Hernández

ST. LOUIS — Growing up on the western tip of Cuba, Andy Pages excelled at every sport he played.

He was good at soccer and volleyball, arguably better at basketball. But he loved baseball for reasons that weren’t necessarily limited to the game.

Pages’ father, Liban, a carpenter who had a job repairing wooden boats, helped make his son’s first bats by hand, using leftover lumber given to him by friends. Soon baseball became the boy’s favorite pastime.

“When I was starting to play baseball in Cuba, when things were really bad, there were no bats. There weren’t things like that,” Pages said in Spanish. “So he always tried to make me a bat so I could play.

“I became more motivated, and from that point on, we’ve been playing baseball.”

The sport eventually proved to be a way off the island for Pages, who has emerged as one of the Dodgers’ brightest stars in just his second season with the team.

He entered the start of a three-game series Monday in San Diego hitting .288 with 12 home runs and 39 RBIs, trailing only Shohei Ohtani in homers and matching Ohtani for third on the team in RBIs. He’s also tied for second in stolen bases with six and has yet to be thrown out.

If he can stay consistent, he has a chance to become the first Dodger center fielder to hit better than .250 with 25 homers since Matt Kemp in 2011.

Although Pages never played in Cuba’s elite Serie Nacional, the proving ground for stars such as Yuli Gurriel, Yunel Escobar and Orlando “El Duque” Hernández, he became one of the country’s top prospects after hitting .364/.484/.581 in a under-15 league.

Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages rifles the ball to second base to prevent Arizona’s Ketel Marte from advancing on a single at Dodger Stadium on May 20.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

That convinced Pages (pronounced PAH-hays) he had a chance to be a big leaguer some day. So at 16, the Athletic reported, he arranged to be spirited off the island alongside Jairo Pomares, another young Cuban star, traveling through Guyana, Curacao and Haiti before crossing in the Dominican Republic. He then waited eight months before the Dodgers signed him as an international free agent in March 2018, giving him a $300,000 bonus, more than 1,500 times the average annual wage in Cuba, according to CiberCuba.

Pomares signed with the San Francisco Giants at about the same time, but while he remains in the minors, Pages’ climb to the majors was steady. He reached triple A by the start the 2024 season. He didn’t stay at Oklahoma City long, however, hitting .371/.452/.694 with 15 RBIs in 15 games to earn a call-up to the Dodgers.

Before his rookie season was over, Pages was a World Series champion. He paid a heavy price for that though, going seven years without seeing his family in person.

“It was emotional since I hadn’t seen them for a long time,” said Pages, 24, who returned to Cuba for the first time the winter before his big-league debut.

His sister, Elaine, a child when he left “was already a full-grown woman.”

“So those memories came back to me, and they were quite — how should I say it? — quite strong for me,” said Pages, who brought his father a few of the machine-made bats he used in the minor leagues.

But if his father provided the spark that made his son a baseball player, teammate Teoscar Hernández provided the help, guidance and mentoring that made Pages an everyday major leaguer.

“He’s played in the major leagues for a long time now,” Pages said of Hernández, a 10-year veteran who signed with the Dodgers months before Pages made his big-league debut. “He’s been through a lot of bad times. I went through that at the beginning of the season, for example, and last year too. And he’s given me advice that’s helped me a lot to get through that time.”

With Pages’ family still in Cuba, Hernández has become a big brother as well as a teammate, taking him out for dinner on off days or just getting together to play video games.

Andy Pages runs the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Athletics at Dodger Stadium on May 14.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“Getting through bad times is sometimes a little difficult when you’re alone, when you don’t have anyone to help you, to give you good advice, and to make you understand that sometimes things don’t happen when you want them to,” Pages said.

And that’s worked out well for Pages. Three games after Hernández returned from a rehab assignment last month, Pages started a streak that would see him hit in 13 of his next 14 starts, including 11 in a row, raising his average 24 points to .293. He’s batting .379 with a team-high 11 hits in seven games this month.

“We try to go out to my house. We go out to a restaurant with my wife, his wife. Just so we can get together, have time to enjoy and not think about baseball,” Hernández said.

