Follow the vote after polls close<\/p>\n
Insights straight from our newsroom. Our limited-run newsletter Make It Make Sense will unpack the ballot count and results, then check in regularly on the officials voted into office and measures passed by voters.<\/p>\n
Challenges include federal immigration enforcement, homelessness, the city\u2019s readiness for the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Summer Olympics and continuing city budget shortfalls.<\/p>\n
What does a City Council member do?<\/p>\n
Council members have three distinct roles:<\/p>\n
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- Each member curates their district by identifying local problems and opportunities and working with more than 40 city departments to steer needed services to residents and businesses. They may work to bring in non-city resources in the form of county, state, federal or philanthropic grants. They serve as intermediaries between their constituents and City Hall. Members play a vital role in shaping development in their districts.<\/li>\n
- As part of the full-time, 15-member council, they set citywide policy, adopt ordinances, commission studies and provide a counterweight and oversight to the mayor and city departments and bureaus. They adopt an annual city budget ($14 billion in 2025-26) based on a proposal provided by the mayor, divvying up money among the Los Angeles Police Department, homeless services, libraries, parks, sidewalk repair and tree-trimming, among other services. They approve or reject the mayor\u2019s appointments to city commissions and to lead most city departments. They focus on areas such as policing and public safety by leading or serving as members of council committees.<\/li>\n
- Council members often work outside their formal roles through appointment to other governmental boards such as Metro and the Metropolitan Water District and by providing leadership in their communities through assisting charities, schools and civic institutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Fast facts about the City Council:\u00a0<\/p>\n
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- Each City Council member represents about 260,000 Angelenos.<\/li>\n
- Annual salary is $244,727.<\/li>\n
- A term lasts four years. Members may serve a maximum of three terms.<\/li>\n
- City elections are non-partisan.<\/li>\n
- Voters may have a chance to enlarge the council from the current 15 members to 25 members under a charter reform proposal that supporters say will provide better representation. (As a point of comparison, several other major cities have far larger councils. New York has a 51-member City Council. Chicago has a 50-member council.) It\u2019s up to the current council whether to put the question on the Nov. 3 ballot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What it takes to win<\/p>\n
Candidates who win more than 50% of the vote June 2 will be sworn into office in December. If no candidate wins more than 50%, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
The candidates for City Council District 13
\nHugo Soto-Martinez, incumbent<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776213755_183_.png\")
<\/p>\nHugo Soto-Martinez<\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Courtesy Hugo Soto-Martinez<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
Hugo Soto-Martinez defeated incumbent Mitch O\u2019Farrell in 2022 and is now seeking a second term. A son of immigrants, Soto-Martinez went to work at a non-union hotel at age 16 and became involved in labor organizing, eventually working full time for Unite Here Local 11. He became the first union organizer elected to the City Council, capping the city\u2019s remarkable evolution from its often virulently anti-union civic culture to its current labor-dominated politics, in which Unite Here plays a prominent role.<\/p>\n
Soto-Martinez is part of the council contingent affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, whose stances often \u2014 but not always \u2014 square with organized labor.<\/p>\n
The early months of Soto-Martinez\u2019s council tenure were dominated by a continuing controversy over Echo Park Lake that began in his predecessor\u2019s term with attempts to remove homeless encampments and the installation of a chain-link fence. Soto-Martinez\u2019s promise to remove the fence at times became equally contentious, with some in the neighborhood warning that homelessness and drug use would return and others complaining that the fence degraded the park and the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke for hours with one neighbor who wanted to keep the fence,\u201d Soto-Martinez said. \u201cAfter it was gone and the problems didn\u2019t come back, she agreed that it was the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soto-Martinez has made progress in clearing encampments from much of Hollywood, although debate continues over whether the people who had been living on the street have remained in the housing they were moved to.<\/p>\n
Projects in his first term included the remaking of traffic patterns and pedestrian safety in Hollywood by reconfiguring sections of street, reducing traffic lanes and adding bicycle lanes.<\/p>\n
His goals for a second term focus on expanding the availability and affordability of housing in the district.<\/p>\n
More voter resources:<\/b><\/p>\n
Go deeper:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Colter Carlisle, neighborhood council member<\/p>\n
Colter Carlisle grew up in Illinois and Iowa, where he became active in politics, working on campaigns to get Democrats to the polls. He became disenchanted as the party \u201ccollapsed\u201d in the rustbelt because, he says, it was not helping the working class. He moved to Los Angeles and worked in legal sales, matching attorneys and clients. He became vice president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, where he brokered a compromise in a fight over a liquor license for a major restaurant. \u201cEveryone was mad at me,\u201d he said, but the experience pushed him further into local politics.<\/p>\n
Carlisle is Soto-Martinez\u2019s upstairs neighbor in an East Hollywood apartment complex. He opposes Soto-Martinez\u2019s tactics for increasing housing because, he argues, they would result in tenants losing their homes in rent-stabilized apartments that could be torn down to make way for higher-rise buildings with more units and higher rents.<\/p>\n
He also sharply criticizes Soto-Martinez\u2019s changes to traffic patterns on Hollywood Boulevard and elsewhere, which he said make the city more unlivable and undermine the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t shop from the bus; they shop from cars,\u201d he said, arguing that bus and bike lanes will lead fewer people to shop at small businesses lining major streets.<\/p>\n
He cautioned that Los Angeles is likely to face economic uncertainty because of immigration raids.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to stick the landing on the Olympics,\u201d he said, by being ready with infrastructure that will support local business.<\/p>\n
More voter resources:<\/b><\/p>\n
Go deeper:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Dylan Kendall, housing advocate\/mom<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776213756_437_.png\")
<\/p>\nDylan Kendall<\/p>\n
Dylan Kendall spent several years living on a tiny island off the coast of Kenya, then returned to Los Angeles, where she had previously lived in the 1980s and worked at Gaslight\/Opium Den, a Hollywood bar. \u201cIf you had a drink in the \u201890s, I probably served it to you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n