Austin Beutner Assails Mayor Karen Bass Over City’s Rising Income

Los Angeles Mayor Austin Beutner took aim at the growing number of basic city services Thursday, saying Mayor Karen Bass and her administration have contributed to the creation of affordable ‘crushed families.’

Beutner, seen outside Van Nuys City Hall, pointed to a recent decision by the City Council to raise trash collection fees to about $56 a month, up from $24.33 for three- and four-unit apartment buildings.

Since Bass took office in December 2022, the city also has sewer costs, which are on track to double over a four-year period. In addition, said Boutner, the Department of Water and Energy has increased the cost of water and electricity services by 52% and 19%, respectively.

“I’m talking about the cost of living problem that is crushing families,” he said. “LA is a very special place, but every day it gets smaller.”

He also, speaking in front of a group of journalists, would not commit to bringing back any increase in those. Instead, he urged the bass to call a special session of the city council to explain the decisions that led to the increase.

“Tell me the cost of those decisions, and then there will be an informed discussion about whether it was a good way or whether it was a good thing or a bad decision – even if I made the same decision,” said Beituutner, who served as the senior Deputy Mayor.

When the City Council adopted sewer rates last year, sewer officials argued the increase was necessary to cover increased construction and labor costs — and the replacement of aging pipes.

The sewerage executive has also hit out at the garbage fee package, saying rates have not increased in 17 years. They argued that the city’s budget has been subsidizing the cost of residential trash pickup for customers in single-family homes and small homes.

Doug Herman, a spokesman for the Bass Reefection Campaign, defended the increase in trash and sewer fees, saying both have been excessive for a long time. Bass took action, he said, because previous city leaders failed to make the tough decisions needed to balance the budget and fix the sewer lines.

“No one was willing to face the music and ask for a rating to do the job,” he said.

DWP spokeswoman Michelle Figueroa admitted that electricity rates had risen. However, he said in an email, DWP’s local rates remain lower than other utilities, including California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Focusing on the cost of living concerns, Beutner’s campaign has been emphasizing the issue in the family of the next week of Mayor of New York City. In that contest, state assembly member Zohran Mamdani promised to lower consumer costs, in part by reinstating room rents, tightening rents and making city buses free.

Since announcing his candidacy this month, Boutner has offered several live policy costs, without saying that he supports it “in theory”. Instead, the majority ignores several increases in the increase, including recent trips to parking lots.

Beutner contends that the City’s various increases will add more than $1,200 a year to the average family’s Customer Bill with the Department of Water and Energy, which includes the cost of not only utilities but also sewer and sewerage.

Herman pushed back on that estimate, saying it was based on “flawed assumptions,” including a fee that works on the part of ratepayers.

In a new campaign video, Beutner warned that city leaders are also planning to get more than what property owners pay for street light inspections. He also accused the DWP of relying on “remedial measures” to increase customers paying for water and electricity, instead of walking.

The DWP needed to be more transparent about those increases and why they were needed, Booutner said.