 17 YEARS & withheld crucial evidence which proved that person was the wrong person all along. 🤦🏾‍♂️

- 3rd largest payout was $3.75M related to LAPD repeatedly tasing a Marine veteran to death. 🤦🏾‍♂️

After speaking w/ street & transportation activists like @jessica_meaney, @bikinginla, @bikethevote, @streetsforall I was curious on how much the City of LA paid in FY2020 in legal settlements under account names "Public Works, Transportation, & Street Services".🚶🏾

$38,152,421💰 The largest payout in FY2020 was $4M when a resident & her vehicle plunged into a sinkhole on Laurel Canyon Blvd.

Other notable payouts include:

-$3.2M for a trip-and-fall accident when someone accidentally stepped into a pothole during the rain causing his ankle to dislocate

TODAY'S UPDATE ON THE STOCK MARKET. Read/Retweet.

It's Robinhood AND billionaire hedge funds vs the MILLIONS of ordinary folx like you who invested in GameStop, AMC, Blackberry. Over 13M+ use the trading app Robinhood. Today Robinhood restricted trading for GME, AMC, BB, +. 😡 This caused the stock price of many of these already shorted stocks to drop in price SIGNIFICANTLY. Why? Because the millions of people taking on Wall Street CANNOT buy into these stocks. GME went from $400 to $120. Guess what happened? 🤔