Pages isn’t the first player to benefit from Hernández’s mentorship. During his six seasons in Toronto, Hernández took another talented rookie, fellow Dominican Vladimir Guerrero Jr., under his wing. Guerrero is now a four-time All-Star.

Hernández is still so respected in Toronto when the Dodgers played there last season, some Blue Jays players wore his old uniform number during batting practice. Earlier this year Guerrero offered to buy him a $300,000 Richard Mille watch; Hernández joked he’d rather have money instead.

As the quiet Pages has grown more confident and comfortable with the Dodgers, his play has improved. A speedy outfielder with a plus arm, he also can play all three positions.

And while he left Cuba, he never fully left it behind, having expressed interest in representing the country in next year’s World Baseball Classic. The decision to go to the Dominican Republic as a teenager, after all, was a business one, not a personal one.

Pages would also like to bring his family to U.S. some day, though that dream was dealt a setback last week when President Trump signed an executive order restricting access to Cubans hoping to come to the U.S.

“Hope is always there,” said Pages, who has beaten impossibly long odds once. “But you have to follow the rules, get the papers, do whatever it takes to make sure everything’s OK. And then get here and stay here.

“I’m just trying, trying until they can leave.”

Seth Hernandez, the senior pitching standout at Corona High, has been chosen the national baseball player of the year by Gatorade.

Hernandez learned of the prestigious honor during a surprise presentation at Corona on Thursday. He was named state player of the year on Tuesday.

“Super surprised,” he said after a presentation in which he was told by coach Andy Wise that he’d be taking a team photo and instead found former major leaguer Dexter Fowler greeting him with the player of the year trophy while family, friends and teammates were cheering him on.

The Gatorade national baseball player of the year award that was presented to Corona pitcher Seth Hernandez.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Hernandez joined Corona last season after two years of being home schooled. He has developed into the top high school pitching prospect available in next month’s MLB amateur draft.

“At the end of the day, I have brothers for life and I’ll never forget the memories I spent with them,” he said of his high school days.

He went 9-1 this season with an 0.39 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings with only seven walks.

CLOVIS, Calif. — Overcoming intense pressure to quit from President Trump, dozens of local protesters and other prominent critics of transgender athletes in girls’ sports, 16-year-old AB Hernandez bounded past many of her peers to win multiple gold medals at California’s high school track and field championships Saturday.

The transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High School — who competed despite a directive from Trump that she be barred from doing so — won state titles in the girls’ triple jump and the girl’s high jump and took second place in the girls’ long jump.

Hernandez’s success at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis came amid high heat — with temperatures above 100 degrees for much of the day — and under an intense spotlight.

Earlier in the week, Trump had said on social media that he was “ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow” Hernandez to compete, wrongly alleging she had won “everything” in a prior meet and calling her “practically unbeatable.” Protesters gathered outside the meet both Friday and Saturday to denounce her inclusion and the LGBTQ+-friendly state laws allowing it.

Despite all that, Hernandez appeared calm and focused as she competed. When her name was announced for the long jump, she waved to the crowd. When she was announced for the high jump, she smiled.

Hernandez beat out all other competitors in the triple jump, though the runner-up was also awarded 1st place under new rules established by the California Interscholastic Federation after Trump issued his threats.

Hernandez tied with two other girls in the high jump, with the three of them all clearing the same height and sharing the gold.

Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, heaped praise on her after the events in a statement provided to The Times, saying, “As your mother, I cannot fully express how PROUD I am of you.”

“Watching you rise above months of being targeted, misunderstood, and judged not by peers, but by adults who should’ve known better, has left me in awe of your strength,” her mother said. “Despite it all, you stayed focused. You kept training, you kept showing up, and now you’re bringing THE GOLD HOME!!!

During some of Hernandez’s jumps, a protester could be heard on a bullhorn from outside the Buchanan High School stadium chanting “No boys in girls’ sports!” California Interscholastic Federation officials banned protest signs inside the facility, but outside protesters held a range of them — including ones that read “No Child Is Born in the Wrong Body,” “Trans Girls Are Boys: CIF Do Better,” and “She Trains to Win. He takes the trophy?”

