Councilwoman Katy Young Yaroslavsky is running for reelection to Los Angeles City Council District 5, the seat representing Bel Air, Holmby Hills and other Westside neighborhoods. The nonpartisan race is on the Nov. 3, 2026, general election ballot, and Yaroslavsky is certified as a candidate, according to BallotReady.
Candidate information
- Name: Katy Young Yaroslavsky
- Party: Nonpartisan
- Born: May 30, 1980, in Los Angeles, according to her Wikipedia biography
- Residence: Mid City, Los Angeles, with her husband Dave and their three children, according to her council website
- Education: Bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley (2002), Phi Beta Kappa; juris doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles (2005)
Experience and public service
Yaroslavsky has held the District 5 seat since 2022, according to BallotReady. She chairs the council's Budget and Finance Committee, serves as vice chair of the Energy and Environment Committee, and has served on the LA Metro Board of Directors since 2023, according to her council website.
Before joining the council, Yaroslavsky said on her council website that she served as senior policy advisor to Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl from 2015 to 2022.
In that role, she said she created the county's first Office of Sustainability, led voter adoption of Measure W, and helped create the Clean Power Alliance. She said the alliance serves over 3 million ratepayers.
She worked as general counsel and director of government affairs at Climate Action Reserve from 2011 to 2015 and as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP from 2005 to 2010, according to BallotReady.
On the issues
The following positions are drawn from Yaroslavsky's campaign website and her public-safety page. BallotReady collected several of the responses. All statements reflect the candidate's own claims.
Public safety: Yaroslavsky said she supports "a well-staffed, well-funded, well-trained, accountable, and transparent police department." She said she would push for an updated Basic Car Plan to align staffing with population and call volume, and prioritize hiring dispatchers to reduce 911 wait times.
She also said she wants to bring the CIRCLE (Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement) pilot program to District 5 to divert nonviolent calls involving unhoused individuals to outreach teams.
Housing and homelessness: Yaroslavsky said she would set firm deadlines for housing approvals, require early coordination between city agencies, and expand rental assistance to prevent homelessness. She called homelessness "a full-blown humanitarian crisis" on her campaign page and said the city must partner with the county, state and federal government to address it.
Environment and energy: Yaroslavsky said she would complete the city's oil drilling ban to end extraction in residential neighborhoods, invest in fire prevention and water reliability, and push for clean energy plans that meet climate goals.
Budget and infrastructure: Yaroslavsky said she supports a two-year budget cycle and creating a dedicated entity to develop public-private partnerships using city-owned real estate. She said she would build a multi-year capital plan for street repairs and advance improvements to Westwood Village ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Endorsements
The following endorsements are listed by BallotReady and credited to the endorsing organizations:
- AFSCME
- Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
- Los Angeles County Democrats
- Heart of LA Democratic Club
- Democrats for Israel Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Stonewall Democrats
- Stonewall Young Democrats of Los Angeles
- Vote Mama PAC
- Women's Political Committee of Los Angeles
- National Women's Political Caucus of California
- California Women's List
Candidate positions were drawn from Yaroslavsky's campaign website and BallotReady questionnaire responses. The Platinum Tribune did not interview the candidate for this profile.
