Endorsement: The Times' recommendation for Los Angeles City Council District 6

Endorsement: Imelda Padilla for Los Angeles City Council District 6

A woman seated in an official-looking chamber.

Jan. 8, 2024 5 AM PT

Imelda Padilla joined the Los Angeles City Council not quite six months ago, after winning a special election to replace former council President Nury Martinez, who resigned midterm in October 2022 after she was heard on a leaked audio making racist comments.

Now the council member is running for a full, four-year term to represent her San Fernando Valley district, which includes Van Nuys, Lake Balboa, Panorama City, Arleta and Sun Valley. Voters in District 6 should feel comfortable supporting her again, even though she has had hardly enough time to do more than hire staff and learn the many things one needs to know as a representative of the nation’s second-largest city.

Padilla’s pragmatic, district-centered agenda and experience working with the community are what made her the best candidate on the June 27 ballot, and they remain the reason she’s the best candidate on the March 5 primary ballot.

What makes Padilla stand out is her long history of involvement with community issues, beginning when she was a teenager serving on the L.A. City Youth Council. She has worked in a variety of community engagement and outreach roles for Pacoima Beautiful, the Los Angeles County Women and Girls Initiative, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and she served on the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council. As a result, she has a wide range of support among community and business organizations, elected officials, labor unions and regular Angelenos.

And, so far, Padilla has done the things she said she would do in her last campaign. She has been quickly learning about the issues facing the city and her district, such as neighborhood concerns about Van Nuys Airport, a debate over bike path improvements at Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area and the challenges of addressing homelessness.

She has, as promised, focused on bread-and-butter constituent services in a district that has been historically shortchanged by City Hall: specifically, cleaning up trash and graffiti, working to connect homeless services to the people living in RVs that line many of the industrial streets in her district and maintaining Sheldon Skate Park.

It’s too soon to assess Padilla’s policy efforts. The majority of the motions she’s made concern district issues. But that’s to be expected. This is a big job, and no one becomes an expert after six months. We do hope that she will develop the independence to fight for her constituents’ needs and interests and not become a rubber stamp for City Hall leadership.

There are two other people competing for this seat: Ely De La Cruz Ayao, a real estate broker, and Carmenlina Minasova, a respiratory care practitioner. Neither has demonstrated the skills or the experience for the job.

Padilla is the only real choice for L.A. City Council District 6, and a good one.