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NICK’S VIEW - Facing criticism over massive city budget deficits, infrastructure failures, housing costs, and homelessness, Karen Bass—the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades forced into a runoff as an incumbent—now confronts progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running as a “an agent of change.”
Bass’s path to re-election depends on a volatile political dynamic now unfolding. The November runoff is becoming a referendum on whether Los Angeles voters prefer her center-left establishment approach or a sharper progressive left turn to address the city’s persistent crises.
Although her administration initially focused on homelessness and accelerating affordable housing, her tenure has increasingly been shaped by fiscal controversies and crisis management failures. As a result, she appears vulnerable, with voters perceiving too little tangible progress on these issues while her opponent enters the runoff with momentum from the progressive left.
Both candidates are Democrats: Bass won 34.3% of the primary vote, while Raman received 29%, just ahead of conservative challenger Spencer Pratt’s 25.5%. Although Pratt’s voters may not align closely with Bass, I judge that they are likely further from Raman’s Democratic Socialists of America-backed platform, giving Bass an opening with voters wary of a sharper leftward shift on policing, business regulation, and city management.
To be sure, Bass’s tenure has exposed a city government under strain. I have written extensively about duplicated work, poor communication and coordination across departments, and unclear lines of responsibility, all of which have delayed projects and increased costs. The Department of Public Works remains outdated, with little corrective action taken. Projects were delayed and not completed due to staffing shortages at key departments, including the Bureau of Engineering, the Bureau of Street Services, and the Department of Transportation.
Financially, LA is operating with shrinking reserves, chronic overspending, and structural budget problems that require correction. Overspending is chronic and not a one-time mistake.
Governance gaps and delayed action have hindered efforts to modernize infrastructure funding and address chronic understaffing and outdated systems, leaving streets, sidewalks, lighting, and basic services in decline. The Bureau of Street Lighting has left neighborhoods dark and unsafe. This week property owners voted against an $80 million increase in an assessment for maintaining streetlights. I have long called for BLS to be brought into the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, eliminating costs and duplicative services.
Los Angeles also risks losing more than $100 million in state Active Transportation Program funding after the California Transportation Commission declined to consider the city’s six-year extension request. The money would have supported sidewalk repairs, bike lanes, and traffic-calming projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row, and Wilmington.
The city`s efforts to complete the projects were delayed by staffing shortages at key departments, including the Bureau of Engineering, the Bureau of Street Services and Department of Transportation. I have repeatedly suggested that these departments must be restructured but neither the mayor nor the council are inclined to stand up to the special interests.
Alas, the mayor only last month announced "LA’s first capital infrastructure program (CIP): A comprehensive plan to build and maintain streets, parks, and other public spaces" to address the crumbling infrastructure.
Raman is campaigning on the argument that “the system isn’t working,” while Bass is responding with data meant to counter broad promises. On homelessness, Bass highlights reductions in street encampments through programs such as Inside Safe. She also points to lower homicide rates and her continued support for LAPD staffing, contrasting that record with Raman’s past votes against some police hiring measures. On housing, Bass argues that cutting bureaucratic red tape has helped accelerate housing production by nearly 40,000 units.
But her homelessness initiative, Inside Safe, is also viewed by some as a temporary fix rather than a lasting solution, with reports indicating that up to 40% of participants eventually returned to the streets. Crime statistics offer little comfort to Angelenos facing daytime break-ins in their neighborhoods.
Without question, the most damaging crisis of her mayoralty came in January 2025 with the catastrophic Palisades Fire, which killed twelve people and destroyed thousands of homes. Bass drew intense criticism for traveling to Ghana for a presidential inauguration as the National Weather Service issued critical red-flag warnings for Santa Ana winds. Critics called the trip a dereliction of duty and noted that state-deployed fire engines sat idle amid an early leadership vacuum.
A year later, investigative reports found that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report had been heavily edited to minimize leadership failures. The controversy escalated when former LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley filed high-profile retaliation and defamation lawsuits against Bass, alleging the mayor shifted blame to protect her political reputation.
Crowley is now suing Mayor Bass personally, alleging defamatory campaign-trail attacks over the deadly Palisades fire and demanding that Bass pay damages from her own pocket. Crowley was blamed for inoperable fire engines and sending home firefighters, part of a broader effort to shift criticism over the city’s disastrous fire response.
Critics argue that Bass’s spending cuts, made to manage a severe budget crisis driven by costly employee contracts, weakened Los Angeles’s emergency readiness. The $17.6 million LAFD reduction became a central complaint, leaving the department under-resourced. During the 2025 fires, a shortage of active mechanics left critical fire engines inoperable when they were needed most. Opponents also framed Bass’s prioritization of municipal employee raises and other initiatives over water-management systems as evidence of administrative mismanagement.
Bass’s handling of the Palisades Fire has had a lasting negative effect on voters’ views of her. When the recent Boyle Heights fire broke out at a cold storage facility, she was en route to Chicago for the dedication of the Barack Obama Presidential Center. Although she quickly returned, visited the scene multiple times, declared a local emergency, held five news conferences, met with local leaders and affected families, and distributed masks and air purifiers, her response did little to satisfy critics.