Josh Fulfer, a 46-year-old father and conservative online influencer who lives near the stadium, said he was the protester on the bullhorn. He said Hernandez should not have been competing — regardless of how she placed — because her presence in the competition had a negative “psychological effect” on her cisgender competitors.

“I stand with truth,” he said. “Males should not be pretending to be females, and they shouldn’t be competing against female athletes.”

Loren Webster, a senior from Wilson High School in Long Beach who beat Hernandez in the long jump, said she wasn’t giving Hernandez much thought — instead, she was focused on her own performance.

“It wasn’t any other person I was worried about. I knew what I was capable of,” Webster said. “I can’t control the uncontrollable.”

A child holds a protest sign alongside a family member and others opposed to transgender athlete AB Hernandez competing in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

The intense focus on Hernandez over two days of competition Friday and Saturday reflected a broad rise in conservative outrage over transgender girls competing in sporting events nationwide, despite their representing a tiny fraction of competitors. It also reflected a concerted effort by Trump and other prominent conservative figures to single out Hernandez, individually, as an unwitting poster child for such concerns.

Recent polls, including one conducted by The Times last year, have shown that many Americans support transgender rights, but a majority oppose transgender girls participating in youth sports. California has long defended transgender kids and their right to participate in youth athletics, but other states have increasingly moved to limit or remove such rights entirely.

Marci Strange supports protestors as they protest against transgender athlete AB Hernandez competing In the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, at Veterans Memorial Stadium In the campus of Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

Trump first latched onto transgender issues with fervor during his presidential campaign, spending millions of dollars on anti-transgender political ads. Since being elected, he has issued a wave of executive orders and other policies aimed at rolling back transgender rights and protections.

Again and again, Hernandez has been singled out in that discussion.

Earlier this week, Trump referenced Hernandez in a social media post in which he said his administration would cut federal funding to California if it didn’t block her from competing in this weekend’s state finals and more broadly get in line with his executive order purporting to ban transgender youth from participating in school sports nationwide.

The following day, U.S. Justice Department officials referenced Hernandez again, announcing the launch of an investigation into whether California, its interscholastic sports federation and the Jurupa Unified School District are violating the civil rights of cisgender girls by allowing transgender students such as Hernandez to compete in sports.

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competed for Jurupa Valley High School in the high jump at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

At the meet Friday and Saturday, Hernandez often blended in with the hundreds of other athletes, hardly drawing attention. She was less conspicuous by far than the protesters there to denounce her for competing.

Hernandez’s mother has pleaded with Trump and other adults in recent days to show her daughter compassion, calling it heartbreaking “every time I see my child being attacked, not for a wrongdoing, but simply for being who they are.”

She has said her daughter “is not a threat,” while the harassment directed at her is “not just cruel, it’s dangerous.”

Local protesters — some with ties to national conservative organizations — cast Hernandez’s competing in girls’ events in starkly different terms.

Before being escorted out by police, Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the conservative California Family Council, walked around the stadium Saturday wearing a hat reading, “Women’s Sports, Women Only.” She told members of the crowd that Hernandez was a boy and handed out pink “Save Girls’ Sports” bracelets and fliers directing people to an online petition calling on the California Interscholastic Federation to change its policies to bar transgender athletes from competition.

Trump administration officials have taken a similar stance.

In a letter Wednesday to interscholastic federation executive director Ronald W. Nocetti, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed by Trump to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, called Hernandez’s success in recent track and field events “alarming.” And she said the California policies allowing Hernandez to compete are a potential violation of Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and other activities that receive federal funding.

Dhillon also noted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s own recent remark to conservative activist Charlie Kirk that transgender girls competing in sports is “deeply unfair.”

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competed in three events including the high jump, triple jump and long jump at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

The remark came in a conversation on Newsom’s podcast in March, in which Hernandez was also singled out.

Kirk, a co-founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, asked Newsom whether he would voice his opposition to Hernandez competing in girls’ track and field events. Newsom said he agreed such situations were “unfair” but that he also took issue with “the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities,” including transgender people.

