Kenneth Mejia (born November 7, 1990) is an American activist,

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

, and politician, serving as the

City Controller of Los Angeles The Los Angeles City Controller is an official in the government of the city of Los Angeles, California. The city controller is the paymaster and chief accounting officer of the city. Along with the mayor In many countries, a mayor is the hi ...

since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party and a former

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

member, Mejia was a three-time candidate for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

California's 34th congressional district California's 34th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in California. Located in Los Angeles County, the district is represented by Democrat Jimmy Gomez. Its previous U.S. representative, Democrat Xavier Becerra of Los Ange ...

, prior to his candidacy and subsequent election as City Controller in 2022. Elected to succeed

Ron Galperin Ron Shalom Galperin (born August 1, 1963) is an American politician who served as the 19th Los Angeles City Controller from 2013 to 2022. He took office on July 1, 2013 and won re-election in 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Galperin is t ...

, Mejia is the first Filipino American elected official in the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, the first Asian American elected to a citywide office, the youngest, and the first person of color to hold the position of City Controller in over a century.

Early life and career

Mejia is

Filipino American Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...

and was born and grew up in Los Angeles. Mejia graduated from

Woodbury University Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California. Founded in 1884 with initial campuses in Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown and Central Los Angeles, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Sout ...

in two and a half years, finishing in 2010 with a B.S. in

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

. Mejia has held his

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

(CPA) designation since around 2013, although the status of his CPA license was "expired" or "inactive" from November 2018 until January 2022. He worked at

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

but left in 2014. He then worked for a hedge fund according to his Twitter account, which he left May 6, 2016, to focus on his campaign. In 2016, he co-founded We Can Make a Difference, a community volunteer organization that provided food and hygiene items to low-income and homeless people in Los Angeles. He then worked at

EVgo EVgo Inc. is an electric vehicle fast charging network in the United States, with more than 950 charging locations . The company's charge stations are located in 35 states and are compatible with all major auto manufacturers. History EVgo was c ...

but left in late 2021 to focus on campaigning. Mejia is a member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.

Early political campaigns

California's 34th congressional district

Mejia was inspired by the

2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary Cli ...

to engage more in politics, leading him to become a candidate to the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Mejia was a write-in Democratic Party candidate in California's 34th congressional district in 2016. Having grown disenchanted with the Democratic Party, Mejia ran as a U.S. Green Party candidate in the same district in 2017 and 2018. His 2017 bid was noted for its reliance on small-dollar donations. Mejia's 2018 bid advanced to the general election and yielded more than 40,000 votes, setting the record for the highest vote percentage cast for any Green candidate against a Democrat for Congress. Mejia continued to work as an accountant while campaigning in 2018.

Los Angeles City Controller (2022—present)

Election

Mejia announced his candidacy for City Controller, a nonpartisan office, in the

2022 Los Angeles elections The 2022 Los Angeles elections were held on June 7, 2022. Voters elected candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with runoff elections scheduled for November 8, 2022. Eight of the fifteen seats in the City Council were up for election while thre ...

. It has been historically uncommon for the city controller to have extensive accounting experience; Mejia claims the office has never been held by a CPA. He was the only city candidate in 2022 to receive ballot access through signatures alone. During his candidacy, Mejia drew attention to

Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD or LA City Fire) provides firefighting services and technical rescue services, hazardous materials services, and emergency medical services to the residents of the city of Los Angeles, California, United ...

employees receiving more than half a million dollars a year, the use of about half of the city's funds from the

American Rescue Plan The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to sp ...

on the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

, and the amount of police funding in the budget proposed in 2022 by Mayor

Eric Garcetti Eric Michael Garcetti (born February 4, 1971) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the List of ambassadors of the United States to India, United States ambassador to India from 2023 to 2025. He was the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles f ...

. On June 7, 2022, Mejia took first place in the primary for LA City Controller, with over 230,163 votes. He obtained 42.75% of the vote, while opponents

Paul Koretz Paul Koretz (born April 3, 1955) is an American politician, who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the 5th district from 2009 until he was term-limited in 2022. He was previously a member of the California State Assembly and ...

and Stephanie Clements obtained 23.83% and 16.01%. On November 8, 2022, Mejia won the general election in a landslide with 62% of the vote, defeating Koretz.

Tenure

Mejia appointed Rick Cole to serve as his Chief Deputy Controller and Sergio Perez to serve as Chief of Accountability and Oversight. Cole is an Urban Studies professor and was the former mayor of

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

and deputy mayor for Los Angeles. Sergio Perez left his position as the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal Public utility, utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021–2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of wat ...

's Inspector General to serve.

Electoral history

2016 California's 34th congressional district election

2017 California's 34th congressional district special election

2018 California's 34th congressional district election

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Jimmy Gomez Jimmy Gomez (born November 25, 1974) is an American politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for since 2017. His district includes the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Eagle Rock ...

(

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

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Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

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Libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

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2022 Los Angeles City Controller election

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mejia, Kenneth Politicians from Los Angeles Woodbury University alumni American politicians of Filipino descent American accountants American housing rights activists Activists from Los Angeles California Democrats California Greens Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from California Living people 1990 births Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections