Los Angeles mayor’s race: Nithya Raman says voters can ‘pick a different path forward’

LOS ANGELES () — In an interview with Eyewitness News, Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman said voters should consider a new direction for the city as she campaigns for mayor.

For six years, Raman has served as the councilmember for District 4, which encompasses parts of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood Hills and Silver Lake.

“We don’t have to pick our broken status quo, and we don’t have to pick a MAGA Republican,” Raman said. “We can actually pick a different path forward, a path where we actually focus on housing costs, on addressing homelessness.”

WATCH: Extended interview with mayoral candidate Nithya Raman

Raman stunned City Hall when she jumped into the mayor’s race in the final hours before the deadline to enter.

Once a close ally of Mayor Karen Bass, Raman is running a campaign critical of Bass’ leadership.

“In 2023, the mayor signed a new contract with (LAPD) that gave the police union more money than the city even had, which directly led to a significant budget deficit that we had to deal with last year, over a billion dollar budget deficit,” Raman said. “That then resulted in worse public safety outcomes, fewer officers than we had before that we
were paying more money for and 911 call times that increased because we weren’t able to afford 911 call takers.”

“Public safety is one of the most important things for every single family and person living in the city of Los Angeles,” Raman added. “But if we were giving lip service to this idea, instead of actually building out a system of safety that works, then we’re going to get the dysfunctional system that we have in Los Angeles right now.”

Eyewitness News asked Raman whether she feels responsible for some of the failures on homelessness because she chairs the Housing and Homelessness Committee.

“We don’t have real oversight over the hundreds of millions of dollars that this city is spending on homelessness every single year,” Raman said. “That is a travesty. We absolutely need to have that.

“Last year, during the budget process, I was finally able to establish a bureau of homelessness oversight at the housing department that would actually track these dollars, track outcomes and ensure that every single tax dollar that we were paying into homelessness was actually resulting in people moving off the streets and indoors, reducing street homelessness. Instead, this bureau has not been staffed at all. We don’t have a single new staff member assigned to the bureau yet.”

Although Bass’ Inside Safe program has led to an 18% reduction in street homelessness, the homeless crisis remains a top issue for voters, and data shows some helped by Inside Safe returned to the streets.

Raman says although she supports Inside Safe, she says it’s too expensive, which doesn’t make it sustainable long-term for the city.

“As a councilmember, you have some power to shape the city, but the mayor is the chief executive of the city and all of its departments,” Raman said.

“I think the mayor has a significant amount of power. The mayor has to change the city to respond to the people’s needs,” Raman added.

Raman is in a tough race where the top two finishers on June 2 will move on to the runoff in November.

Raman has accused Bass of boosting reality TV star Spencer Pratt because she’d rather face him than her.

“I share Spencer Pratt’s frustration with the direction of the city,” Raman said. “This is not a serious candidate for resolving the very real issues that we have in Los Angeles.”