When Kirk suggested Newsom could say that he has “a heart for” Hernandez but still thinks her competing is unfair, Newsom again said he agreed.

Newsom has issued no such statement since. But, the playing field has shifted in California for transgender athletes since Trump started talking about Hernandez.

On Wednesday, the CIF announced a change in its rules for this weekend’s championships. Under the new rules, a cisgender girl who is bumped from qualifying for an event final by a transgender athlete will still advance to compete in the finals. In addition, the federation said, any cisgender girl who is beaten by a transgender competitor will be awarded whichever medal she would have claimed had the transgender athlete not been competing.

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competed for Jurupa Valley High School in the high jump at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

The CIF did not mention Hernandez by name in announcing its policy change, but it did make direct reference to the high jump, triple jump and long jump — the three events in which she was to compete.

Under the new rules, Hernandez shared her place on each of the event podiums with other girls.

The CIF did not respond to a list of questions about its new policy. A spokesman for Newsom applauded the change, but others were unimpressed.

Critics of transgender athletes rejected it as insufficient and demanded a full ban on transgender athletes. Fulfer, the protester on the bullhorn, said the CIF was “admitting that they’ve got it wrong for a long time” while still not doing enough to fix it — which Trump would see clearly.

“I hope Donald Trump sees what happens this weekend, and I hope he pulls the funding away from California,” Fulfer said.

LGBTQ+ advocates also criticized the rule change, but for different reasons, calling it a crass capitulation that singled out a teenager to appease a crowd of bullies picking a political fight.

“The fact that these same political players continue to bully and harass one child, even after CIF changed its policy, shows this was never about sports or fairness,” said Kristi Hirst, co-founder of the public education advocacy group Our Schools USA.

“It was simply about using a child, while compromising their personal safety on a national scale, to score political points and distract from the serious issues families and communities in this country are actually concerned about,” Hirst said, “affording groceries, the loss of health care, and access to quality teachers and resources in their public schools.”

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez competed for Jurupa Valley High School in the long jump at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

Nereyda Hernandez said she hoped AB’s wins would serve as inspiration for other kids who feel “unseen.”

“To every young person watching, especially those who feel unseen or unheard, let AB be your reminder that authenticity, courage, and resilience shine BRIGHTER than hate,” she said. “It won’t be easy, but definitely worth it.”

Jack Champlin, a junior pitcher for St. John Bosco, surveyed the memorable scene Tuesday afternoon. There were fans standing everywhere — down the lines, around the outfield walls, in the press box. It was the top of the seventh inning, and No. 1 Corona had two runners aboard trying to rally in the Southern Section Division 1 semifinals.

“I love it,” he said. “There’s close to 1,000 people and it’s electric. I didn’t feel any pressure, didn’t feel nervous.”

He got a strikeout and fly ball to save St. John Bosco’s stunning 2-0 victory over Corona and unbeaten pitcher Seth Hernandez, who had never lost in two years of high school baseball.

“Tough day for people who don’t normally have tough days,” said Corona coach Andy Wise, who guided the Panthers to the Division 1 title last season and saw his team’s record drop to 28-3.

The Braves will play Trinity League rival Santa Margarita in Friday’s 7 p.m. Division 1 championship game at Cal State Fullerton.

Everything St. John Bosco needed to do to pull off victory happened. Left-hander Trevor Heishman gave up one hit in 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts. He struck out Corona’s hottest hitter, Anthony Murphy, three times.

The Braves refused to be intimidated by the 99-mph fastball of Hernandez, who came in with just four walks and 96 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings and an 18-0 record in high school baseball. He struck out nine, walked three and gave up a run in the second inning on consecutive singles by Champlin and Macade Maxwell. St. John Bosco scored another run in the fifth on a Hernandez balk.

“He’s just another player like us,” Champlin said of the Braves’ attitude toward Hernandez, one of the top pro prospects in the nation. “We weren’t scared. We came out with confidence we were going to win from the time we stepped on the field.

Second-year coach Andy Rojo has St. John Bosco in the Division 1 final.

(Nick Koza)

In two years as head coach, Andy Rojo has taken the Braves to the Division 3 final (last season) and now the Division 1 final on Friday.

