Meet Zach Sokoloff, candidate for City Controller
Zach Sokoloff
Zach Sokoloff is running for City Controller because “The city is broken and so much of that stems from poor management of taxpayer dollars,” he said. A born-and-raised Angeleno who grew up in the Holmby Hills area, married another native Angeleno, and is raising his children here, Sokoloff has a deeply personal relationship with the city. Upon graduating from Yale with a bachelor’s in economics, he returned to Los Angeles to work as a public-school teacher. After several years, he attended Harvard and achieved his juris doctor degree and Master of Business Administration. After working in the private sector, he wants to give back.
Sokoloff feels strongly his opponent, Kenneth Mejia, has not done the job that he was elected to do—manage the city’s finances. Sokoloff pointed out that in Mejia’s term, “The city has spent over $3 billion on homelessness, and the problem is as bad today as when he took office. He has not conducted a single audit on the homelessness issue since 2024. He hasn’t audited any of the homelessness programs that we implement in the city, even though he’s legally required to do so.”
Sokoloff maintains part of the issue is that Mejia has not worked with the City Council or the mayor’s office, which has led the city to hire an outside auditing firm to do the work. Sokoloff also pointed out Mejia has not conducted a single audit of Proposition HHH funds, a bond measure that Angelenos voted for in 2016 to provide $1.6 billion in funding to build housing. The previous controller audited HHH twice. According to Sokoloff, “The prior controller conducted 108 audits in his two terms in office—that’s about 12 a year. The current controller has conducted only 11 audits in four years.” A particular point of contention for Sokoloff is Mejia used his office funds to pay for a personal gym at the City Controller’s office. He believes that shows where Mejias’ priorities lie.
Sokoloff is the only Democrat running in the race as the incumbent is a member of the Green Party. Sokoloff has gained the endorsements of three previous controllers, the Police Protection League, the L.A. County Democratic Party, Sen. Adam Schiff, Representative Ted Lieu, and Attorney General Rob Bonta.
As it relates to homelessness, Sokoloff has grave concerns at how the current programs are being financed and administered. He said the incumbent has, “encouraged profligate spending for homeless housing that is not helping the unhoused get on a path to recovery—the housing is sitting vacant.” Sokoloff mentioned there was a report of over a thousand vacant homeless housing units. He went to a site in South L.A. that was purchased by the city for $5.3 million in 2020. It had been completely vacant for six years, and at the time of his visit, construction had not even started.
Sokoloff does not want Los Angeles residents to be asked to pay more when it feels like they are getting less, such as with the current streetlight assessment.
His concluding statement was, “Ask yourself, are you better off today than you were four years ago? Do you feel like the city’s finances are in better shape today than they were four years ago? Do you feel like the big issues and the small issues are better managed today than they were four years ago? And if you are happy with how your tax dollars are spent, then I’m not your candidate. If you want change; if you want the city to operate better for its residents, then vote Zach Sokoloff for City Controller and send a message to the incumbents that you can’t get away with doing a bad job and be rewarded for that.”
By A.R. Johnstone
Category: News
