![\"Councilmember](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778052383_741_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off Tuesday in a freewheeling 90-minute slugfest, digging at each other over homelessness, police hiring and other major issues. <\/p>\n
The event, hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., began politely enough, with the two candidates exchanging niceties and Raman saying she had \u201cincredible respect\u201d for the mayor.<\/p>\n
But the gloves came off quickly.<\/p>\n
Raman said she ran for office out of frustration with the city\u2019s lack of progress on an array of issues \u2014 homelessness, housing production and the city\u2019s continuing financial woes, among others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Councilmember Nithya Raman, right, and Mayor Karen Bass were generally viewed as allies until February.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel an urgency and a vision to change and address those issues that I don\u2019t feel is reflected in our leadership right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bass pushed back hard at Raman, pointing out that the council member had been at City Hall two years longer than the mayor. She also noted that Raman served until recently in council leadership and spent three years in charge of the powerful committee charged with homelessness and housing issues. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor you to act as if you\u2019re brand new, or you\u2019ve been on the outside for almost six years, is not accurate,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Raman said she is just one out of 15 council members and lacks the power that Bass wields.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor is in charge of the departments. The mayor is the leader of the city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman were generally viewed as allies 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 a tough reelection fight. Raman, in turn, was a Bass supporter two years earlier, when she faced real estate developer Rick Caruso.<\/p>\n
![\"Karen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778052384_464_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Mayor Karen Bass, left, and Councilmember Nithya Raman trade barbs in front of an audience in Sherman Oaks.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Raman and Bass will square off again Wednesday, during a televised debate from the Skirball Cultural Center hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52 starting at 5 pm. That event will feature another major candidate: reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who has labeled both Bass and Raman as part of the status quo.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s forum was watched by hundreds of people, both in person and on streaming. Raman repeatedly used the event to argue that the mayor\u2019s Inside Safe program, which has moved thousands of people into hotels and motels, is too expensive.<\/p>\n
Bass said she is working to move to a less costly approach. But she also pointed out that Raman relied on Inside Safe in her district, which stretches from Silver Lake to Reseda. <\/p>\n
The first Inside Safe operation, carried out a week after Bass took office, was staged in Hollywood in Raman\u2019s district. Last summer, the program cleared a \u201chorrific\u201d encampment next to the 405 Freeway, Bass said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have pushed us around Inside Safe and insisted that Inside Safe come to your district,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778052385_926_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The forum was hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Raman said it was her responsibility to lobby for more encampment operations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we should be doing,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a council member, your role is to be a squeaky wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raman said she would, if elected mayor, cut street homelessness in half by the 2028 Olympic Games and remove every encampment from the city by the end of a four-year term.<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman also debated the merits of a city law that prohibits homeless encampments near schools, day-care centers and \u201csensitive\u201d locations, such as libraries and freeway overpasses.<\/p>\n
Raman has voted against dozens of no-camping zones sought by her colleagues in other parts of the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t understand your position around encampments,\u201d Bass told Raman. \u201cYou vote over and over again to take tools away from people trying to remove encampments, especially near schools. It is completely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raman said she still opposes the law, arguing that it simply pushes encampments down the block. But she said that as mayor, she would not oppose council members\u2019 efforts to use that law in their own districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to stand in the way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bass and Raman also butted heads over the four-year package of police raises negotiated by the mayor and approved by the council in 2023. Raman voted against the police contract and has campaigned against it since launching her mayoral bid.<\/p>\n
Raman told the audience there is a direct connection between the police raises and last year\u2019s $1-billion budget shortfall, which nearly resulted in layoffs of more than a thousand city workers. The pay increases also did not stop the reduction in police staffing, Raman said.<\/p>\n
The raises \u201cdid not get us the public safety results that we wanted,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The LAPD has lost more than 1,300 officers since 2020, the year Raman took office. Bass said the pay increases were needed to keep officers from leaving for other jobs, causing the department to shrink even more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be able to compete,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The crowd was largely pro-Bass, cheering on the mayor and at times booing Raman. The two candidates frequently interrupted each other, talking over each other\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778052386_222_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
An attendee reacts during the candidate forum.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Bass has led nearly every public opinion poll<\/a> in the race, with Pratt and Raman trading places for second and third position. Even so, support for Bass has been tepid and many voters view her unfavorably<\/a>.<\/p>\n The top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary will advance to a Nov. 3 runoff unless a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, in which case they would win the election outright.<\/p>\n The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. didn\u2019t invite Pratt or two other candidates, tech entrepreneur Adam Miller and community organizer Rae Huang. Miller and Huang have trailed behind Bass, Pratt and Raman in public opinion polls.<\/p>\n The group said its goal was to bring two leaders who represent Sherman Oaks \u2014 Bass as mayor and Raman on the council \u2014 for a robust conversation. That couldn\u2019t be achieved if every candidate was present, organizers said.<\/p>\n The two candidates also traded barbs about Raman\u2019s late entry into the race, and the fact that the two were at one point political allies. Raman, who endorsed Bass\u2019 mayoral bid weeks before declaring her own candidacy, acknowledged they had teamed up on some initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve worked together,\u201d Raman said. \u201cI\u2019m just frustrated now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off Tuesday in a freewheeling 90-minute slugfest,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":776761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[6297,1582,276,14732,2451,174984,6279,39990,2576,7265,1918,2961,224,5337,12176,1812,3546,49208,249145,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-776760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bass","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-candidate","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-councilmember","14":"tag-district","15":"tag-encampment","16":"tag-event","17":"tag-homelessness","18":"tag-issue","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-mayor","23":"tag-office","24":"tag-people","25":"tag-pratt","26":"tag-raman","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116526449151547584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}