His batters made Hernandez throw 92 pitches in five innings and hit the ball hard when they needed. “The key for us we wanted to put the ball in play,” he said.

St. John Bosco has never won a section baseball title after all the success the football and basketball teams have had. But this 26-4 team won the Trinity League championship for the first time since 2017 and has beaten Santa Margarita two of three times this season.

And they’ve got Champlin ready to be the closer again on Friday.

“I haven’t had a blown save,” he said with the confidence of a true closer.

Santa Margarita 12, Crespi 0: Ben Finnegan had three hits and four RBIs and Brennan Bauer gave up two hits in five scoreless innings to send the Eagles into the Division 1 championship game.

Mater Dei 5, Fountain Valley 4: A three-run sixth inning propelled the Monarchs to the comeback win in the Division 2 semifinals. Lawson Olmstead broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI single. Brandon Thomas picked up the save in the seventh and will pitch in the championship game.

West Ranch 8, Etiwanda 7: Ty Diaz had a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning, culminating in a three-run comeback victory in the Division 2 semifinals. Etiwanda took a 7-5 lead with two runs in the top of the eighth. Diaz finished with three hits and two RBIs.

San Dimas 4, Beckman 1: The Saints advance to the Division 3 championship game. They will face Glendora, a 7-5 winner over Temecula Valley.

Leave it up to Seth Hernandez of top-seeded Corona High to find a way to impress the many pro baseball scouts attending Tuesday’s Southern Section Division 1 playoff opener with not just his arm but his bat.

He hit two three-run home runs to help Corona defeat Los Osos 11-2. Corona trailed 2-0 into the third inning until the Panthers started going deep. First was a home run by Jesiah Andrade. Then Hernandez started sending balls over the fence. He also struck out 10 and walked one in six innings.

Seth Hernandez of Corona celebrates his second three-run home run.

(Nick Koza)

Corona advances to play Big VIII rival Norco in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Norco 4, Laguna Beach 2: Dylan Seward had three hits and four RBIs while Landon Hovermale threw a complete game.

Crespi 5, El Dorado 2: The Celts rallied for four runs in the sixth inning. Diego Velazquez had a two-run double. Jackson Eisenhauer threw a complete game, striking out seven. Crespi will play Mira Costa in the quarterfinals.

Mira Costa 5, Arcadia 4: An RBI double by Joaquin Scholer in the fifth inning broke a 4-4 tie. He finished with two doubles.

Los Alamitos 8, Orange Lutheran 0: Tyler Smith drove in four runs and three pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout to eliminate the Lancers. Los Alamitos will play Santa Margarita on Friday.

Santa Margarita 6, Huntington Beach 5: Chase Marlow singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning to give the Eagles an upset over Sunset League champion Huntington Beach. Brennan Bauer struck out four in 4 1/3 innings of relief.

Villa Park 8, Aquinas 2: Jake Nobles struck out five with no walks over five innings and Val Lopez had three hits and two RBIs. Villa Park will play St. John Bosco on Friday.

St. John Bosco 5, Vista Murrieta 4: Noah Everly had three hits and two RBIs while Miles Clark homered for the Braves, who rallied with a three-run sixth inning.

West Ranch 12, Crean Lutheran 0: Mikey Murr and Matt Castellon combined on a no-hitter in Division 2.

Sultana 6, Loyola 5: The Cubs dropped the Division 2 game on an error in the ninth inning.

Servite 12, Anaheim Canyon 1: Tomas Cernius hit a three-run home run and Michael Cabral had four RBIs. Servite will play Etiwanda in the Division 2 quarterfinals.

Etiwanda 6, Gahr 1: Angel Mejia finished with four RBIs and Nico Hamilton threw six innings for the Eagles.

Torrance 3, Oaks Christian 2: Mateo Rickman hit a three-run home run to power Torrance, which will face Fountain Valley on Friday.

Fountain Valley 7, Trabuco Hills 0: Josh Grack threw the shutout and also contributed two RBIs.

Foothill 3, San Clemente 2: Ezekiel Vargas and Aidan Colburn each had two hits for Foothill, which plays Mater Dei on Friday.

