Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Tony Barboza, with assistance from David Zahniser, Dakota Smith and Rebecca Ellis.
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I recently joined our team of reporters covering Los Angeles city government. And what a moment to begin this new assignment. Los Angeles has been in crisis, struggling to respond to the deadly and destructive fires that have devastated Pacific Palisades and other communities.
When the City Council met Tuesday to begin the recovery and rebuilding process, there was a fast and hard-to-follow fusillade of motions and votes, with more than 20 fire-related actions approved the same day they were introduced.
As an 18-year L.A. Times veteran, I have been to City Hall many times to cover one story or another. But it had been a while since I spent much time in the 1928 Art Deco building, with its echoey hallways, marble-lined interior and stairs time-worn with indentations from decades of footsteps. So its many quirks stood out to me.
Some, like the industrial beige and brown “squawk boxes” in many offices, recall a bygone era, with their analog dials and real-time audio feed from the council chambers. Or the half-consumed bottle of Bacardi Gold rum left inside the drawer of the desk I inherited. Less endearing is the ugly or circus-like behavior from people who yell, sing, curse and hurl crude, racist or misogynist insults at city officials during meetings.
One of the most perplexing and seemingly antiquated features of City Hall got a lot of use Tuesday: a bulletin board where motions are posted for public viewing. This bulletin board, about seven feet high and stationed in the public section of the council chambers, is the only way to…
