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 [ POLITICS ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=396)

#  EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Zach Sokoloff Says LA Needs a Real Financial Watchdog—Not More Reports

April 06 2026

Written by Mihran Kalaydjian.

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THE BOTTOM LINE – The numbers are bad. The reality on the ground is worse. And City Hall still refuses to level with the people paying the price. This is not a messaging problem. It is a credibility collapse.

In my interview with City Controller candidate Zach Sokoloff on The Bottom Line on CityWatch LA, one fact became unavoidable: Los Angeles is not being told the full financial truth, and everyone can feel it.

You see it across the city: broken streets, cracked sidewalks, expanding encampments, and declining services. And still, taxpayers are asked to pay more.

Angelenos are not confused. They are fed up. They are watching a city government that continues to promise progress while daily life tells a very different story.

At the center of this crisis is a simple failure: City Hall is not being honest about the numbers.

Known costs are ignored or softened. Future obligations are downplayed. Deficits are treated like temporary inconveniences instead of structural failures. That is not budgeting it is misdirection. And people know it.

**Los Angeles does not lack reports. It lacks results.**

We have studies, audits, press conferences, and headlines but where is the change? Where is the accountability when billions are spent and conditions do not improve? Where is the urgency when the gap between promise and reality continues to widen?

**Transparency without action is not reform. It is cover.**

The City Controller’s office is supposed to be the city’s financial watchdog not a commentator, not a spectator. A watchdog. That means confronting failure, not just documenting it. Forcing accountability, not just describing it. Delivering results, not just issuing reports.

As Sokoloff made clear, Angelenos are not asking for more reports, they are demanding results.

**Right now, that standard is not being met.**

Nowhere is the failure more visible than in homelessness. Billions have been spent, yet encampments remain and public confidence has collapsed.

**This is not compassion. This is a system that is not working.**

A policy that consumes enormous public resources without producing measurable, visible improvement is not sustainable. Every dollar wasted here is a dollar taken from essential services streets, public safety, and infrastructure that Angelenos rely on every day.

At the same time, the city’s economic foundation is weakening. Jobs are leaving. Production is fleeing. Housing remains stalled by bureaucracy. Businesses are walking away.

And when the economy weakens, revenue follows.

**This is not complicated. It is mismanagement.**

Los Angeles has become too expensive to live in, too difficult to build in, and too ineffective at managing its own finances. And yet, the system continues largely unchanged.

Labor agreements commit the city to long-term obligations with limited transparency. Liability payouts continue to rise with little accountability. Reserve funds risk being used to patch over poor decisions instead of protecting against real emergencies.

**The pattern is clear: delay the truth, shift the burden, and hope no one notices.**

But people notice.

They see it in their neighborhoods. They feel it in their wallets. They experience it every single day. And they are done waiting.

**This election is not about politics. It is about reality.**

It is about whether Los Angeles finally confronts its financial truth or continues pretending everything is under control while the system erodes beneath it.

Because here is the bottom line:

If City Hall cannot be honest about where we are, it cannot be trusted to lead us forward.

**And time is not just running out it is running out fast.**

***(Mihran Kalaydjian** brings over two decades of experience in public affairs, government relations, legislative policy, and strategic communications. A respected community leader and education advocate, he is deeply engaged in civic activism and has spearheaded numerous academic initiatives across local political forums. Mihran is a regular contributor to CityWatchLA.com, where he writes on education, civic engagement, and policy issues.)*

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