The City Council Tuesday formally called for an investigation into alleged fraud and other misconduct by signature gatherers supporting and opposing a referendum on the recently approved $30-pre-hour-minimum wage for airport and hotel workers.
The City Council voted 12-2 to advance a motion introduced in June by members Hugo Soto-Martinez and Curren Price. Elected officials directed top personnel to report on the estimated loss in wages for such workers if the minimum wage increase were to take effect one year later rather than this month.
Council members Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla voted against the matter, while Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky was absent during the vote.
Additionally, the city attorney will identify potential recourse the city can take if signature gatherers lied to Los Angeles voters. Elected officials also directed the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate allegations of fraud and other misconduct related to the referendum effort.
Council members approved an amendment that was introduced by Councilwoman Traci Park, who called for the same actions against signature gatherers who opposed the referendum, such as volunteers from labor unions representing hotel and airport workers.
“Any allegation of untruthfulness or intimidation should be investigated and, if necessary, full prosecuted, but that means having a report that is broad enough to look at all actors and all proponents — those who collected signatures for the referendum as well as those who sought to withdraw those voter signatures,” Park said.
“I know this because I have personally been targeted by misleading smear campaigns by the very group now complaining about this behavior,” she added.
Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who advocated for the minimum wage increase, supported Park’s amendment. He noted that as elected officials, “we signed up to be mistreated and tarred and feathered by the press and the public.”
Councilwoman Rodriguez, who also supported the amendment, voted against it, citing much larger issues before them.
“…Voters need to be educated on what they’re signing, number one, because I’ve seen exploitative tactics all the way around and it’s wrong, but apparently that’s what everyone feels comfortable to deduce themselves at this juncture,” Rodriguez said.
She emphasized that LAPD officers should be focused on protecting their communities amid “egregious acts that are happening, frankly, at all fronts.”
On Friday, a coalition of business owners delivered signatures aimed at overturning a so-called “Olympic Wage” ordinance that city officials approved in May. The law is expected to provide $30 an hour for hotel and airport workers by 2028 in time for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Workers are expected to receive a new $8.35 per hour health care payment, which will begin in July 2026.
The City Clerk announced the ordinance was suspended and will not take effect while the petition is reviewed. Interim City Clerk Petty Santos said her office will first conduct an initial review to determine if the petition has the 92,998 valid signatures needed to place a referendum on the June 2026 ballot.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will be responsible for verifying the signatures with registered voter information. The City Clerk’s Election Division has received approximately 116,000 Signature Revocation Forms, a representative for the office confirmed with City News Service in an email.
A coalition of local hospitality and tourism groups, known as the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress, filed the petition, arguing that Los Angeles already has some of the highest tourism wages in the country and that the steep increase would likely force business owners to lay off workers or find other ways to reduce costs.
“The Olympic Wage ordinance threatens the very existence of small businesses like ours. This isn’t just a challenge for employers — it’s a risk to the jobs of the very workers this ordinance is meant to help,” Gregory Plummer, CEO and managing partner of the Concord Collective, which operates dining locations at Los Angeles International Airport, said in a statement.
Federal policies, fire recovery, and other economic hardships have strained travel and tourism in Los Angeles, which industry leaders argue will only get worse with the wage increase.
American Hotel & Lodging Association President and CEO Rosanna Maietta, President and CEO Nella McOsker of the Central City Association, President & CEO Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Maria S. Salinas, and Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, backed the referendum effort.
Meanwhile, the Defend the Wage LA Coalition — which includes the Unite Here Local 11 SEIU-United Service Workers West unions, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which describes itself as “an organizing and advocacy institution committed to economic, environmental and racial justice, who advocated for the wage increase — called on the City Clerk to “invalidate” the petition signatures.
The group alleged the referendum campaign misled voters by claiming the petition would raise wages when it sought to do the opposite.
In response to the referendum, union members began a campaign to inform voters about the petition and urged them not to sign it. They also opened a 24-hour hotline for Angelenos to call the labor group for signature revocation forms, if needed.
Unite Here Local 11 has submitted a complaint to California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower about the alleged violations and gross misconduct, as well as with City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto. In their complaints, union representatives cited testimony they received from voters.
In one instance, a witness alleged that he was “violently assaulted and punched in the face by a referendum petition circulator,” Unite Here Local 11 said.
The union also alleged that the referendum campaign offered unhoused people cash in exchange for registering to vote and signing their petition.
“The greed of the airlines and hotels was only outdone by their deceit and desperation. The clerk should invalidate the petition,” Kurt Petersen co-president of Unite Here Local 11 and David Huerta president of SEIU-USWW said in a joint statement.
“They would rather spend millions of dollars deceiving voters than pay workers a living wage and quality healthcare, but we are proving once again that working class solidarity is more powerful than money,” they added.
Hotel and airport workers have defended the wage increase, noting that it will help them pay for rent and groceries, cover medical bills and remain in the city they work in.
Prompted by the referendum, union representatives filed four initiatives with the City Clerk, one of which aims to extend the $30-per-hour minimum wage to more workers across several industries.