LOS ANGELES – Two Los Angeles City Council members are seeking answers regarding a legal battle between a nonprofit homeless service provider and the controller’s office over the controller’s power to subpoena non- financial information.
Council members Tim McOsker and Eunisses Hernandez introduced a motion Friday calling on the city attorney and controller to provide a verbal report to the Personnel, Audits and Hiring Committee on the status of the lawsuit involving Urban Alchemy. According to McOsker’s office, the PAH committee is expected to hear from those officials as soon as Tuesday.
Earlier this year, City Controller Kenneth Mejia began an investigation into Urban Alchemy, a vendor that receives city dollars to run climate stations — where Skid Row residents can receive services and relief from harsh winter and summer weather. The investigation began 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.”
The controller’s office said its investigation is aimed at ensuring that services funded by the city are in keeping with the contractual assurances made by Urban Alchemy, and the values of the people of L.A. However, the service provider has refused on several occasions to provide information requested by Mejia’s office.
Mejia issued a subpoena in March to force Urban Alchemy to produce the requested records, and in response Urban Alchemy sued the controller to fight the subpoena in court.
In Urban Alchemy’s complaint, the service provider states Mejia’s subpoena for non-financial information about the organization is beyond the scope of his powers.
“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 E. 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 said he hopes the City Council will approve free counsel 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.
The City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
