wednesday

Second round of talks to follow negotiations last month that appeared to make little progress on key issue of territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a second round of trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi this week as the fate of a temporary energy ceasefire hangs in the balance.

Zelenskyy, whose country’s energy system has come under relentless attack in one of the coldest winters in years, said envoys from the United States, Russia and Ukraine would meet in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” he said on Sunday amid continuing US pressure to reach a deal with Russia after almost four years of war.

The first round of trilateral negotiations took place in late January but appeared to make little progress on the vital question of territory. Moscow still is demanding Kyiv cede a fifth of the Donetsk region that it still controls, which Zelenskyy’s government is refusing to do. The next round had been scheduled to take place on Sunday but may have been delayed because of the US-Iran crisis.

US President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to be remembered as a “peacemaker”, has repeatedly said a deal to end the Ukraine war is close and on Thursday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to stop strikes on energy targets for a week due to cold weather.

The terms of his agreement with Putin were not clear, but the Kremlin said on Friday that it had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure until Sunday. Ukraine appeared to believe the suspension was supposed to last until the following Friday.

Medvedev says Russian victory near

Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that he held constructive talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks. Witkoff said afterwards that he was “encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine”.

On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Trump as a “peacemaker”, telling the Reuters news agency that Russia would “soon” achieve a military victory in the Ukraine war.

“But it is equally important to think about what will happen next. After all, the goal of victory is to prevent new conflicts. This is absolutely obvious,” said the hawkish former president, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia have reported major strikes on their energy infrastructure in recent days although Zelenskyy said Russia was trying “to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities” through air attacks.

In southeastern Ukraine, two people were killed overnight in a drone strike on a residential building in the city of Dnipro, and six people were wounded in an attack on a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said.

ATLANTA — It is a goal spreading among anti-tax crusaders — eliminate all property taxes on homeowners.

Rising property values have inflated tax bills in many states, but ending all homeowner taxes would cost billions or even tens of billions in most states. It is unclear whether lawmakers can pull it off without harming schools and local governments that rely on the taxes to provide services.

Officials in North Dakota say they are on their way, using state oil money. Wednesday, Republicans in the Georgia House unveiled a complex effort to phase out homeowner property taxes by 2032. In Florida, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis says that is his goal, with lawmakers considering phasing out nonschool property taxes on homeowners over 10 years. And in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants to eliminate property taxes for schools.

Republicans are echoing those who say taxes, especially when the tax collector can seize a house for nonpayment, mean no one truly owns property.

“No one should ever face the loss of their home because they can’t pay rent to the government,” Georgia Republican House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington said Wednesday.

An election-year tax revolt

These audacious election-year efforts could be joined by ballot initiatives in Oklahoma and Ohio to eliminate all property taxes. Such initiatives were defeated in North Dakota in 2024 and failed to make the ballot in Nebraska that year, although organizers there are trying again. Another initiative in Michigan may also fail to make the ballot.

“We’re very much in this property tax revolt era, which is not unique, it’s not new. We’ve seen these revolts in the past,” said Manish Bhatt, vice president of state tax policy at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., group that is generally skeptical of new taxes.

Previous backlashes led to laws like California’s Proposition 13, a 1978 initiative that limited property tax rates and how much local governments could increase property valuations for tax purposes.

The efforts are aimed at voters like Tim Hodnett, a 65-year-old retiree in suburban Atlanta’s Lawrenceville. Hodnett’s annual property tax bill rose from $2,000 to $3,000 between 2018 and 2024. He sees those figures starkly because he paid off his mortgage years ago, and he pays his taxes all at once instead of making monthly payments.

Hodnett said he is disabled and living on $30,000 a year. He is about to get a big property tax break, because seniors in Gwinnett County are exempt from school property taxes, about two-thirds of his bill. But he would love not to pay that other $1,000.

“It would be nice to be exempt from property taxes,” Hodnett said.

Will there be replacement revenue?

The question is whether local governments and K-12 schools should be expected to cut spending, or whether they will be allowed to make up revenue from some other source.

“I think the complete elimination of the property tax for homeowners is really going to be very difficult in most states and localities around the country, and undesirable in most places,” said Adam Langley of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Massachusetts nonprofit that studies land use and taxation.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican, has been touring the state arguing that local governments are overspending, trying to show they don’t need the $19 billion in property taxes they collect from homeowners for whom the property is their primary residence. Local governments have been disputing those figures.

North Dakota is using earnings from the state’s $13.4-billion oil tax savings account to gradually wipe out homeowner property taxes. Last year, North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature expanded its primary residence tax credit from $500 to $1,600 a year. Officials in December said the tax credit wiped out property taxes for 50,000 households last year and reduced bills for nearly 100,000 more. That cost $400 million in state subsidies for the 2025 and 2026 tax years.

