Barger on supervisors’ $54.2B final budget approval
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger (R-Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge) joined her Board of Supervisors colleagues yesterday in unanimously approving a $54.2 billion final budget for fiscal year 2026-27, then warned that the county cannot pay for Altadena’s recovery on its own.
The supplemental budget is the county’s final spending plan for the year, adopted each fall after the previous year’s books close. The plan is $3.9 billion larger than the budget the Board adopted in June, driven largely by about $2 billion in unspent money carried over from last year, according to County CEO Joseph Nicchitta.
“Altadena’s recovery is a long-term commitment and this budget shows that the County can’t carry it alone. We have identified more than $2 billion in damaged or destroyed public infrastructure from the Eaton Fire. These are unmet needs, and rebuilding will take resources well beyond what the County can shoulder,” said Barger.
Barger called for the release of existing FEMA funding and long-term federal disaster aid. She said the county’s Disaster Case Management Program carries nearly 1,400 active cases across wildfire-impacted communities, more than 1,000 of them Eaton Fire survivors. About 700 more families sit on a waiting list for help securing housing, resolving insurance disputes and navigating rebuilds.
The budget preserves a 2% cost-of-living adjustment and a $2,000 one-time bonus for county workers. It funds 115,433 positions, 250 fewer than in June, with no layoffs expected, according to City News Service.
In the first full budget cycle for the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing (HSH), the budget includes $4.5 million to clear encampments in high-fire-severity zones and $1.3 million for contract monitoring. Barger said she pushed to create HSH so the county could track every homeless service dollar and outcome.
“My priority remains the same: more treatment beds, more crisis capacity, and getting people with serious mental illness into care, not cycling through our streets and jails,” said Barger.
The full budget is available at ceo.lacounty.gov/budget.
Ex-councilmember Michael Woo joins county’s first Ethics Commission
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday appointed former LA City Councilmember Michael K. Woo to the county’s first independent Ethics Commission. His appointment seats three of the commission’s seven members, clearing the way for them to nominate the remaining four.
Woo was the Governance Reform Task Force’s nominee. He joins Wilma A. Franco, executive director of the Southeast Los Angeles Collaborative, and Amanda Susskind, managing director of the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, whom the Board appointed Sept. 15. Board Chair Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis (D-Downtown LA, East LA, Boyle Heights, El Monte, West Covina, Pomona) nominated Franco, and Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang nominated Susskind.
“This commission could represent a new era of accountable, transparent, and honest government in Los Angeles County, and set a high standard for other California counties,” said Woo.
Woo represented the 13th District, including Hollywood, Silver Lake and Los Feliz, on the LA City Council from 1985 to 1993, and was the first Asian American elected to the council. As chair of the council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Governmental Ethics, he steered the 1990 reform ordinance that created the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. He later served on the City Planning Commission and as dean of Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design, where he is now dean emeritus.
The Task Force picked Woo Sept. 16 from more than 370 eligible applicants after a public recruitment that opened July 6. Its Ethics Ad Hoc Subcommittee interviewed about 20 semifinalists and advanced six finalists to public interviews, and the full Task Force deliberated for six hours.
The commission will enforce county laws on campaign finance, lobbying, conflicts of interest and governmental ethics. It will adopt rules and penalty guidelines, issue formal opinions and decide enforcement cases. A new Office of Ethics Compliance will handle training, investigations, audits and disclosure. The Board also approved job classifications Tuesday for the office and its lead Ethics Compliance Officer.
County voters approved Measure G in November 2024. Besides requiring the Ethics Commission, it creates an elected County Executive in 2028 and expands the Board of Supervisors from five to nine members in 2032.
More information is available at measureg.lacounty.gov.
Hahn urges Newsom to save Catalina deer after court loss
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn (D-Long Beach, San Pedro, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Whittier, Diamond Bar) is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to intervene after a Superior Court judge on Monday dismissed a challenge to the Catalina Island Conservancy’s plan to kill every deer on the island.
A coalition of community groups sued, arguing the project should not be exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). That review would have allowed the public to raise concerns about the plan’s environmental, social and economic impacts. Hahn has long opposed the plan, calling it inhumane and unnecessary.
“This ruling is upsetting. Going through CEQA would mean more voices would be heard – like our Catalina residents for whom the deer are beloved, and our Fire Chief who says killing the deer would increase fire risk on the island. Governor Newsom is our last hope to stop this. I am urging him to intervene, revoke their permit, and save the deer,” said Hahn.
In a January memo, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone warned that the deer eat vegetation that would otherwise become wildfire fuel, and that wiping out the herd could raise fire risk on the island. Hahn also pointed to Santa Rosa Island, where the deer population was eliminated in 2011. It suffered its worst wildfire in May, burning 18,000 acres.
Hahn has pushed for alternatives to total eradication, including a smaller, managed herd. She said former Conservancy leaders told her the island could sustain about 200 deer.
Petitions opposing the plan have drawn more than 160,000 signatures, including from Catalina residents in Hahn’s district.
Rodriguez pushes Newsom to sign pregnancy coverage bill today
Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez (D-San Fernando, Pacoima, Sylmar, Sun Valley, Arleta) is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign her bill making pregnancy a qualifying life event for health insurance, ahead of his deadline today.
Under current law, Californians can generally buy or change a health plan only during open enrollment, unless they have a qualifying life event such as marriage, job loss or the birth of a child. Pregnancy doesn’t count. Assembly Bill 2066, a priority of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, would let pregnant Californians enroll or switch plans when they learn they’re pregnant. Newsom vetoed a similar bill in 2025, according to healthinsurance.org.
“As the father of four, Governor Newsom knows that pregnancy doesn’t happen on an enrollment schedule. Complications don’t happen on an enrollment schedule. Babies don’t wait for bureaucracy,” wrote Rodriguez in a Substack post.
Rodriguez, who gave birth to her daughter earlier this year, wrote that a woman who learns she’s pregnant in March may have to wait until November to sign up for coverage and until January for it to start. By then, she could be in her third trimester or already holding her newborn.
Early prenatal visits catch complications such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes before they become emergencies, Rodriguez wrote. She noted that Black mothers are up to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.
If Newsom signs the bill, California would join Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in treating pregnancy as a qualifying life event.
