L.A. City Council District 4 election voter guide: Raman, Weaver and Baronian

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Four years ago, urban planner Nithya Raman burst onto the political scene, becoming the first challenger to unseat an incumbent on the City Council in 17 years. Raman’s victory over Councilmember David Ryu was hailed as a major coup for the city’s political left, giving new street cred to the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the groups that campaigned for her, and providing renters a powerful new champion at City Hall.

Since then, Raman has become more aligned with the City Hall establishment. She has turned to veteran politicians such as Mayor Karen Bass and former Councilmember Paul Koretz to talk up her bid for a second term, while touting endorsements from seven of the council’s 15 members. Raman also has two challengers — Deputy City Atty. Ethan Weaver and software engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian — who are looking to make her, like Ryu, a one-term council member.

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Who are the candidates?

Nithya Raman

A resident of Silver Lake, Raman got her political start as a community volunteer focused on homelessness, helping to found a nonprofit that delivered food, hygiene kits and other supplies to unhoused residents in her part of Los Angeles. She continued her focus on that issue after taking office, eventually ascending to chair of the council’s homelessness committee, which oversees the city’s response to the crisis. Raman has been campaigning heavily on her work on homelessness, and on her advocacy for new bus and bicycle lanes, government reforms and the delivery of aid to tenants on the brink of eviction.

Raman came to the U.S. as a 6-year-old, when her family relocated from India, making her the only immigrant on the City Council. As she battles for a second term, she has secured endorsements from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and an array of state and local politicians. Her reelection bid is also receiving a boost from Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers, and from its Yes on HLA committee, which is campaigning for a March 5 ballot measure to require the installation of bus and bike lanes on certain corridors.

Ethan Weaver

A resident of Los Feliz, Weaver has spent the last eight years as a deputy city attorney, handling misdemeanor criminal cases such as drunk driving and domestic violence. As a neighborhood prosecutor, he worked with neighborhoods to address nuisance issues such as gang graffiti, illegal dumping and disruptive party houses. On the campaign trail, he has repeatedly warned that the city is heading in the wrong direction on homelessness, housing costs and basic upkeep of infrastructure such as streets and sidewalks. Weaver, who is gay, has also discussed his struggles growing up as the son of religious conservatives.

In his first bid for political office, Weaver has won the endorsement of unions that represent public safety workers, nurses and some construction trades. L.A.’s police and firefighter unions have already begun spending big on his behalf, while some real estate interests have also begun helping out.

Levon “Lev” Baronian

A lifelong Angeleno, Baronian is a computer scientist and software engineer waging his first bid for political office. A former employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he says he is “fed up with career politicians, bureaucrats and special interests.” Baronian, who has lived in Sherman Oaks for nearly 17 years, has criticized city leaders over the lack of cleanliness on local streets and petty crime that he said is “spreading like wildfire.” Baronian is the son of immigrants, both of whom moved to the U.S. from Armenia in the mid-1970s.

Baronian has spent several years on the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, serving first as a representative for residential areas north of the 101 Freeway and west of Van Nuys Boulevard, then more recently as a representative for the business community. He has significantly trailed the other two candidates in fundraising.

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Where is the 4th District?

Locator of L.A. city council districts 4.

The city’s 2021 redistricting process — in which council members drew new maps for each of the council’s 15 districts — sparked an enormous scandal. It also resulted in big changes to Raman’s district, which she initially opposed, saying the new map was the product of an “overtly politicized process.”

The council removed such areas as Hancock Park, Miracle Mile and renter-rich Park La Brea from the district, while adding all or portions of Encino, Studio City and Reseda. The district also includes all or a part of Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Los Feliz and the Hollywood Hills.

Since then, Raman has worked with council President Paul Krekorian to draft a ballot measure to take redistricting away from the city’s elected officials. That proposal is expected to reach voters in November.

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Homelessness

Raman, 42, is running on her record on housing and homelessness, particularly her work winning passage of a wide-ranging package of citywide tenant protections. The city delayed the deadline for repayment of COVID-era rent debt, while enacting new measures to prevent Angelenos from slipping into homelessness, such as relocation fees for tenants facing huge rent increases.

Under the new restrictions, landlords are barred from evicting tenants who have failed to pay less than one month’s “fair market” rent. They also must notify the city when they intend to evict one of their tenants, giving housing advocates and city agencies the opportunity to intervene and provide financial assistance.

Within the district, Raman succeeded in converting the Highland Gardens Hotel into a 143-bed interim homeless housing site and securing funds for hotel vouchers. She’s also worked to move homeless people out of some of the district’s most entrenched encampments, including those that were on Berendo Street just north of Hollywood Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon Avenue underneath the 101 Freeway and residential streets that surround a Studio City park-and-ride lot.

“Because we housed people — we didn’t just push them into another neighborhood, or down the street — those areas have largely stayed clear,” she said. “And when a new tent shows up, we’re able to put our team to work again and get people indoors.”

