The Los Angeles City Council will pay out $177 million in contracts to tenant-rights attorneys who routinely sue the city and groups who rally against the LAPD.

The 12–1 vote came after more than 90 minutes behind closed doors with the City Attorney Tuesday. Councilmember John Lee, the only Independent on council, cast the lone dissenting vote.

Council members said they were briefed on troubling issues tied to former contracts with the same groups, including allegations some failed to submit receipts or basic reports showing how taxpayer money was spent or what the programs actually delivered.

Tenant-rights activists packed the council chambers and hallways prior to the vote, many holding signs and chanting as the vote approached.

Driving the push was Nithya Raman, the left-leaning councilmember and mayoral hopeful who chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and has championed expanding the city’seviction-defense network.

In late February, Raman’s committeeadvanced the plan, setting the stage for one of the largest recent funding packages for eviction-defense legal services in Los Angeles and directing the money to a tight network of politically influential nonprofits.

Those organizations include the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), theLiberty Hill Foundationand the Southern California Housing Rights Center, groups that form the backbone of the city’s Stay Housed L.A. eviction-defense coalition.

The package total of $177 million, is more than the annual budgets of several Los Angeles city departments combined, including Animal Services, the Department on Disability and the administrative offices of Board of Public Works.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA, is expected to receive the largest share of the funding, more than $106 million under the proposed contracts. The organization has played a central role in litigation against the city. LAFLA currently has 12 pending suits sitting in State and Federal courts.

One of its attorneys, Shayla Myers, recently secured a court ruling preventing Los Angeles from towing and dismantlinginoperable RVsused by homeless residents, a decision that frustrated some city officials who argued it limited the city’s ability to address encampments.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos