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Los Angeles, CA – During Thursday’s regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the 13-member Board unanimously approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn that instructs the agency, responsible for bus and rail services and major highway and rail transit construction projects across the County, to develop a policy to protect existing trees and plant more trees as it develops its transportation projects.

“Our communities are facing increasing average temperatures, more air pollution, and other serious environmental challenges. A Metro Tree Policy will mean cleaner air, more shade for pedestrians and cyclists and people taking transit, and more walkable, livable, and beautiful neighborhoods,” said Supervisor Hahn, who serves as member of the Metro Board.

Trees provide multiple far-reaching benefits, cooling streets by between two and four degrees Fahrenheit and improving air quality and reducing stormwater runoff.

“Neighborhoods that lack green infrastructure are more often lower-income and communities of color, with higher transit ridership,” added Supervisor Hahn. “Those communities stand to benefit the most from this policy. I’m thankful to my colleagues for their support and look forward to delivering cleaner, healthier air for the residents of LA County.”

The motion instructs Metro to present a plan by August 2022 for the Board’s approval. The motion was co-authored by LA County Supervisors Solis and Mitchell, and Metro Board Directors Dutra, Bonin, and Krekorian.

South Whittier, CA – On Thursday evening, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn was recognized with the 2022 Cesar E. Chavez Spirit Award for her continued commitment to the movement for workers’ rights. Hahn received the award during the fourth annual Cesar E. Chavez Remembrance Event and Community Service Project, held at Liberty Community Plaza in South Whittier. Paul Chavez, son of the labor leader for whom the event and award are named, gave the event’s keynote address and presented the award.
“Cesar is a towering figure in the history of California, and an icon of the movement to demand dignity for all workers,” said Supervisor Hahn. “To be recognized by his family with this award is such an honor for me.”

Following the presentation of the 2022 Cesar E. Chavez Spirit Award, Supervisor Hahn presented Paul Chavez with an official commendation in recognition of his own work as president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation.

The Cesar E. Chavez Remembrance Event and Community Service Project is an annual event founded by local activist and Mrs. South Whittier, Margie Rodriguez. The event was attended by elected officials from across Southeast Los Angeles County, community leaders, and students from California, La Serna, Whittier, and Pioneer High Schools. The event concluded with a video presentation of projects completed by area students centered on the theme of social justice.

“It’s clear that his message continues to hold a lot of power for the next generations of leaders in our communities,” added Supervisor Hahn.

Los Angeles, CA — Supervisor Hahn wants LA Metro to be prepared for the possibility that LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva follows through with his threat to end his department’s contract with the transit agency and pull his deputies from buses and trains in July.

“We can’t take the Sheriff’s threat lightly,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who serves on the Metro Board of Directors. “If he chooses to pull his deputies from our trains and buses, we need to be prepared and have other law enforcement agencies ready to step in. At the end of the day, we are responsible for the safety of our riders.”

Today, the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors Operations Committee unanimously approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, and Inglewood Mayor James Butts directing the Chief Executive Officer to report back to the Metro Board in May on how Metro can modify its existing contracts with the LAPD and Long Beach Police Department to ensure continuity of service and continued law enforcement services coverage throughout the Metro Bus and Rail Transit System should the Sheriff chose to end his department’s contract at the end of June.  The motion will go in front of the full Metro Board of Directors next week.

Background:

In 2017, Metro adopted a multi-agency approach for its law enforcement contract, with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and Long Beach Police Department. This multi-agency contract has brought about increased presence of law enforcement on the Metro Bus and Rail System as the three law enforcement agencies patrol and provide services in their respective jurisdictions.

In December 2021, the Metro Board of Directors voted to increase the law enforcement contract by $75.2 million and to extend it by 12 months, from June 2022 to June 2023. While the Board authorized an extension, the three law enforcement agencies must also each agree to the extension in order to continue these services on the Metro Bus and Rail Transit System through June of 2023. The 12-month extension allows Metro staff additional time to procure a new law enforcement contract. Further, the Board has authorized additional funding to supplement the law enforcement contract with initiatives that include transit ambassadors, customer experience improvements, mental health outreach, and resources for people experiencing homelessness on the system.

On April 13th, the Los Angeles Sheriff held a press conference, followed by a submission of a formal letter to the agency, stating that he will not extend the existing five-year contract beyond its original June 30, 2022 expiration date, if Metro continues to also contract with LAPD and LBPD. If the Sheriff opts to decline the opportunity offered to him by the Board to extend LASD’s contract with Metro through June 30, 2023, he will leave a void in law enforcement services on the Metro system.

Los Angeles, CA — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has released the following statement about LA County’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 Recommended Budget which was advanced today by the Board of Supervisors:

“A government budget is a moral document that outlines our values and priorities. Today, our board advanced a $38.5 billion budget that invests in everything from our infrastructure to public safety, to the health and well-being of our residents.

I am particularly proud that this budget includes funding to keep our public pools open through September, to bring mobile healthcare clinics to underserved communities, to expand the Therapeutic Transport Program so we can send mental health professionals directly to people in crisis, to hold additional academy classes to recruit new deputies to fill vacancies in the Sheriff’s Department, and to launch the County’s first department dedicated to supporting older adults and residents with disabilities.

