Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman faced off on Oct. 13 in the last scheduled debate before the Nov. 3 election.

Hosted and televised by NBC4 and Telemundo, the candidates answered questions from NBC4 News Anchor Colleen Williams, Telemundo 52 News Anchor Alejandra Ortiz and NBC4 Chief Political Reporter Conan Nolan. Topics included homelessness, affordable housing, police leadership and hiring, and preparations for the 2028 Olympics.

Bass touted accomplishments during her first term, such as reducing street homelessness, and said she has the experience and knowledge needed to lead Los Angeles into the future.

“I believe that this is a significant choice for voters,” Bass said. “Voters need to look at my opponent, who has been in Los Angeles for 13 years, has served on the City Council for half that time, and in this time she has produced very little. There is a better way to go, and to go with this candidate is really taking a serious risk.”

Raman started by quoting President Ronald Reagan and asking voters if they are better off today than four years ago.

“I’ve been around the city talking to voters throughout this campaign, and the answer for too many of them has been no,” Raman said. “Whether it’s on homelessness, whether it’s on fire response, whether it’s on our jobs crisis in entertainment and beyond, whether it’s on emergency management or just the cost of housing and the cost of living, which is growing and pushing working families out of this city every day, too often, what I have heard from them, is that we have had a mayor who has been MIA. For me, that is simply unacceptable. I know that the city can do better.”

Bass said she plans to continue addressing homelessness through programs that remove street encampments and advocated for the city to have direct control over homeless services. She criticized Raman for not supporting efforts by her colleagues on the City Council to designate sensitive areas as no-camping zones, and said the Inside Safe program removed three large encampments in Raman’s 4th District.

Raman responded by stating the mayor’s programs to address homelessness such as Inside Safe are far too costly, and there is no transparency on how the funds are spent. The councilwoman said she has reduced homelessness in the 4th District by aggressively providing outreach to people on the streets to ensure they are placed in housing and receive long-term support.

Both candidates said building affordable housing is among the top challenges facing the city, and the lack of housing contributes to increases in the homeless population.  They differed on how to address the affordable housing, with Bass citing executive directives she has implemented to streamline housing production. The mayor said she has fast-tracked 47,000 units of affordable housing and that 10,000 units have been completed.

Raman said the boundaries of her district were changed shortly after she was elected and she now represents an area primarily in the San Fernando Valley with mostly single-family neighborhoods. Still, she said affordable housing stock “has gone up 16-times” in the 4th District, and she will use her approach to build more housing across the city.

The moderators asked Raman about a recent interview with social media influencer and content producer Ed Choi, who has referred to the city of L.A. as racist, in which she allegedly stated “only you can stop fascist liars” in a statement referring to the LAPD. The Raman campaign later posted a video with the message, but took it down.

“The interview questions that were asked to me were about ICE, whether ICE was racist, whether ICE is undertaking terrible actions on our streets. And I stand by that. I believe ICE is being racist on our streets,” Raman said, adding that the video of her making the statement was “misedited” before being taken down. “Immigrants are terrified here in the city of Los Angeles, and I will speak up against the actions of ICE and the actions of the Trump administration on our streets every single day because this is a city of immigrants. I am an immigrant to America myself, and unfortunately, this city, under this mayor’s leadership, has lost the trust of many people across the city.”

Bass rebutted the councilwoman’s response about the video.

“I think it’s really important to be honest, and to say that you didn’t know, or you are only talking about [ICE] is just simply not true. And you know that,” Bass said. “You called the city fascist. You called the police chief, you called me fascist. It made me wonder whether you understood what the word fascism meant, but it also just showed that you are not ready for prime time.”

The candidates also clashed over LAPD hiring and the need for strong leadership with the 2028 Olympics approaching. Raman has been critical of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and what she called the department’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“What we’ve seen over the past year and a half on our streets has been an LAPD that has at times appeared to have been protecting ICE while they were undertaking actions on our streets. That has caused fear in our immigrant communities,“ Raman said. “I want to replace the police chief. I have been very open about that. I have been very clear about that. I don’t believe this chief has met the moment. I believe he has lost the trust of Angelenos, especially in response to the ICE raids.”

Bass expressed confidence in McDonnell and said it is risky to make major changes in law enforcement leadership, particularly hiring a new police chief, before a major international event such as the Olympics.

“What worries me about that is, I don’t think you have any idea what it takes to identify a police chief,” Bass told Raman. “We are 640 days away from the largest sporting event to ever take place – a major national security event – and if you think that you are going to find a police chief, you would send the department in disarray by doing that.”

The candidates both said voters are facing a major decision about the city’s future on Nov. 3, and they encouraged people to explore for themselves what differentiates the campaigns.

“We cannot afford another four years of decline, of mismanagement, of excuses. Homelessness is rising despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent. Storefronts are closing. Our tax money is being wasted. And through it all, we’ve had a mayor who has been MIA, missing in action, even as fires raged in Boyle Heights and in the Palisades, she was missing. We can do better. This can be better,” Raman said.

“We really have to think about this decision. Do we really want to turn our city over to someone who has repeatedly voted to not remove encampments from in front of schools, repeatedly voted to not hire additional police officers? We are 640 days away from the greatest sporting event in U.S. history, and I believe that the city would be destabilized with someone who has extreme views and basically has not been able to build relationships, not on City Council and not with her constituents,” Bass said. “Now is not the time to turn the city over to Nithya Raman.”