Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia is seeking sweeping reforms to strengthen the independence and authority of his office, including the power to audit programs run by other elected officials without needing their approval. In an August 2025 letter to the city’s Charter Reform Commission, Mejia outlined six proposed amendments to the City Charter that he says are necessary to safeguard transparency, accountability, and fiscal stability in a city facing chronic budget shortfalls and widespread distrust of City Hall.
The proposals include giving the Controller an independent budget, designating the office as the City’s Chief Financial Officer, requiring minimum professional qualifications for the role, clarifying audit authority over all city programs, granting the Controller the ability to hire outside legal counsel, and formally enshrining the office’s fraud, waste, and abuse unit into the City Charter. Without stronger independence, Mejia contends, the city’s chief watchdog will remain constrained by political interference and underfunding.
In his letter, Mejia argued that Los Angeles’ decentralized financial system leaves “no singular entity in charge of the City’s financial health,” producing a cycle of deficits that are “inevitable and our current reality.” He described a city “in crisis,” struggling with crumbling infrastructure, understaffed services, and multi-year budget gaps made worse by local mismanagement. Mejia said his office’s mission is to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, but that it lacks the resources and authority to do so.
Since the 2008 recession, the Controller’s Office has seen its authorized staff fall from 185 to just 142. Twenty-seven positions were cut in the latest budget, even as the office remains responsible for oversight of more than $35 billion in annual spending across 40 departments. Mejia said that the cuts have led to delays in payments, payroll errors, and backlogs in investigations into fraud and waste. His proposal calls for a guaranteed funding floor, modeled after similar reforms in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, where oversight agencies receive a fixed percentage of the city budget. “In times of financial crisis, better oversight over our tax dollars is more critical than ever,” Mejia wrote.
A major part of Mejia’s plan would make the Controller the city’s official Chief Financial Officer, a role that currently does not exist in Los Angeles. He said the Controller already performs most CFO functions including accounting, financial analysis, revenue forecasting, and internal controls, and that centralizing fiscal oversight could help end years of fragmented management. “There’s no one steering the ship of the city financially,” Mejia told LAist. “We’d be the ones who would be responsible.” The designation, he said, would not diminish the mayor’s or council’s budgetary powers but would bring long-term strategic direction to city finances.
Mejia also urged the commission to clarify that the Controller’s authority extends to auditing programs housed under elected offices. That change follows his clash with Mayor Karen Bass over auditing Inside Safe, the city’s flagship homelessness initiative. Bass refused to allow Mejia’s office to conduct a performance audit, prompting U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to order an outside review that cost taxpayers $2.8 million and found serious flaws in the city’s ability to track spending. “The City Attorney’s interpretation of the Charter has created an oversight loophole,” Mejia wrote, “allowing elected officials to situate programs in their offices to ensure they are not subject to scrutiny by the elected taxpayer watchdog”.
Other reforms would allow the Controller to hire outside legal counsel when the City Attorney’s dual role as advisor and audit subject poses conflicts of interest, and would elevate the office’s fraud, waste, and abuse unit to a permanent Charter-protected function. Created in 2005, the unit investigates hundreds of whistleblower complaints each year but is currently vulnerable to political or budgetary changes.
The Charter Reform Commission, established last year to review potential structural changes to city government, is weighing Mejia’s recommendations along with others aimed at ethics, elections, and the balance of power among city offices. Commission chair Raymond Meza said the 1999 Charter drafters intended to give the Controller broad auditing authority and suggested the commission could move to make that intent explicit.
Mejia’s reforms also have historical resonance amid ongoing corruption scandals that have shaken public confidence. Former Councilmember José Huizar is serving a 13-year sentence for bribery and racketeering, and others have faced federal probes over “pay-to-play” schemes. The 13-member commission, whose members were appointed by Mayor Bass, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and Council President Pro Tempore Bob Blumenfield, is expected to send its recommendations to the City Council in early 2026. If approved, voters could decide whether to adopt Mejia’s reforms in the November 2026 election.