Our residents deserve the best services we can provide, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues and the CEO to fulfill our responsibility to the ten million people who call Los Angeles County home.”

Los Angeles, CA — This afternoon, friends, colleagues, and loved ones of the late Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge gathered at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a ceremony unveiling a plaque dedicated to LaBonge at the Coliseum’s Court of Honor.

“Tom was a cheerleader for Los Angeles,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who served alongside LaBonge on the LA City Council and nominated him to the Court of Honor. “He loved everything about this city. It is fitting that generations to come will walk around the legends of the Court of Honor, see this plaque, and learn about the one and only Mr. Los Angeles.”

Councilman Tom LaBonge, who passed away in January 2021, was a longtime supporter of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He attended Coliseum Commission meetings long after he retired from the City Council and raised funds for other Court of Honor honorees. He even worked as an NFL sideline photographer at several games at the Coliseum.

The ceremony featured Supervisor Janice Hahn, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission President George Pla, former Raiders players Mike Haynes and Shelby Jordan, and LaBonge’s wife Brigid LaBonge.

In her closing remarks, Brigid LaBonge told the crowd, “I ask you to go forward in joy and happiness and go do something Tom would do – whatever it is you think Tom would do.”

Los Angeles, CA – Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis that will provide assistance to small businesses for the implementation of the Single-Use Plastic Ordinance in the County’s unincorporated areas. The Ordinance, which was also approved today, will require that all disposable food service ware such as containers, cups, dishes, and utensils provided with ready-to-eat food or food trays be either compostable or recyclable.

The assistance motion, authored by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, directs County offices and agencies to provide small businesses with education and outreach in multiple languages, information about suppliers of compliant food ware items, and to study the feasibility of providing financial support to small business during their transition. It aims to help put small businesses in unincorporated areas of the County on a seamless path toward compliance once the Single-Use Plastics Ordinance goes into full effect in May of 2023.

“I believe this move away from single-use plastics is important, but it will only be successful if our businesses, especially our small businesses, have the support they need to implement it,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “Our small businesses are economic and cultural assets to our communities. I want to ensure that they have all the tools they need to make this transition away from plastic pollution. This should not be a burden for them.”

Unincorporated communities are home to more than one million residents, making the Single-Use Plastic Ordinance a consequential step in the fight against environmental degradation. Plastics make up a significant amount of the 30 million pounds of waste generated in LA County, and, when broken down, can enter human food systems. Preventing plastic pollution will require collaboration across the public and private sectors, an effort that Supervisors Hahn and Solis’s motion facilitates.

“Our communities are counting on us, now more than ever, to realize the goals of the OurCounty Sustainability Plan,” shared Supervisor Solis. “It is a Plan centered around equity and environmental justice and to that end, is critical that we deliver on its multifaceted approach. The adoption of the Reduction of Waste from Single-Use Articles & Expanded Polystyrene Products ordinance is a tremendous opportunity to reduce plastic service wear and the negative impacts of fossil fuels throughout the unincorporated communities of Los Angeles County.”

“This motion shows that the Board heard and responded to the needs of small businesses. Together, we will make the transition away from plastics as easy as possible,” said Gary Gero, LA County’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Gero’s office is one of the primary County bodies tasked with carrying out the provisions of the motion.

“Small businesses are key to keeping our neighborhoods vibrant, and they’ll now be key to our more sustainable future. This motion helps set them up to continue playing a vital role for LA County,” added Supervisor Hahn.

Los Angeles, CA — Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, led by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, voted unanimously to establish environmental justice and climate health as official Board Priorities for the County of Los Angeles. They also voted to create an Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health within the Department of Public Health.

The move is part of Supervisor Hahn’s effort to change LA County’s approach to environmental justice and health hazards from a reactive one to a proactive one.

“This Board has demonstrated its dedication to environmental justice and climate health, but our approach has been reactive and too often after a situation reaches a crisis level,” said Supervisor Hahn, who authored the motion approved today. “We need to change our approach, bake environmental justice and climate health into our work Countywide, and be proactive about preventing the burdens of industry from impacting our most vulnerable communities.”

With today’s action, the Board will rename and revise the current Board Directed Priority of “Environmental Health Monitoring and Oversight” to “Environmental Justice and Climate Health.” The Board also directed the Department of Public Health to report back in 120 days with a plan to create an Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health, a plan to consult with local environmental organizations, a comprehensive set of policy areas that could be pursued to reduce public health disparities in communities overburdened by pollution exposure and poor air quality, and identification of data that could be used to better understand environmental conditions.

“In wake of environmental threats the County has faced in the past decade and the evolving threat of climate change, I am elated to partner with Supervisor Hahn in setting the stage for a newly created Office of Environmental Justice within our Department of Public Health to safeguard public health,” shared Supervisor Solis, who co-authored the motion. “As the Board continues to prioritize environmental and climate health, it is critical that we take bold steps in our actions to proactively mitigate and respond decisively to acts of environmental injustice.”

Supervisor Hahn represents many communities in Los Angeles County which have been overburdened by pollution, including the communities surrounding the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the City of Paramount which has had to deal with the prevalence of excessive levels of hexavalent chromium resulting from metal forging, the City of Walnut Park where the EPA is investigating contamination from Central Metals, cities along the I-710 freeway impacted by the pollution generated by truck traffic, and many communities impacted by the contamination from the Exide battery plant.