Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Council Member Nithya Raman faced off Tuesday in a 90-minute slugfest, battling homelessness, policing and other big issues.
The event, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., started modestly enough, with the two candidates exchanging pleasantries and Raman saying he has “a tremendous amount of respect” for the mayor.
But the gloves came off quickly.
Raman said he ran for office out of frustration with the city's lack of progress on a number of issues — homelessness, housing construction and the city's ongoing financial problems, among others.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman, right, and Mayor Karen Bass are often seen as running mates until February.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
“I feel urgent and I have the idea to change and face these problems that I feel are not visible in our leadership right now,” he said.
Bass pushed back hard at Raman, pointing out that the council member has been more than the mayor for two years. He also pointed out that Raman has been in charge until recently in the leadership of the council and spent three years in charge of a powerful committee that deals with the problems of homelessness and housing.
“Acting like you're new, even if you've been out for six years, it's not true,” said Bass.
Raman said that he is only one of the 15 members of the council and does not have the power of Bass.
“The mayor is in charge of the departments. The mayor is the leader of the city,” he said.
Bass and Raman were generally considered partners until February, when Raman jumped into the race at the last minute. Bass had campaigned for Raman in 2024, when the council member was facing an uphill battle for re-election. Raman, too, had been Bass's backer two years earlier, when he was against real estate developer Rick Caruso.
Mayor Karen Bass, left, and Council Member Nithya Raman trade in front of an audience at Sherman Oaks.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Raman and Bass will perform again on Wednesday, during a televised debate from the Skirball Cultural Center hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52 beginning at 5 p.m. That event will feature another major candidate: reality television host Spencer Pratt, who labeled both Bass and Raman as part of the status quo.
Tuesday's forum was watched by hundreds of people, in person and on radio. Raman has repeatedly used the event to argue that the mayor's Inside Safe program, which has taken thousands of people into hotels and motels, is too expensive.
Bass said he is working to move to a less expensive method. But he also pointed out that Raman relies on Inside Safe in his district, which stretches from Silver Lake to Reseda.
The first show of Inside Safe, made a week after Bass took over, was played in Hollywood in Raman's district. Last summer, the program removed a “terrible” encampment near the 405 freeway, Bass said.
“He pushed us into Inside Safe and insisted that Inside Safe come to your district,” Bass said.
The forum was hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Raman said it is his job to lobby for more stop works.
“That's exactly what we should be doing,” he said. “As a member of the council, your role is to be a cog.”
Raman said, if elected mayor, he would cut street homelessness in half by the 2028 Olympic Games and remove all encampments from the city by the end of four years.
Bass and Raman also debated the merits of the city's ordinance prohibiting parking of homeless people near schools, daycare centers and “sensitive” areas, such as libraries and freeway overpasses.
Raman voted for a number of non-camping sites sought by his colleagues in other parts of the city.
“I just don't understand your stance on the campsites,” Bass told Raman. “You vote repeatedly to remove tools from people who are trying to remove camps, especially near schools. It's totally unacceptable.”
Raman said that he still opposes the law, saying that it is simply pushing camps into the area. But he said that as mayor he will not oppose the efforts of council members to apply that law in their districts.
“I will not stand in the way,” he said.
Bass and Raman also butted heads over a four-year police proposal negotiated by the mayor and approved by the council through 2023. Raman voted against the police contract and has campaigned against it since launching his mayoral bid.
Raman told the audience that there is a direct connection between the police increase and last year's budget deficit, which almost led to the layoff of more than 1,000 city employees. The salary increase also did not stop the decline in police personnel, Raman said.
The lift “didn't get us the public safety results we wanted,” he added.
The LAPD has lost more than 1,300 officers since 2020, the year Raman took office. Bass said that it is necessary to increase the salaries so that the police officers do not go to other jobs, which has caused the department to decrease significantly.
“We have to be able to compete,” he said.
The crowd cheered for Bass, cheered for the mayor and sometimes booed Raman. The two candidates were always interrupting each other, talking about each other's speeches.
The attendee reacts during the candidate's pitch.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Bass led nearly every public opinion poll in the race, with Pratt and Raman trading second and third. Still, support for Bass has been strained and many voters view him negatively.
The top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary will advance to the Nov. 3 unless the candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, in which case they will win the election outright.
Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. he didn't invite Pratt or two other candidates, tech entrepreneur Adam Miller and community organizer Rae Huang. Miller and Huang trailed behind Bass, Pratt and Raman in public opinion polls.
The group said its goal was to bring the two leaders who represent Sherman Oaks — Bass as mayor and Raman on the council — together for a robust discussion. That would not be possible if every candidate was present, said the organizers.
The two candidates also traded on Raman's late entry into the race, and the fact that the two were once political friends. Raman, who approved Bass' bid for mayor just weeks after he announced his candidacy, acknowledged that they have collaborated on other projects.
“We worked together,” said Raman. “I'm just frustrated right now.”
