2026 CANDIDATE SURVEY
Kenneth Mejia
Candidate for Los Angeles City Controller
To help foster greater discussion about reforming City Hall, we asked City of LA candidates to participate in a six question survey. Half of the questions seek general feedback, and the rest are issue specific.
Please note survey responses, candidate information, and website links are provided for informational/educational purposes only. Fair Rep LA is presenting these responses as submitted without edit, evaluation, or commentary. Fair Rep LA does not endorse, support, or oppose candidates or their responses in any way.
Survey Info:
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Answers: Respondents were told that questions could be answered in 1-2 sentences, and that while additional context was welcome, the form had a 1,250 character limit for each question (approximately 200 words).
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Resource Document: Additional background information was provided via a resource document.
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Participation: Surveys were sent to all City of LA candidates qualified to appear on the ballot. This is a very busy time for candidates, so we appreciate everyone who made time to respond. Please avoid reading too much into a candidate’s lack of participation. We respect the limited bandwidth campaigns have, and it's possible that our request(s) may have been lost in their inbox.
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Background: The City of Los Angeles is undergoing the first comprehensive review of our city’s governance structure in 27 years. The Charter Reform Commission recently transmitted a report containing over 60 recommendations to the City Council, who will soon be deciding what will be sent to the November ballot for potential approval by voters.
We most strongly support council expansion, ranked choice voting, two year budgeting, establishing a Capital Infrastructure Program, expanding Council’s authority to make policy for LAPD, and enshrining the Controller’s Fraud, Waste & Abuse unit.
We don’t think it makes sense to make the CAO the CFO. The City needs someone independent of the Mayor and Council who can speak truth to power and directly to the people of LA about our biggest financial challenges. An appointed CFO who can be hired and fired by the Mayor and Council won’t have that independence. On the other hand, an appointed CFO who can’t be hired or fired by the Mayor and Council can’t be held accountable. We believe the people of Los Angeles should be empowered to choose their own CFO when they vote for Controller.
For the Controller’s office:
Give the Controller an independent budget of no less than 0.42% of the City's General Fund
Clarify the Controller's audit authority includes performance audits of ALL City programs that are sourced from or use City tax dollars (including those under elected offices)
Allow the Controller to hire outside counsel when necessary
Require minimum qualifications for the Controller
Designate the Controller as the City's Chief Financial Officer
Outside the Controller’s office, we’d like to see participatory budgeting be formally made a part of the two year budget process.
We support Council expansion to 25 seats. If anything, it should be bigger.
We support ranked choice voting. It’s working in other cities and states like New York, Portland and Alaska by empowering voters to more accurately express their preferences without worrying that they’re making the “wrong” strategic choice.
We support allowing 16 & 17 year olds to vote in municipal and LAUSD elections.