The fight over police hiring in Los Angeles has caused a headache for Mayor Karen Bass.

This year, her plan was to hire 480 police officers, but due to the city's $1 billion deficit, the Council only approved 240. The mayor wasn't happy and made a deal with her ally, Council Speaker Marqueece Harris Dawson, to find public funds everywhere within 90 days to hire more officers.

But the 90 days passed, and then another 90, and the mayor grew desperate and pressured the Council to hire as many as 410 new officers.

Obviously, not all council members liked the idea, arguing that without knowing where the money will come from, the deficit will worsen. Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, introduced a motion to hire 40 police officers in January at a cost of $1.7 million, which would bring the total number of new officers to 280 this fiscal year. The motion was approved, but it's not what the mayor wanted, and that disappointed her because she needs to increase the number of police officers to guarantee security for the 26th World Cup and the 28th Olympics.

Police hiring is quite a controversial issue, like a tangled ball of yarn that gets knotted up just when you think you've found a way to untangle it.

Councilman Lee Reprimanded

John Lee, the councilman for the northwest San Fernando Valley, will have to pay a $134,424 fine for five violations of the gift tax law for failing to report that he accepted expensive meals, alcoholic beverages, hotel stays, transportation, and even casino chips on a 2017 trip to Las Vegas from three individuals who wanted to do business with the City Council.

A judge had recommended a fine of around $44,000, but the City Commission of The Ethics Committee decided to apply the maximum penalty to send a message to others. The violations were committed by Lee when he was not yet a councilman, but worked for his boss, Councilman Mitchell Englander.who spent 14 months in prison for accepting money from special interests, lying to the FBI, and obstructing an investigation.

The councilman is resisting the fine before the Los Angeles County Superior Court, because he says the charges are politically motivated.

Regardless of whether Lee or his supposed detractors are right, it is clear that the council members have not learned the hard lessons of other council members who made mistakes that landed them in prison. The council members cannot continue to behave like free agents who can do whatever they want without being held accountable.

Council members support former mayor

Council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, Curren Price, and Bob Blumenfield, all of whom are politically close to Mayor Bass, endorsed former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for governor of California. As we can see, Villaraigosa is ending the year not as badly as it started.

Open Mic

Beware of microphones! Mayor Bass hasn't been the only politician or public figure to get into trouble by believing that cameras and microphones are off after an interview, and then, without the pressure of the script, letting loose and confident that no one is listening, saying what they really think about this or that topic.

So, believing she was no longer on air, the mayor said that the city and county's response to the January fires had been disastrous. When Bass's office realized she had let the cat out of the bag, they immediately requested that that part be removed from the interview for The Fifth Column podcast.

The lesson is that you should never say in private what you cannot stand by publicly.