“It works, and we know we can build on it to provide even more relief and get property taxes to zero for the vast majority of North Dakota homeowners,” Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong said.

The situation is murkier in Texas, which has been using state surplus funds to finance property tax reductions, and under the Georgia proposal, which calls for shifting taxes around.

A shift from property to sales taxes

Burns wants Georgia to wipe out $5.2 billion in homeowner property taxes — more than a quarter of the $19.9 billion in property taxes collected in 2024 — telling cities, counties and school districts to fall back on current or new sales taxes.

Not only will Burns’ plan need the Republican-led Senate to agree, but it will require Democratic support to meet the two-thirds hurdle for a state constitutional amendment and then voter approval in November.

While most property taxes go to schools, the majority of sales taxes don’t in some communities. It is unclear whether localities would redivide sales taxes. Also, local governments and schools would remain limited to a combined 5% sales tax rate, atop the state’s 4% rate. Some schools and governments might not be able to raise sales taxes enough to recover lost revenue.

Georgia would go from currently shielding $5,000 in home value from taxation to $150,000 in 2031 before abolishing most homeowner property taxes in 2032. The plan would limit yearly property tax revenue growth to 3% on other kinds of property.

Local governments would able to send homeowners a yearly bill for specified services such as garbage pickup, street lighting, stormwater control and fire protection, but lawmakers aren’t calling that a tax. Voters could also approve assessments for government or school improvements. Authors said they haven’t decided whether property owners could lose homes for unpaid assessments.

Burns also wants to spend about $1 billion to cut property tax bills in 2026, but it is unclear whether Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will agree. A spokesperson declined to comment.

Georgia previously tried to limit how much home values could rise for tax purposes, one common approach nationwide. But a majority of school districts and many other local governments have opted out. Georgia’s senators are still pursuing that approach, with a Senate committee on Wednesday voting to make the limit mandatory.

Amy writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

The schism between Democratic environmental ideals and California voters’ anxiety about affordability, notably gas prices, were on full display during an environmental policy forum among some of the state’s top Democratic candidates for governor on Wednesday.

The Democrats questioned the economic impact Californians could face because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s goal to have the state transition to zero-emission vehicles, a policy that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035. The Trump administration has attempted to negate the policy by canceling federal tax credits for the purchase of such vehicles along with invalidating California’s strict emission standards.

“It’s absolutely true that it’s not affordable today for many people to choose” an electric vehicle, said former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine. “It’s the fact that, particularly with expiring federal subsidies and the cuts that [President] Trump has made, an electric vehicle often costs $8,000 or $10,000 more. If we want people to choose EVs, we have to close that gap.”

Both Porter and rival Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under former President Biden, said that as governor they would focus on making low-emission vehicles more affordable and practical. Porter said the cost of buying a zero-emission car needs to be comparable with those that run on gas, and Becerra said California needs to have enough charging stations so drivers “don’t have to worry can they get to their destination.”

“We know our future is in clean energy and in making our environment as clean as possible,” Becerra said. “We’ve got to make it affordable for families.”

Porter and Becerra joined two other Democrats in the 2026 California governor’s race — former hedge fund founder turned environmental advocate Tom Steyer and Rep. Eric Swalwell of Dublin — at the Pasadena event hosted by California Environmental Voters, UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, the Climate Center Action Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. The Democrats largely agreed about issues such as combating climate change, accelerating the transition to clean energy and protecting California’s water resources.

The coalition invited the six candidates with greatest support in recent public opinion polls. Republicans Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, and Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, did not respond to an invitation to participate in the forum, which was moderated by Sammy Roth, the writer of Climate-Colored Goggles on Substack, and Louise Bedsworth, executive director of the UC Berkeley center.

Newsom, who has acknowledged that he is considering a run for president in 2028, is serving the final year of his second term as governor and is barred from running again.

The state’s high cost of living, including high gas prices, continues to be a political vulnerability for Democrats who support California’s progressive environmental agenda.

In another controversial issue facing the state, most of the Democratic candidates on Wednesday distanced themselves from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel, a massive and controversial proposal to move water to Southern California and the Central Valley. Though it has seen various iterations, the concept dates back to Gov. Jerry Brown’s first foray as California governor more than four decades ago.

Despite Newsom’s efforts to fast-track the project, it has been stalled by environmental reviews and lawsuits. It hit another legal hurdle this month when a state appeals court rejected the state’s plan to finance the 45-mile tunnel.

Swalwell, Porter and Steyer argued that there are faster and less expensive ways to collect and deliver water to thirsty parts of California.

“We have to move much faster than the Delta tunnel could ever move in terms of solving our water problems,” Steyer said, adding that data and technology could be deployed to more efficiently deliver water to farms.

Swalwell said he does not support the project “as it’s designed now” and proposed covering “400 miles of aqueducts” with solar panels.

