Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman slammed each other Wednesday over their handling of homelessness, public safety and many other issues during the first face-to-face debate of the Nov. 3 election campaign.<\/p>\n
During a series of sharp-edged exchanges before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., Bass said Raman struggled to work collaboratively with her colleagues, treating city business as a series of academic exercises. <\/p>\n
The mayor also accused Raman of missing thousands of votes during her six years in office. Raman countered that many of her absences were the result of her attendance on regional boards and oversight bodies.<\/p>\n
Raman chided Bass over her track record on homelessness, saying she achieved big reductions in her Hollywood Hills district even as the numbers worsened citywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuess what that takes? Work,\u201d she said. \u201cThat takes action. That takes leadership. That takes management. That takes data. That takes oversight. That\u2019s what\u2019s missing in City Hall right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bass said her Inside Safe program, which has moved more than 6,200 homeless people indoors, is one of the reasons Raman saw success in her district. The mayor also criticized Raman\u2019s leadership on the council\u2019s homelessness committee, saying its meetings were repeatedly canceled \u2014 including on Wednesday, after Raman failed to show up.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have lots of plans and lots of ideas, but have done very little,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman were the top vote-getters in the June 2 primary, with the mayor winning 34% and the council member securing 29%. Reality television star Spencer Pratt failed to make the runoff, coming in third.<\/p>\n
The most recent campaign finance reports showed Bass with a big financial lead<\/a>, taking in more than $510,000. Raman raised just over $170,000 in the same reporting period.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s debate was acrimonious almost from the beginning, with the two interrupting each other throughout the night. At one point, Raman told her opponent: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to let me answer, Mayor Bass.\u201d<\/p>\n A few minutes later, Bass shot back: \u201cWait a minute now, it\u2019s my turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman hit Bass early on in the debate, saying the mayor negotiated an expensive package of police raises that the city couldn\u2019t afford. That, in turn, forced city leaders to cut basic services, such as street resurfacing and streetlight repairs, she said.<\/p>\n Even after those raises went into effect, the LAPD has lost officers and has been struggling to fill its Police Academy classes, Raman said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur city\u2019s hiring and personnel programs, which she\u2019s promised to change, have never been changed,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n Bass said the LAPD pay raises were needed to keep more officers from leaving for other law enforcement agencies. She argued that Raman had \u201ca lot of nerve\u201d talking about the police hiring after voting against the hiring of 170 officers in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that she\u2019s irresponsible in what she talks about, because she talks out of both sides of her mouth,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n The two candidates spent much of the night skewering each other over their respective track records.<\/p>\n Bass said Raman had been unresponsive to her constituents, forcing the mayor\u2019s office to step in and work with them when Raman\u2019s office wouldn\u2019t. District residents reached out to the mayor\u2019s office over homelessness in the Sepulveda Basin and problems facing local businesses, Bass said. <\/p>\n \u201c[Your constituents] were very concerned when you decided to run for mayor,\u201d Bass told Raman. \u201cBecause their concern was, if you treated them this way … then how on earth were you going to manage the city?\u201d<\/p>\n Raman quickly shot back, saying she hears criticism of Bass from residents across the city who have had to contend with diminished services and deteriorating streets and sidewalks. <\/p>\n \u201cTwo-thirds of primary voters said no to this incumbent mayor because they see the evidence in front of their eyes,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n Bass and Raman also fielded questions about their judgment, and the consultants that they have worked with.<\/p>\n One of the moderators asked Raman about her campaign\u2019s decision to retain the Fight Agency<\/a>, a consulting firm that guided the Maine Senate campaign of Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race following a sexual assault allegation, which he denied.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to make sure we were hiring good people to make our ads,\u201d Raman said.<\/p>\n