Councilmember Nithya Raman, left, and City Controller Kenneth Mejia. (Photo by Matt Hamilton/L.A. Material)
INSIDE L.A. CITY HALL, City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Councilmember Nithya Raman are perhaps the two public officials least likely to be invited to sit with their elected colleagues at lunch.
Mejia has blasted Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council for trimming his budget, undermining his ability to audit city spending and foiling efforts to establish independent funding for his office.
For her part, Raman tore up political alliances by jumping into the mayor’s race at the last minute, finishing second and forcing Bass into a runoff in November — all without a single peer on the City Council stepping up to endorse her. But Raman and Mejia’s sometimes tense relationships inside 200 N. Spring Street are also part of their appeal to voters, with both branding themselves as outsider mavericks who are unafraid to upset the proverbial apple cart.
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