Mater Dei 6, Simi Valley 4: The Monarchs eliminated second-seeded Simi Valley by scoring six runs in the top of the seventh inning. Brady Guth hit a three-run home run.

A key committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to cut the number of employees targeted for layoff by Mayor Karen Bass by more than half, bringing the total down to an estimated 650.

The council’s budget committee took steps to save more than 1,000 jobs by pursuing an array of cost-cutting measures, such as hiring fewer police officers and scaling back funding for Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moves homeless people into temporary or permanent housing.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the committee, said those and many other moves would help the city protect core services, including tree trimming, street resurfacing, street light repair and sanitation teams that address illegal dumping.

“We looked for ways to save positions — not for the sake of job counts only, but to make sure the departments can still do the work our constituents need them to do for their quality of life,” said Yaroslavsky, who represents part of the Westside.

The committee’s recommendations for the proposed 2025-26 budget now head to the full council, which is scheduled to take them up on Thursday.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who sits on the committee, expressed some optimism after the vote.

“We were in very rough waters, and a very different landscape, when we started this process,” said Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside. “And now there seems to be some light between the clouds.”

As part of Friday’s deliberations, the budget committee voted to recommend a slowdown in sworn hiring at the LAPD, which would leave the agency with 8,400 officers by June 30, 2026. That represents a reduction of about 300 from the current fiscal year and 1,600 compared with 2020.

The budget committee also agreed to eliminate 42 emergency incident technicians at the fire department, a move opposed by interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, while also canceling Bass’ plan for a new homelessness unit within that agency.

In addition, the five-member panel recommended a hike in parking meter fees, which is expected to generate $14 million in the upcoming fiscal year.

Yaroslavsky said the changes endorsed by the budget committee on Friday would save about 150 civilian workers in the police department.

Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, who advises the council, said she believes that city officials will keep finding ways to reduce the number of layoffs, by transferring workers to vacant city positions or to agencies that are unaffected by the budget crisis, such as Los Angeles World Airports and the Port of Los Angeles.

“I think we’re going to be able to truly get that number down to less than 500,” she told the committee.

Bass, faced with a nearly $1-billion shortfall, released a proposed budget last month that called for the layoff of about 1,600 employees, a fourth of them civilian workers at the LAPD. Some of the largest reductions were planned at agencies that handle sanitation, street repairs and maintenance of city facilities.

Friday’s deliberations set the stage for many positions to remain intact, particularly at the Department of City Planning, which had been facing 115 layoffs. Kevin Keller, executive officer with that agency, said the committee found the funding to restore more than 100 of those positions.

“I know there’s a lot of city workers that are breathing a big sigh of relief tonight,” said Roy Samaan, president of the Engineers and Architects Assn., whose union represents planning department employees.

L.A.’s budget crisis has been attributed to a number of factors, including rapidly rising legal payouts, lower-than-expected tax revenue and a package of raises for the city workforce that is expected to add $250 million to the upcoming budget, which goes into effect on July 1.

Bass and the council have been hoping to persuade city labor unions to provide financial concessions that would help avoid more cuts. So far, no deals have been struck.

On Friday, before the committee began its deliberations, Bass said she is optimistic about avoiding layoffs entirely. At the same time, she spoke against a budget strategy that pits the hiring of police officers against the preservation of other jobs, calling it “a Sophie’s Choice.”

If the LAPD slows down hiring, it will have fewer officers in the run-up to next year’s hosting of the World Cup, she said.

“I’m not going accept that as my choice,” she said.

During the final minutes of Friday’s five-hour meeting, council members made some last-minute restorations, identifying additional funds for youth programs, tree trimming and fire department mechanics. Hernandez pushed for the committee to restore $1 million for Represent LA, which provides legal defense of immigrants facing deportation or other enforcement actions, and $500,000 for graffiti paint-out crews.

Hernandez said the city needs to stand by immigrants amid a harsh federal crackdown. And she described graffiti removal as crucial for public safety in her district.

“Getting graffiti down quickly prevents a lot more people from getting shot, prevents them from getting killed,” she said.