Exclusive | Nithya Raman eyes City Hall shake-up as former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti veterans emerge in new administration
Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman is tapping veteran City Hall insiders and former aides to ex-Mayor Eric Garcetti to help build her administration, despite campaigning on a promise to shake up the mayor’s office.Multiple sources told the California Post that Rick Cole, a former Garcetti deputy mayor who later served under City Controller Kenneth Mejia, is expected to play a leading role in Raman’s transition team. Cole, a longtime City Hall veteran and former deputy mayor under Garcetti, could bring both experience and controversy to Raman’s administration.The outspoken government reformer resigned as Santa Monica city manager in April 2020 amid a massive budget crisis, mounting criticism of proposed spending cuts and growing tensions with public employee unions.More than 2,800 people signed a petition demanding his removal as the city confronted a projected $226 million budget shortfall through June 2021.Cole also briefly served as a senior adviser to DSA-backed Mejia and as city manager of Ventura and Pasadena.
He built a reputation as an aggressive government reformer who frequently clashed with elected officials and city employees over spending, management and efforts to overhaul local government.More recently, Cole served as an unpaid adviser to Raman’s mayoral campaign and publicly blasted the Bass administration over its handling of homelessness spending and oversight.Cole is expected to work alongside Andrea Conant, Raman’s current City Council chief of staff and a former public relations executive with nearly two decades of experience working with developers, government agencies and community organizations.Before joining Raman’s office in 2021, Conant was a vice president at public affairs firm Consensus Inc., where she worked on major projects including the LAX Master Plan and Metro’s Gold Line extension.Her hiring sparked controversy because she had represented the developer behind the proposed Mirabel luxury development on Wilshire Bo...