L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (Photo: https://mayor.lacity.gov/)
LA Democrats Advance Charter Reform to Abolish City Controller’s Office Amid Massive Fraud Scandals
The majority approved language that would replace the elected Controller’s role with an appointed CFO, potentially stripping away independent oversight
By Megan Barth, February 27, 2026 12:33 pm
In a move that has ignited fierce backlash, the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission voted 9-2 on Thursday to advance a proposal that would effectively eliminate the independent City Controller’s office, shifting its core functions—including audits, accounting, payments, revenue forecasting, and fraud investigations—to a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and accountable to the City Council. This reform, framed by supporters as a consolidation of financial operations to address the city’s ongoing budget crisis, comes just weeks after Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office played a pivotal role in exposing a $23 million homelessness funding fraud scheme, leading to the arrest of a Westwood man charged with defrauding taxpayer dollars intended for homeless services.
Mejia, in a video posted to social media on Thursday, expressed shock at the proposal, stating he learned of it only two hours before the commission’s meeting. “Everyone, I am tired of my office being under attack,” Mejia said in the video, which has since garnered widespread attention. “There is a proposal being presented at the Charter Reform Commission that would eliminate our accounting, our payment functions, revenue forecasting, our audits and fraud, waste and abuse [investigations], and essentially give it to the mayor and city council through the creation of a new CFO.” He urged Angelenos to rally in support of alternative reforms that would empower his office, including designating the Controller as the city’s CFO and granting independent budgeting to shield it from political retaliation.
WOAH 🚨 Los Angeles Democrats are bringing legislation to eliminate the office in charge of audits, fraud, waste and abuse
This is the office that has been exposing homeless NGO fraud leading to arrests, now Democrats are eliminating it
Los Angeles Controller Kenneth Mejia “I… pic.twitter.com/OlbekZQ6rH
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 27, 2026
The Charter Reform Commission, tasked with overhauling the city’s governing document amid fiscal strains—including a $1 billion budget deficit that led to 27 position cuts in Mejia’s office last year—has been debating these changes for months. Commissioners Carla Fuentes and Michael Yap opposed the motion, but the majority approved language that would replace the elected Controller’s role with an appointed CFO, potentially stripping away independent oversight. If adopted by the City Council and approved by voters, the reform could centralize financial authority under the mayor, raising concerns about reduced accountability in a city plagued by scandals.
This push arrives against a backdrop of rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in Los Angeles, as extensively covered by the California Globe. In April 2025, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the formation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force to probe misuse of billions in homelessness funds, highlighting Los Angeles County’s disproportionate role in statewide scandals. The Globe reported on specific cases, such as the $23 million fraud involving fake invoices and empty shelters, which Mejia’s audits helped uncover, triggering federal arrests. Broader investigations revealed $3.5 billion in suspected hospice and home-health fraud centered in Los Angeles, as noted by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has amplified these issues, requesting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report in February 2026 to quantify California’s staggering fraud since 2016, estimating billions across sectors like housing and healthcare. Kiley cited a $50 million homelessness scheme in Los Angeles as emblematic of the problem, alongside $370 million diverted from the California Cannabis Tax Fund for non-intended purposes like “social justice” grants unrelated to substance abuse prevention.
The Globe’s coverage of Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has further exposed systemic failures, including $24 billion in homelessness spending from 2019-2024 yielding no measurable results, and $8.6 billion in COVID-era relief fraud.
Vice President JD Vance, leading a federal anti-fraud task force in California, has signaled intensified scrutiny of Los Angeles’ homelessness programs.
As the proposal heads to the City Council, critics argue it undermines the very watchdog mechanisms that have begun to hold officials accountable. Mejia’s office has proposed six counter-reforms via its website, including expanded audit powers over all city tax dollars, to fulfill the Controller’s role as the “people’s watchdog.” The battle over LA’s charter underscores deeper tensions in California’s largest city, where fiscal mismanagement continues to fuel calls for federal intervention.
- LA Democrats Advance Charter Reform to Abolish City Controller’s Office Amid Massive Fraud Scandals - February 27, 2026
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December 22, 2025
Unbelievable? Democrats will do everything they can to cover up their grift and graft? Federal intervention is the only hope to clean up LA and California?
YES, Federal intervention. It’s the only way.
Just when you think these people can’t descend any lower they come up with ANOTHER outrage that outdoes the last outrage.
GAH!
