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A federal judge approved two people to monitor the city of Los Angeles\u2019 compliance with an agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people after ruling this summer that city officials failed to fully follow through.<\/p>\n
The L.A. City Council still has to vote on accepting as monitors Ron Galperin, a former L.A. city controller, and Daniel Garrie, a founder and managing partner of a law firm that focuses on cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
The pair will be tasked with reviewing city data for its quarterly reports to the court, verifying the numbers, resolving any data issues and providing public reports on data compliance.<\/p>\n
Judge David O. Carter wrote in his June ruling<\/a> that the third-party monitors would ask \u201cthe hard questions on behalf of Angelenos.\u201d<\/p>\n In the ruling<\/a>, Carter found that city officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners that sued the city and county in 2020 for failing to adequately address the local homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n The judge ordered stronger oversight by a third-party monitor, as well as quarterly hearings to oversee compliance with the city\u2019s commitment to create nearly 13,000 new shelter and housing beds.<\/p>\n About the monitors<\/p>\n Galperin is an attorney who was elected L.A. city controller in 2013 and 2017. He created the city\u2019s first open-data portal during his tenure, Control Panel L.A., which detailed the money Los Angeles spent over a decade on services and salaries, according to his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n He was a community advocate before being elected, according to his CalMatters professional profile<\/a>, serving on a neighborhood council and volunteering with the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates to give city officials funding recommendations.<\/p>\n Galperin ran for California state controller in 2022 but didn\u2019t advance to the general election.<\/p>\n Garrie is an attorney with decades of experience in computer forensics and cybersecurity, according to his Law & Forensics LLC co-founder bio page<\/a>.<\/p>\n He served as a mediator, arbitrator and special master at JAMS<\/a> (formerly known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) in hundreds of courts and proceedings across the country. That includes a high-profile class-action lawsuit<\/a> filed against Facebook\u2019s owner, Meta Platforms Inc., that accused the company of sharing users\u2019 personal data without their consent.<\/p>\n Garrie has authored hundreds of legal articles and publications, according to his bio, in addition to teaching cybersecurity law and computer forensics classes at Harvard University.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Mitchell, an attorney for L.A. Alliance, spoke to Garrie and Galperin on Tuesday, after the judge called each of them from the bench and put them on speakerphone.<\/p>\n Mitchell said in the hearing shortly thereafter that they\u2019re \u201cvery comfortable\u201d with them serving as monitors. Mitchell said it\u2019s \u201cimportant\u201d to have someone like Galperin, who is familiar with the city and its budget system, and that Garrie will be able to assist with data and technical issues.<\/p>\n Attorneys representing the city<\/a> told the judge that Galperin was their suggestion, and they did not object to the duo serving as monitors, pending council approval.<\/p>\n Neither Galperin nor Garrie immediately responded to LAist\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n LAHSA recouping millions<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority \u2014 otherwise known as LAHSA \u2014 was ordered to give the court an update on the agency\u2019s efforts to recoup<\/a> about $50.8 million in advances that L.A.-area service providers have not yet paid back.<\/p>\n