Bass`s lack of executive experience resulted in appointing staff, general managers and commissioners who had no knowledge and experience of city hall`s workings. She has had three chiefs of staff. Her appointment of the general manager to one of the most important—if not the most important commissions affecting every Angeleno—Janisse Quinones, who wanted to be called CEO, has been a disaster.
At a salary of $750,000 a year—nearly twice as her predecessor—she resigned a few months ago under the cloud of mismanaging the Palisades catastrophe.
Quinones was blamed for the poor handling of the response to the Palisades fires, specifically for leaving the Santa Ynez reservoir empty and not addressing nearly four hundred fire hydrants that needed repair. She called for the shutdown and emptying of the reservoir during brushfire season. She failed to issue "a sole source " $130,000 contract under her authority allowed in case of emergency to repair the reservoir`s cover. The contract was stuck in the city attorney`s office, another Bass` failure to act.
Quinones was more interested in the perks of the office and taking care of her cronies with multimillion sole source contracts than protecting the ratepayers and serving the public. She remodeled her private office at tremendous cost to the ratepayer. The mayor, to her credit, stopped a ludicrous $700,000 private security contract that Quinones had requested and presented to the board for approval.
Customer service has deteriorated badly. In 2018, the Call Center answered 92 percent of customer calls within sixty seconds and reduced abandoned calls by 90 percent. Today, based on my own experience, the response is unacceptable: calls to LA Department of Water and Power are met with a recording citing high call volume and instructing callers to try again later, only for the same message to repeat on numerous subsequent attempts.
Meanwhile, Quinones and her executives were, in my view, protecting their own interests without the knowledge of the mayor’s deputy overseeing DWP or the commissioners. They restructured a successful system through informal arrangements with selected senior executives, bypassing normal standards for transparency, oversight, and public accountability. The costs will continue to mount, leaving ratepayers exposed to hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term obligations.
The Bass administration has had ten LADWP commissioners, on the five-member board, an unusually high turnover that has at times led to meetings being canceled for lack of a quorum.
Bad appointments did not stop at LADWP. And Los Angeles World Airports is another example of a general manager in over his head.
Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer John Ackerman LAX is in turbulence. With the acquiescence of LAWA’s board president, Ackerman attempted to push a proposal to greatly increase his authority and limit the oversight of the Board of Airport Commissioners. It would grant Ackerman the power to create and enforce regulations related to airport property, facilities, and security. Notably, Ackerman would only need to report to the Board twice a year after decisions were made, and his rulings would be difficult to reverse. In other words, it was a charter-level transfer of power without voter consent.
As of a few days ago, the long-awaited Automated People Mover remained delayed. In a June 15 report, the contractor cited LAWA-related impediments, including airport landscaping, approval delays, and conflicts with other projects. Unfortunately, it has negatively impacted World Cup fans who pass through LAX. The contractor projected that passenger service would not begin until at least early October, making the project nearly over three years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget.
Just a few days ago it was announced that Los Angeles officials have reached a tentative Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement with the organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games. Paul Krekorian, executive director for Bass`s Office of Major Events, supported the agreement, but it is a bad agreement. Simply put, the can was kicked down the road to silence some of us who are concerned that the Olympics may lead the city into bankruptcy.
There are many assumptions in the agreement. City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, an appointee of the mayor, acknowledged that the city would be far less likely to recoup all of its security costs if the federal government failed to provide full reimbursement. Many of the details regarding taxpayer services during the Olympics and Paralympics will be addressed next year. defining the services that will be provided at each venue will be finalized by July 2027. And they must agree on the cost of those services by October of 2027.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, World Airports and Port of Los Angeles need to enter into their own service agreements with LA28. We know what that means based on our experience with past City Council actions. Surreptitiously, the council will pass the costs to the proprietary departments.
The hidden risk lies in the contingency fund, which is supposed to cover city costs if federal reimbursement falls short. But the city would receive that money only after LA28 covers its own costs. Meanwhile, the federal government has not proved to be a reliable partner in funding transportation needs for the 2028 Olympics.
It is high time for the mayor to use her bully pulpit and demand from Casey Wasserman and his handpicked board accountability, transparency and honest accounting before the city goes bankrupt.
Raman`s challenge could complicate both Bass` campaign message and her governing narrative. Bass has spent decades building a broad, diverse coalition that spans labor unions, business leaders, African American and Latino advocacy groups. To survive in November, she must mobilize that traditional support and ensure strong turnout among her voters. Raman's younger, highly motivated and energized base could also turn out in significant numbers in the general election.
Over the next few months, Bass must work to maintain her base by addressing criticism openly, explaining how community feedback has shaped her policies, and highlighting progressive wins in tenant protections, mental- health investments, and mobility improvements. She must show voters that she is listening, understanding their concerns, "feel their pain", and responding.
Bass must be honest and forthright, acknowledge past mistakes, show that she has learned from them, and demonstrate growth in this difficult and demanding role.
American scholar John Dewey said "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing"
For voters, the decision may come down to choosing imperfect stability over a change in direction.
(Nick Patsaouras is an electrical engineer, civic leader, and a longtime public advocate. He ran for Mayor in 1993 with a focus on rebuilding L.A. through transportation after the 1992 civil unrest. He has served on major public boards, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Metro, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles. He is the author of the book "The Making of Modern Los Angeles.")
