The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved a request from the City Controller's Office for legal services to represent them in a battle with a nonprofit homeless service provider.
City officials did not disclose a breakdown of the vote, only that the council approved Controller Kenneth Mejia's request for outside legal services to represent the office against Urban Alchemy, which sued Mejia's office over his power to subpoena non-financial information.
Earlier this year, Mejia began an investigation into Urban Alchemy, a vendor contracted with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to run climate stations -- where Skid Row Residents can receive services and relief from harsh winter and summer weather. The investigation was prompted after an Urban Alchemy employee sprayed water at a homeless person on a cold winter night, an act that was caught on video and shared on social media.
In response to that incident, which occurred Jan. 18, Urban Alchemy issued a statement on X saying the "action being taken here is unacceptable, and completely antithetical to our training and values. The practitioner involved in this incident no longer works at Urban Alchemy."
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The controller's office said its investigation is aimed at ensuring that services funded by the city are within the contractual assurances made by Urban Alchemy, and the values of the people of Los Angeles. However, the service provider has refused on several occasions to provide information requested by Mejia's office.
"The controller seeks to expand the scope of his authority under the charter beyond all reasonable bounds in a politically motivated attempt to avoid an ongoing disagreement between the controller's office and other elected officials and to harass a private entity merely by virtue of the entity's independent subcontractor relationship with another contractor of the city of Los Angeles, who maintains a contract with the mayor of Los Angeles," Eduardo Santacana, a lawyer representing Urban Alchemy, wrote in the complaint.
Mejia says the City Charter gives his office the authority to inspect city-paid services from vendors.
"It is the controller's duty to ensure that the services paid for by taxpayers abide by relevant contracts and to inspect the quality of services paid for by the city," according to a statement from Mejia's office.
According to the controller's office, however, the city attorney has indicated it will not adequately defend Mejia's subpoena in court. Mejia hoped to obtain outside legal services to represent his office in court before a June 7 deadline.
"The city attorney intends to argue a position averse to the City Charter, is refusing to properly defend the controller's subpoena, and is blocking the controller's efforts to hold Urban Alchemy accountable," according to a statement from Mejia's office.
On June 3, a representative for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto's office told City News Service via email that "consistent with our office policy, we don't comment on pending litigation."
According to court documents submitted by Feldstein Soto's office, the city "believes and asserts that the subpoena is a lawful exercise of the city's rights to obtain the documents at issue." However, the document in part shows that city lawyers agree Mejia is citing inappropriately a section of the City Charter for the basis of the subpoena.
Nonetheless, the court documents noted that Mejia's subpoena is "valid" and the city is "entitled to the documents requested."
Urban Alchemy has said that it is committed to transparency with its city partners.
"The investigation Controller Mejia launched into our organization over a viral video a few months ago was cynical and politically motivated, and his office's handling of it amounted to an abuse of his power," the nonprofit wrote Wednesday afternoon on X.
"Nonprofit organizations working to serve Angelenos don't deserve to be targeted by powerful elected officials based on personal biases. That's why we contested his subpoena in court," the group added. "While some have characterized this as an attempt to evade oversight, in fact, we took this action (to) ensure more oversight and accountability for everyone involved."
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