During Wednesday’s forum, Becerra also committed a gaffe as he discussed rooftop solar programs for Californians with a word that some consider a slur about Jewish people.

“We need to go after the shysters,” Becerra said. “We know that there are people who go out there to swindle families as they talk about rooftop solar, so we have to make sure that that doesn’t happen so they get the benefit of solar.”

The term is not viewed as derogatory as other antisemitic slurs and was routinely used in past decades, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign noted after the event.

“Secretary Becerra never knew this word to be offensive and certainly he meant no disrespect to anyone,” said a campaign spokesperson. “He was talking about protecting the hardest-working and lowest-paid Californians who are often taken advantage of by unscrupulous actors.”

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

BOYS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 39, MSAR 28
Angelou 76, Jefferson 65
Bernstein 89, Belmont 35
Birmingham 72, Taft 48
Central City Value 58, USC-MAE 46
CHAMPS 54, Lakeview Charter 21
Cleveland 79, Granada Hills 57
Community Charter 54, Valley Oaks CES 41
East Valley 64, Vaughn 48
El Camino Real 66, Chatsworth 58
Foshay 76, Stella Charter 23
Fulton 51, VAAS 39
Garfield 53, Huntington Park 45
Gertz-Ressler 68, Alliance Ouchi 27
Grant 77, Chavez 35
Hawkins 60, Harbor Teacher 42
Los Angeles 76, West Adams 49
LA Hamilton 61, LA University 55
LA Marshall 68, Bravo 45
LA Roosevelt 56, South Gate 30
LA Wilson 83, Franklin 45
Lincoln 43, Eagle Rock 39
Marquez 89, Torres 29
Maywood Academy 45, Maywood CES 41
MSCP 68, Middle College 30
Orthopaedic 46, Animo Bunche 25
Palisades 91, LACES 63
Panorama 64, Reseda 47
Port of Los Angeles 79, Dymally 27
RFK Community 58, Hollywood 56
San Fernando 82, Canoga Park 51
San Pedro 81, Gardena 60
Santee 65, Diego Rivera 45
Simon Tech 66, TEACH Tech Charter 34
Sotomayor 67, Elizabeth 48
South East 71, Legacy 58
Sun Valley Magnet 78, Lake Balboa College 59
Sun Valley Poly 59, North Hollywood 56
Sylmar 86, Van Nuys 55
Triumph Charter 72, Bert Corona 20
USC Hybrid 77, Esperanza College Prep 22
Valor Academy 51, Discovery 25
View Park 60, Locke 36
Washington Prep d. Fremont, forfeit

SOUTHERN SECTION
Aliso Niguel 65, Trabuco Hills 43
Arroyo 74, Pasadena Marshall 41
Ayala 71, Diamond Bar 63
Azusa 73, Baldwin Park 55
Bassett 66, Pomona 34
Bishop Amat 76, Gardena Serra 38
Blair 58, Temple City 51
Bonita 60, Walnut 55
Burbank Providence 66, Milken 55
California 75, El Rancho 36
Chaparral 73, Vista Murrieta 58
Charter Oak 56, Hacienda Heights Wilson 55
Citrus Hill 72, Canyon Springs 37
Covina 42, Rowland 39
CSDR 62, La Sierra Academy 46
Desert Christian Academy 41, California Military Institute 32
Desert Hot Springs 68, Banning 56
Eastvale Roosevelt 94, Norco 51
Edgewood 59, Workman 24
El Dorado 68, Troy 47
Gahr 43, Dominguez 36
Glendora 62, Claremont 47
Hemet 66, Arlington 32
Heritage 68, Lakeside 61
Hesperia 99, Apple Valley 60
Indian Springs 57, Pacific 49
Indio 70, Twentynine Palms 66
JSerra 89, Servite 47
La Canada 76, South Pasadena 45
La Mirada 81, Mayfair 65
La Serna 60, Santa Fe 24
Loara 57, Magnolia 45
Los Alamitos 71, Fountain Valley 52
Los Amigos 72, Anaheim 55
Mission Viejo 75, Dana Hills 56
Moreno Valley 66, Riverside North 44
Murrieta Mesa 71, Great Oak 63
Nogales 56, Garey 43
Norte Vista 86, Rubidoux 44
Norwalk 42, Lynwood 33
Orange Lutheran 72, St. John Bosco 68
Oxnard Pacifica 59, Buena 54
Paloma Valley 56, Vista del Lago 49
Pasadena Poly 47, Flintridge Prep 42
Patriot 56, la Sierra 29
Pilibos 89, Le Lycée 40
Public Safety Academy 74, River Springs Charter 28
Ramona 73, Jurupa Valley 40
Riverside King 69, Corona 61
Riverside Poly 54, Hillcrest 47
Rosemead 46, South El Monte 29
RSCSM 62, River Springs 52
San Bernardino 95, Miller 58
San Clemente 64, Capistrano Valley 37
San Marcos 61, Dos Pueblos 51
San Marino 77, Monrovia 40
Santa Barbara Providence 72, Oak Grove 16
Santa Margarita 74, Mater Dei 73
Sierra Vista 68, Duarte 61
St. Bonaventure 52, Thacher 47
St. Monica 89, St. Paul 53
Tesoro 74, San Juan Hills 39
Valley View 78, Perris 65
Villanova Prep 57, Laguna Blanca 42
Vista Meridian 58, Eastside Christian 34
Westminster La Quinta 48, Orange 46

