Rick Caruso Wants to Expand L.A. Mayor’s Powers on Homelessness

variety.com:

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterBillionaire developer Rick Caruso said Monday that if elected mayor of Los Angeles, he would take power over homelessness policy away from the City Council and concentrate it in his office.Caruso announced his candidacy late on Friday, just ahead of the filing deadline, and is beginning to outline his plans.

In an interview with Variety, he said that he would claim emergency powers to address the city’s homelessness crisis.“Day one, I’m going to declare a state of emergency, take the authority in the mayor’s office, and I’m going to be held accountable for it,” Caruso said. “What we can’t do any more is allow 15 council people to decide how homelessness is handled in each of their council districts.” The other major contenders have already unveiled their plans on the issue, which figures to be the central topic of the campaign.Caruso, 63, re-registered as a Democrat last month after a decade as an independent, and decades before that as a Republican.

When he announced the latest change, he described himself as “pro-centrist” and argued for an approach to homelessness that emphasizes both “compassion and firmness.” In the interview, he argued that his plans are different from his rivals’ because they are too afraid of offending anyone politically.“Their biggest fear in life is literally not getting reelected.

Everything they do is tailored to making sure that it’s politically correct,” he said, adding that he would be uniquely able to make tough decisions.“You have to start and say we’re not going to allow people to live on the street, in encampments,” he said. “We’re just not going to allow it.