By Los Angeles County Politics
Editor’s Note: All figures in this story are the latest LACP had at post time and are subject to change. Readers who want the latest tallies for LA County races are encouraged to visit results.lavote.gov. By law, LA County must certify final results by Dec. 3.
Nearly two years after the January 2025 fires, voters across LA County were asked to pay for public safety, and in Pasadena, the result is coming down to a few hundred votes.
Pasadena’s Measure PFD had 65.45% of the vote, or 26,635 yes votes to 14,059 no votes, according to the latest county results. That’s a clear majority, but as a special tax, PFD needs two-thirds approval to pass. At the current count, it is 495 yes votes short, down from 521 a day earlier.
PFD would levy 19 cents per square foot of improved property for 14 years, raising about $22.1 million a year for the Pasadena Fire Department, next door to Altadena and the Eaton Fire. City staff estimated a median-size home of 1,600 square feet would pay about $304 a year, Pasadena Now reported. Low-income seniors would be exempt.
The money would pay for firefighter, paramedic and 911 services, wildfire prevention and brush clearance, new equipment and communications systems, earthquake retrofits or rebuilding of Fire Stations 33 and 37, and a new fire station and training center. City staff warned that Pasadena’s general fund can’t meet its long-term emergency and wildfire needs. The Pasadena firefighters union and Supervisor Kathryn Barger endorsed the measure.
In Rancho Palos Verdes, Measure RS was passing easily, 74.64% to 25.36%, or 10,417 votes to 3,539. RS needs only a simple majority. According to the ballot language, it funds wildfire and natural disaster preparedness, road and storm drain maintenance, and sinkhole prevention, as the city contends with the Portuguese Bend landslide.
Next door, Palos Verdes Estates‘ Measure PVE, a special tax for police services and pension costs that also needs two-thirds, was clearing the bar by a hair: 67.20%, or 3,855 votes to 1,882, just 30 votes above the line.
LACP reported in October that the measure would replace the city’s expiring Measure E.
Elsewhere, voters backed public safety and city services taxes by wide margins in Paramount (78.55%) and South Pasadena (79.17%), where both measures needed two-thirds, and in Lynwood (81.46%), Monterey Park (76.74%), Culver City (74.19%), San Marino (71.19%), Hawaiian Gardens (63.54%) and San Gabriel (58.93%).
But voters were rejecting Diamond Bar‘s Measure Q for sheriff and emergency services (45.42%), Hermosa Beach‘s half-cent sales tax (43.48%) and South Gate‘s fiscal emergency measure for streets, youth programs and parks (31.36%).
In the city of Los Angeles, voters were backing Measure FD, a half-cent sales tax for the Fire Department, 53.68%.
Santa Monica backs renters, rejects school tax
In Santa Monica, voters were siding with renters while turning down a new tax for schools.
Measure ES, a $495 annual parcel tax for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified schools, was failing, 47.08% to 52.92%. Placed on the ballot by citizen petition, it needed only a simple majority. It would have raised about $12 million a year to replace the money the city now pays the school district under an agreement that expires in June 2027. With the city’s existing school parcel tax, many owners would have paid more than $1,000 a year in parcel taxes, LAist reported.
The loss stands out in a city whose voters approved seven tax measures in the previous two elections.
Three renter measures were passing. Measure RR, barring evictions for unpaid rent unless the debt exceeds about one month’s fair market rent, led 70.71%. Measure VV, extending just-cause eviction protections to renters of houses and condos, led 61.64%. Measure GG, a package of changes to the city’s rent control rules, led 58.78%. Measure TT, keeping existing hotel tax rates while letting the City Council temporarily adjust them during major events, was passing 72.85%.
Around the county
- Alhambra: Voters affirmed the City Council’s ban on data centers with Measure DB, 82.17%, as cities from Hawthorne to the county itself weigh limits on the power-hungry facilities.
- Bell Gardens: Voters were rejecting Measure W, which would allow the city to sell its municipal water system, by 74.99% to 25.01%.
- Burbank: Voters were rejecting Measure CD, which would switch the city to district council elections, 77.61% to 22.39%, while approving Measure C for city services, 78.43%.
- Inglewood: Measure AT, changing the city’s admissions tax on large venues such as SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome, was narrowly failing, 49.24% to 50.76%.
- Hawthorne: Measure O, raising the city’s hotel tax from 12% to 17%, was passing, 56.98%.
- Monterey Park: Voters were overwhelmingly approving Measure HOM, creating housing overlay zones, 85.67%.
- Palmdale: Measure DE, creating an at-large elected mayor, was passing, 74.28%.
- Term limits: Huntington Park voters were approving a lifetime limit of two terms for council members, 75.45%, and South El Monte voters were backing their own term limits measure, 87.50%.
- Cudahy: Measure H, protecting the city’s rent stabilization rules, was passing, 83.93%.
- Rosemead: Voters were approving Measure RC to become a charter city, 71.32%.
- Compton Mayor Race: Mayor Emma Sharif led challenger Andre Spicer, 64.88% to 35.12%.
- Photo finishes: In Artesia, Melissa Ramoso and Rene J. Trevino were tied for first place with exactly 1,815 votes each in a race for three council seats. Diamond Bar‘s 4th District race was separated by 15 votes, Carson‘s 4th District by 59 and Santa Clarita‘s 2nd District by 142. In Malibu, Danny Smith led Marianne Riggins by 37 votes for the second of two council seats.
