NextSharkNextShark.com
Latest Newsletter🍵 Kelly Marie Tran in racism studyRead

Article

Kenneth Mejia makes history as first Asian American elected to citywide office in LA

kenneth mejia
  • Kenneth Mejia, a 32-year-old accountant and leftist community activist, made history as the first Filipino American Los Angeles city controller and the first Asian American to assume citywide office at the midterm elections on Nov. 8.

  • His win also marks the first certified public accountant and the first person of color to hold the city controller’s office in more than a century.

  • Mejia will be operating as the chief accounting officer of Los Angeles overseeing monetary auditing services and financial operations for the city.

  • His campaign platform focused on addressing the housing crisis, expanding alternatives to police response and increasing transparency in climate action.

Asian America Daily - in under 5 minutes

Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories, to your inbox daily, for free!

Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive

Kenneth Mejia has made history as the first Filipino American Los Angeles city controller and the first Asian American to assume citywide office.

Mejia, a 32-year-old accountant and leftist community activist, declared victory over three-term councilmember Paul Koretz at the midterm elections on Nov. 8.

Mejia held a 21-point lead over Koretz and captured 60.92 percent of the votes. His win also marks the first certified public accountant and the first person of color to hold the city controller’s office in more than a century.

“It was always an uphill battle,” Mejia said in a victory speech. “Always thought we were too young, too idealistic… We proved everyone wrong.”

Mejia ran on a progressive platform and used social media such as Twitter and TikTok to inform voters of the city controller’s responsibilities. Replacing current controller Ron Galperin, Mejia will be operating as the chief accounting officer of Los Angeles overseeing monetary auditing services and financial operations for the city.

His campaign platform focused on addressing the housing crisis, auditing the cost of homeless encampment sweeps and helping people experiencing homelessness connect with social services. As a former organizer for the L.A. Tenants Union, Meija worked on holding city departments accountable and decriminalizing homelessness. 

He also vowed to expand alternatives to police response and increase transparency in climate action. Meija wishes to evaluate the progress of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Green New Deal and has proposed an analysis on how much the city spends on oil and gas companies for power.

Mejia believes that the role of the controller can be described as “the city’s accountant and paymaster,” which he said is well-suited to his background as an organizer and a certified public accountant.

 

Featured Image via @kennethmejiaLA (left, right)

Support our Journalism with a Contribution

Many people might not know this, but despite our large and loyal following which we are immensely grateful for, NextShark is still a small bootstrapped startup that runs on no outside funding or loans.

Everything you see today is built on the backs of warriors who have sacrificed opportunities to help give Asians all over the world a bigger voice.

However, we still face many trials and tribulations in our industry, from figuring out the most sustainable business model for independent media companies to facing the current COVID-19 pandemic decimating advertising revenues across the board.

We hope you consider making a contribution so we can continue to provide you with quality content that informs, educates and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way.  Thank you for everyone's support. We love you all and can't appreciate you guys enough.

Support NextShark

Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Discover, Paypal