A Larchmont business district, a $287,626 legal settlement, and LAX food workers

Primary source: Watch the official City Council recording from the beginning. The video is the best source. This newsletter is an editorial report based on the meeting transcript and agenda, not an official record. Quotes from automatic captions are lightly cleaned for readability and should be checked against the video.

The short version

The council advanced a Larchmont business-district change and approved a $287,626 legal settlement, while public comment was dominated by LAX catering workers describing harsh conditions and a resident facing a utility shutoff.

A business district near Larchmont, and a settlement

Only two items on the agenda were open to public comment, and a councilmember said so plainly at the start: "the items that are open for public comment are items six and seven."

Item six was a first-step ordinance modifying the Larchmont Village Property-Based Business Improvement District, in Council District 13. Business improvement districts let property owners in an area tax themselves to pay for extra services like cleaning and security. The council voted 10 ayes, and the matter was "held over to Friday, May 15th, 2026 for second consideration" before it can take effect.

Item seven was a legal settlement. The council moved to approve the recommendation rather than retreat into closed session, and a councilmember read it aloud: in the case "Greg Achille et al. vs. City of Los Angeles," a recommendation "to expend up to $287,626.44 in settlement." Councilmember Traci Park seconded the motion, and it passed 10 ayes. Watch the item

LAX food workers ask the city to act

The most pointed testimony came from workers at Flying Food Group, a catering company that packages meals for passengers flying out of LAX. One speaker said she had worked there a year and a half and that she and her coworkers "had banded together" and "formed this commission of workers" to talk about what she called "horrible" conditions and harassment. Watch the comment

Another speaker said he had been a dishwasher there for two and a half years and described the workers as "the invisible backbone of air travel." He pointed to a recent report concluding the company "violates the human rights" of workers who feed LAX passengers, and asked the council to hold the company accountable. The comments drew applause from the room.

For Angelenos, this is a reminder that LAX runs on the labor of thousands of low-wage workers, and that the people serving travelers are using the council's open mic to press their case.

A resident facing a utility shutoff

A public commenter used his minute to describe a personal crisis with the Department of Water and Power. He said his services had been turned off and that the way DWP handles its arrears program for people on public assistance or with disabilities is "absolutely ridiculous." Watch the comment

He said he had offered to pay "200 bucks a month" but that the utility would not work with him, and warned he could end up back on the street. "You guys are supposed to be trying to end homelessness," he told the council. It is the kind of comment that connects an abstract policy, utility billing, to whether one resident keeps a roof over his head.

What else was on the agenda

Several items had already cleared committee and were teed up for final action without drawing public comment. They included an Energy and Environment Committee report on using Bureau of Sanitation vehicles to map and spot bulky-item dumping, a status report on federal clean-energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, and the results of the 2025 WorkSource Center operator selection for program year 2026-27.

Two items grew out of the region's fire recovery: an Ad Hoc Committee for LA Recovery report on the city's Red Flag Warning protocols, and a measure to rescind brush-clearance non-compliance notices sent to owners of damaged or destroyed properties in the Pacific Palisades. Both speak to how the city is still cleaning up the rules around last year's fires.