Weaver, 34, has assailed Raman’s handling of the crisis, noting that citywide homelessness numbers have continued to climb, even as the city spends well over $1 billion on hotel rooms, outreach teams and other services. He has called for the eventual closure of a homeless shelter on Riverside Drive, saying city agencies have failed to keep the surrounding neighborhood clean and safe. He also pointed to locations where tents still remain.

Most notably, Weaver has called for the city to initiate a phased withdrawal from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, calling it a city-county bureaucracy that is “designed to fail.”

“It is not accountable to our City Council. It’s not accountable to our county supervisors. If you talk to any of our council members, they will tell you that they cannot give direct orders to this bureaucracy,” he told an audience in January.

Raman said she is open to the idea of shutting down the Riverside Drive shelter if other locations can be identified. But she argued that pulling out of LAHSA would seriously jeopardize federal funds.

Among the most contentious issues is Los Angeles Municipal Code section 41.18, which bars encampments within 500 feet of schools and day-care centers. Raman voted against those restrictions in 2022 and, over the years, has repeatedly opposed the creation of anti-encampment zones in districts represented by her colleagues. She said such efforts simply push unhoused residents from one location to another.

Raman said her office has moved 500 unhoused people indoors without relying on 41.18.

Weaver and Baronian support the anti-encampment law, saying it has provided an added level of safety for children trying to get to school. Establishing a buffer around schools is the least the city can do to protect students from “the potential of crime,” Baronian said.

“There’s drug use in these encampments. There are often needles and whatnot that are unsafely disposed of around these encampments. Unfortunately, with that comes crime,” he said. “When drugs are being used ... and when drugs are being dealt, there’s the potential for violence.”

Weaver and Baronian also support the part of 41.18 that lets council members create anti-encampment zones around “sensitive” locations, such as libraries or senior centers. Raman voted against those restrictions in 2021.

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LAPD

When she first ran for office four years ago, Raman’s public safety campaign platform called for the Los Angeles Police Department to become a “much smaller, specialized armed force.” On some levels, that change is partially underway. Since she was sworn in, the size of the department has fallen from about 9,800 officers to 8,957 .

Raman said that, while serving on the council, she has been working to shift duties away from the LAPD — for example, by hiring unarmed responders to interact with homeless Angelenos. Those efforts will help ensure the department is focusing on violent crime, she said.

Raman voted last year for Bass’ first annual budget, which called for the LAPD to hire enough officers to restore the ranks to 9,500 officers.

On the bigger question — does the LAPD need more officers or fewer? — Raman said: “I don’t know.”

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told you the last time when I was running, which is: I don’t have a sense of how many officers the city actually needs. I don’t have clarity on how officers are deployed,” she said in an interview. “And while I engage with LAPD all the time ... we don’t have significant operational insight into how they work.”

Weaver, who works closely with the LAPD as a city prosecutor, offered a sharply different assessment, saying the city urgently needs more police. He said a lack of officers has hampered the department’s ability to respond both to serious crimes and to lower-level neighborhood problems, such as out-of-control party houses in the Hollywood Hills.

“When we had 10,000 sworn [officers], we had the capacity to handle quality-of-life issues. Now, LAPD is basically going from emergency call to emergency call, and these issues that affect people in their homes — there’s no one to handle them.”

Baronian took a similar stance, saying the district needs police to respond more promptly to property crimes, particularly burglaries and home-invasion robberies. “I also want to make sure the right people are hired, and that they’re given enough training to understand potentially problematic situations [and can] de-escalate,” he said.

Appearing recently at a campaign event in Griffith Park, Weaver and Baronian criticized Raman for voting against a four-year package of police raises negotiated by the mayor last year. Those pay increases are needed to keep officers from abandoning L.A. and taking jobs elsewhere, the two candidates said.

Baronian, 41, called the raises “reasonable.”

“Because inflation is obviously so high, a 4% to 6% [yearly] increase in pay isn’t really an increase in pay,” he said. “It’s a cost of living adjustment.”

Raman defended her vote against the police raises, saying she warned last summer that the deal was not fiscally responsible and would do little to improve hiring. Since that vote, higher LAPD salary increases helped create a major budget shortfall, endangering other city services, she said.

At the same time, recruitment efforts are still lagging, she said.

“So far, the data has proven me correct,” Raman said.

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City Council expansion

Raman favors an increase in the size of the council, saying it should go from 15 members to at least 25. A bigger council, she said, would increase racial and ethnic representation at City Hall.

“I think 25 meets that minimum threshold for representation, and to me, feels like [L.A.] would have districts that are small enough to govern more effectively,” she said.

Weaver is far more reluctant, saying that expansion, if done the wrong way, will make the city’s problems worse.

“If all we do is multiply the number of City Council members without changing [the city’s] power structure, we’re simply multiplying the objects of corruption,” he said.

Raman said she wants expansion to be accompanied by other reforms, including changes to the way real estate projects are reviewed and approved at City Hall. Those changes, like council expansion, would need to go before voters.

Baronian opposes council expansion, saying the better move would be to give more power to neighborhood councils, which are made up of volunteers and make recommendations to the city’s elected officials.

Neighborhood councils are “mostly just a place to vent,” he said. “If their decisions were binding, it would solve a lot of problems.”

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