Incumbent Katy Yaroslavsky faces two challengers — Henry Mantel and Morgan Oyler.

By Jacqueline Mendez
UT Community News, Cal State LA

This story was produced in partnership with Cal State LA’s UT Community News and was published by the LA Public Press.

Los Angeles City Council District 5 covers the Westside and Central LA neighborhoods of Bel-Air, Westwood, Cheviot Hills, and others. District 5 is widely recognized for local landmarks, including the La Brea Tarpits, LACMA, The Getty Center, and UCLA. It possesses a lot of high-end real estate and is known to have greener neighborhoods, making it one of the more expensive places to live within LA.

Despite the wealth, beautiful scenery, and culturally important landmarks, CD5 is no stranger to some of the region’s most pressing issues: a lack of affordable housing, homelessness, public safety, and spotty city services. Candidates Henry Mantel and Morgan Oyler are dissatisfied with incumbent Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s management of the fifth district and are trying to unseat her this year.

Katy Yaroslavsky

After first taking office in 2022, Yaroslavsky said she is running again to continue working to reduce street homelessness, improve public safety, transportation, and improve quality of life. She serves as vice chair of LA City’s energy and environment committee, is a member of the ad hoc committee on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the rules, elections and intergovernmental relations committee. In 2023, she was appointed by LA Mayor Karen Bass to serve on the LA Metro Board of Directors. In that role, Yaroslavsky voted to approve the K-Line Northern Extension, an underground train extension to the E line and then to Hollywood, and the Sepulveda Transit Corridor, an underground railroad project that will connect the San Fernando Valley, the Westside, and LAX.

Yaroslavsky created LA County’s first office of sustainability and was a key contributor to the passing of Measure W, which funds the Safe Clean Water Program to reduce stormwater pollution. She also founded the Clean Power Alliance, which is the largest renewable energy provider in California. She said she was able to reduce street homelessness by 27% in the CD5, but she has also been criticized by unhoused folks and activists for signing off on encampment sweeps that displaced residents.

Some residents in District 5, specifically the Rancho Park area, have criticized Yaroslavsky’s handling of encampment sweeps and unhoused communities when she planned to turn a parking lot into a shelter causing outrage from nearby residents. She was also criticized for opposing SB 79, a state law designed to create affordable housing near transit stops. At a Westwood neighborhood council meeting last year, she claimed LA was doing enough on housing. Yet, in March, Yaroslavsky backtracked and made a statement supporting the implementation of SB 79 after the LA City Council voted on a “phased approach” to implementing the law. Councilmembers voted to delay full implementation in lower resource areas, high fire severity zones, and historic districts until 2030.

Yaroslavsky’s endorsements include:

• International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU).”
• Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP)
• Stonewall Democratic Club 
• Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (The LA Fed)
• National Women’s Political Caucus California (NWPC California)
• Sierra Club
• Streets For All
• United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC)
• Service Employees International Union Local 721 (SEIU Local 721)
• United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals(UNAC/UHCP)
• Western States Carpenters
• SEIU 121RN

Henry Mantel

A Park La Brea resident, Mantel is a tenant rights’ attorney and a former Mid-City West Neighborhood Council member.

Mantel and his family moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1994 and have lived in the fifth district since, according to his campaign website. After high school, he attended Brandeis University and studied abroad in Kyoto, then took his first steps into politics as a Democratic field organizer outside of Boston. In 2014, he returned to LA and worked for non-profit groups, including the United Way of Greater LA.

In 2020, he worked as an eviction defense attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. In this role, he said he witnessed the consequences and perpetual cycle of LA’s housing crisis: tenants dealing with abusive landlords or struggling to pay rent only to end up homeless. In 2025, Mantel worked for a private firm called Downtown L.A. Law Group, known for bringing cases against landlords.

If elected, he said he would make Los Angeles more affordable and accessible by expanding bus and subway services, eliminating single-family zoning, and strengthening the Los Angeles Housing Department. He has criticized Yaroslavsky for her opposition on SB 79, according to Mar Vista Voice. 

Mantel said he strongly disagrees with encampment sweeps and the mayor’s Inside Safe operations, and said he believes no one deserves to be unhoused.

Mantel’s endorsements include:

• Pro-housing Democratic Caucus
• Westside For Everyone             
• Westside Local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union 
• Abundant Housing Los Angeles (AHLA)
• Park La Brea Residents Association
• Run for Something
• Future Urbanist Club

Morgan Oyler

Morgan Oyler is a financial accountant for Dreams Food INTL in Santa Monica. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he lives in the Westwood area. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Gonzaga University and a master’s in economics from Cal State LA. Oyler said he wants to bring down the cost of housing and improve transportation, public safety, and sustainability. 

Oyler said he would make District 5 more affordable and liveable by reforming zoning laws, encouraging incremental growth, and increasing density around transit infrastructure. He would address transportation issues like traffic and traffic-related deaths by implementing Measure HLA and federal ADA laws, which he says city leaders have ignored. (Measure HLA is meant to improve bus and bike lanes, street pavement and sidewalks to enhance pedestrian and driver safety.) 

Olyler said he also wants to improve the Westwood Village through the creation of an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD), which would be governed by elected officials and members of the community and outline community projects to fund. According to his campaign website, Oyler claims an EIFD would improve safety, mobility, streets and grow the Westwood Village economically without raising taxes.

Oyler has no current endorsements.