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Angelenos Turn Out for Public Banking We’re so excited about the turnout for our Los Angeles public banking listening session at Mercado La Paloma. Community members spoke about the barriers they face accessing capital and how a city-owned public bank could help close gaps in affordable housing, small and micro-business lending, infrastructure, and other urgent needs. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado voiced her support for moving a public bank forward as a tool to help alleviate the struggles Angelenos are facing. Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs named the urgency for bold tools to confront economic inequality head-on. Our thanks to team leads for facilitated the evening: Trinity Tran, Patrice Berry, Luz Castro, Gisele Mata, and Larry Fondation.  Thank you to End Poverty in California, Inclusive Action for the City, ACCE Action, United Parents and Students, California Public Banking Alliance, and Public Bank LA team, and...

LA budget season is here, and the Public Bank LA coalition showed up at the UCLA Worker Center Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Los Angeles Controller Kenneth Mejia, and community leaders from BLM, RepresentLA, LA Forward, IDEPSCA, to demand a 2026 City budget that matches the people’s priorities, including immigration services, care-first budget investments, and prioritizing the public bank plan. Inclusive Action for the City and Public Bank Los Angeles Coalition’s Luz Castro put it powerfully: “Investing in a public bank is immigrant justice. With federal attacks on sanctuary cities escalating, a public bank helps protect local resources and put public dollars to work here at home, supporting entrepreneurs with fair loans and financing and investing in community stability, not systems that criminalize and harm our neighbors.”

MEDIA ADVISORY Event Date: Thursday, February 5, 2026, 10:00 A.M. Contact: Naomi Roochnik, cd1comms@lacity.org Councilmember Hernandez, City Controller Mejia, and Advocacy Organizations to Unveil 2026 Budget Priorities LOS ANGELES — As Los Angeles approaches a crucial budget season, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, alongside Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, will join a broad coalition of community groups at the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center to demand a 2026 City budget that reflects the people’s priorities. Following a year of successful advocacy that secured vital funding for the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR), preserved immigration services through RepresentLA, and restored hundreds of city jobs in neighborhood services, the press conference will outline the next push for continued reinvestment in a care-first vision for Los Angeles. Each participating organization will outline its priorities and urge Angelenos to engage...

What an exciting year for LA’s public banking movement. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and grateful for the work of our community supporters and partners who kept pushing, even through a challenging year for our city and nation. From the fires to ICE raids and a volatile federal landscape, we’re so moved by your commitment in the face of adversity and proud to have you standing by our side. Enjoy the latest updates on our recent work and accomplishments. We’ll see you all in the new year! Support for the public bank is growing at Los Angeles City Hall. Nine LA City Councilmembers have now committed their discretionary dollars to fund the Public Bank feasibility study, ensuring this work continues at full speed. Spectrum News covered this milestone in “Momentum Grows as LA Moves to Create Public Bank.” Watch the short excerpt from the segment here. As Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez put it: “Our taxpayer dollars are paying for these projects and at the same time, [could...

Watch the excerpt of the new clip here. Watch the full clip on Spectrum News. Spectrum News captured a major milestone in the movement for an LA public bank: nine Los Angeles City Councilmembers have now committed their own discretionary dollars to fund the Public Bank feasibility study, ensuring this work continues at full speed. As Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez put it, “Our taxpayer dollars are paying for these projects and at the same time, saving hundreds of millions of dollars that we currently pay in interest to Wall Street banks.”Trinity Tran grounds it in the long view: “This bank will start small and will lend conservatively, and it will grow as loans are repaid and interest supports the bank. But that is exactly what the feasibility study will lay out.”