For many Los Angeles voters, frustration over utility costs is becoming a defining issue in the closely watched mayoral race. City Councilmember Nithya Raman has put high Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bills at the center of her challenge to Mayor Karen Bass.

At a LADWP site in North Hollywood, Raman joined customers who said their monthly charges had climbed sharply.

Here's what to know

According to ABC7, Raman says LADWP bills have increased 40% across the city during Bass' time in office. Because the utility answers to the mayor's office, she has framed the issue as both a strain on residents' budgets and a matter of City Hall accountability.

The plan she outlined has three parts: repair and modernization of the utility system, public City Council appearances by LADWP officials to explain rates, and an audit with City Controller Kenneth Mejia that would examine executive pay.

Raman said, "The public deserves transparency about the cost that they are experiencing. They deserve a public justification of these enormous costs."

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More background

Questions about monthly charges intensified after local resident Micah Reed pointed to fees on LADWP bills that many customers said they had not realized they were paying. The controversy then broadened into a larger debate over how clearly the utility explains its costs to the public.

Bass appeared in MacArthur Park to receive endorsements from groups including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Dolores Huerta Action, and El Centro del Pueblo — a setting ABC7 noted was politically charged because Bass had previously confronted ICE agents there during an enforcement operation.

Raman also drew backlash over comments referencing former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, who led the department from 1978 to 1992. Bass said, "To mention Daryl Gates and to tie his name with gold standard, she obviously does not know the history of the city. She most certainly does not know the history of Black and brown Angelenos or those words would've never come out of her mouth."

Raman later said Bass was "twisting my words" and that she was referring to the city's long-standing policy against using local police to enforce federal immigration law.

What's being done?

At the center of Raman's response is a push for more openness around LADWP's finances and operations. She says an audit with Mejia should put executive compensation under closer review, while public City Council appearances would force utility officials to explain rates in open meetings.

She has also connected affordability concerns to the condition of the system, saying repairs and modernization should come alongside stronger oversight and better management.

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