It’s my understanding that, ironically, City Controller Kenneth Mejia is a progressive, championing left-wing causes, so he may have been installed as controller by the Bass “establishment” in the first place, with the idea that he would be sympathetic, as controller, to their waste, abuse, and fraud schemes. But Mejia has actually done a very good job as controller —- which surprised many of us —- and, in addition, has called out much of the money-wasting and fraud, as Megan Barth noted in part above. So when that happens, in the Karen Bass et al mindset, what’s next? Go scorched earth on Kenneth Mejia and eliminate his position entirely, killing two birds with one stone.
OMG, these people…. they’re such crooks, but with smiling faces and nice sky blue suits. (see photo above)
Reporting to BASS???
She couldn’t manage her way out of a paper sack and she’s dumber than a doorstop….
Look at how well she’s managed EVERYTHING about the Palisades fire!!!
No way this lack of independence should be allowed….
Just INCREDIBLE that Bass & the Gang would so nakedly pursue this.
This I-Me-Mine corruption must end. We can no longer tolerate it.
Think of it —- these people think they can just REMOVE the last bastion of accountability.
Scum-sucking bottom-feeders, all of them.
Lock ’em up!
Sounds like tyranny in Los Angeles. LA- stop voting for democrats. The city officials are corrupt turning your city into a dictatorship. You saw democrats would not stand up for Americans Tuesday night. Same in California.
Democrat legislators voted to ban voter ID to make it easier for the Democrats to cheat in elections in the state, and Gov. Gavin Fraud signed it.
Democrats in the LA City Council voted to eliminate the elected City Auditor, so Democrats can more easily commit financial fraud.
I think I am seeing a pattern here.
I was at both this meeting & previous ones before it, hearing commenters talk about it first hand about how popular & essential Controller Mejia’s office is. Most Angelenos do not want to see him go. This is also why I’ve advocated for lowering the voting age to 16 at previous meetings, which the Commission already recommended to the City Council during the charter reform process at last Wednesday’s vote, to also incorporate the voices of young taxpayers to keep city leadership fiscally responsible, as well as to promote other common-sense, fiscally-sound ideas before the Commission, like ranked choice voting.
The only way to make leadership accountable in the future is to expand the electorate, like putting lowering the voting age to 16 on the November ballot & other reforms to make sure more Angelenos are able to hold future leaders accountable in the same way that City Controller Kenneth Mejia is doing. Young people who work, live, learn & pay taxes in L.A. have just as much of a stake in the city’s future as their older counterparts, so they should be enfranchised because lowering the voting age is not only the right thing to do, but it also helps hold leaders fiscally responsible when they mismanage the city’s finances like we’ve seen in recent times.
Now wait just a minute. Who are you, anyway, someone who is pushing for an all-Marxist or Marxist-majority L.A. City Council? You actually make me want to go back and more closely examine Mr. Mejia. Maybe I spoke to soon in my positive comments above and he has ulterior motives. Perhaps, and it’s happened before, he wants to call out the budget stuff because he is looking to save money to be devoted to the left-wing nonsense which is only destructive. It’s certainly not good for the city. City of L.A. actually needs to get away from voting in communists like council members Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez and YES, Karen Bass and the rest of ’em to have anything LIKE a shot at the city’s survival. They are responsible for hollowing out the HUGE budget, devoting the wealth to patronage city jobs and the Homeless Industrial Complex and useless taxpayer-paid non-profits, which have been responsible for killing the city through neglect and theft. Nothing gets done, not even basic city services, but somehow all the money has disappeared. Hmmm…… Sorry, NO:
NO on 16 year olds voting. Seriously? Nice try though.
NO on ranked-choice voting, which is a trick that no one understands and no one can explain but which conveniently results in the WORST candidate winning the job. Usually one that the leftists want because there is inevitably money in it for them. Most of those candidates helped by ranked-choice-voting who win end up being recalled eventually on top of everything else anyway. Mayor Sheng Thao, anyone? D.A. Pamela Price? Disastrous new Mayor of NY Mamdani won through ranked-choice voting too, by the way. The huge mistake of ranked-choice voting is hardly ever publicized, but it should be. Notice how certain people are always trying to sneak it in. It sounds so good but is SO BAD. I sat and watched as my local left-wing wacko school district tried to do it, too, under the radar, but in the end they didn’t get away with it. So obviously it’s important to people whose intentions are not the best. They are certainly not interested in good and sensible governance, despite trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes. More likely wads of cash is what they are after. Good luck.
So having children in the midst of leftist indoctrination in their schools vote in elections makes leadership more accountable? You are living in a fairyland.
Good point, Protect Freedom. And by the way, apart from the indoctrination, just have the nearest teachers union member TELL them how to vote. How they must vote OR ELSE, you might say.
(“Students! Remember to bring your ballots to class tomorrow!”)