GIRLS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 27, MSAR 20
Angelou 51, Jefferson 22
Animo Bunche 33, Orthopaedic 24
Arleta 67, Monroe 7
Aspire Ollin 53, Downtown Magnets 9
Bernstein 52, Belmont 4
Birmingham 76, Taft 29
Carson 92, Rancho Dominguez 3
Contreras 28, Roybal 19
Discovery 35, Valor Academy 24
Eagle Rock d. Lincoln, forfeit
King/Drew 85, Crenshaw 20
LA Hamilton 88, LA University 16
Garfield 63, Huntington Park 30
Granada Hills 56, Cleveland 45
Marquez 33, Torres 28
MSCP 53, Middle College 15
Palisades 56, LACES 35
Panorama 54, Reseda 12
San Pedro 42, Gardena 24
USC-MAE 31, Central City Value 28
Washington Prep 79, Fremont 7
West Adams 55, Los Angeles 20
Westchester 83, Venice 44

SOUTHERN SECTION
Arlington 32, Citrus Hill 15
Arroyo 24, Pasadena Marshall 16
Baldwin Park 48, Azusa 39
Bassett 23, Pomona 8
Bolsa Grande 42, Estancia 31
Bonita 34, Walnut 30
Brentwood 59, Windward 57
Buena Park 73, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 10
Cantwell-Sacred Heart 52, St. Mary’s Academy 25
Carpinteria 44, Del Sol 24
Chaparral 52, Vista Murrieta 50
Coachella Valley 54, Yucca Valley 44
Crossroads 45, Archer 12
Desert Christian Academy 47, California Military Institute 30
Desert Hot Springs 49, Banning 42
Desert Mirage 31, Cathedral City 24
Eastvale Roosevelt 58, Corona Santiago 38
Edgewood 49, Workman 22
El Rancho 60, California 47
Excelsior Charter 48, PAL Academy 4
Fillmore 53, Nordhoff 43
Flintridge Prep 58, Mayfield 14
Fullerton 56, Laguna Hills 32
Garden Grove 52, Katella 39
Glendora 55, Claremont 38
Godinez 75, Placentia Valencia 60
Hacienda Heights Wilson 59, Charter Oak 26
Harvard-Westlake 58, Louisville 29
Hemet 45, Canyon Springs 39
Hesperia 59, Apple Valley 21
Hillcrest 58, Riverside Poly 46
Indian Springs 59, Pacific 26
La Canada 54, South Pasadena 39
La Palma Kennedy 30, Santa Ana 7
La Puente 38, Ganesha 30
Liberty 44, Vista del Lago 18
Loara 28, Westminster La Quinta 19
Long Beach Jordan 66, Long Beach Cabrillo 0
Nogales 62, Garey 23
Norte Vista 31, Rubidoux 12
Northview 38, West Covina 36
Northwood 46, Irvine University 26
Norwalk 56, Bellflower 37
Oak Hills 71, Ridgecrest Burroughs 35
Orange 57, Magnolia 13
Orange County Pacifica Christian 69, San Gabriel Academy 18
Packinghouse Christian Academy 47, Bethel Christian 10
Paramount 84, La Mirada 15
Pasadena Poly 56, Oakwood 37
Patriot 42, La Sierra 34
Pilibos 55, Le Lycée 10
Quartz Hill 53, Rosamond 37
Ramona 64, Jurupa Valley 38
Riverside North 36, Lakeside 31
River Springs Charter Magnolia d. Hemet River Springs, forfeit
Rolling Hills Prep 91, Leuzinger 67
Rosemead 51, South El Monte 24
Saddleback 27, Century 22
Sage Hill 65, Rosary Academy 50
San Bernardino 56, Miller 19
San Marino 40, Monrovia 13
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 59, Chaminade 50
Sierra Vista 44, Duarte 42
St. Margaret’s 36, Portola 32
Warren 74, Mayfair 15
Western 52, Garden Grove Santiago 8
Woodbridge 44, Irvine 27

A Los Angeles County judge ruled Wednesday that a corruption case against L.A. City Councilman Curren Price can move forward to trial, ensuring the misconduct scandal will hang over the veteran politician’s final year in office.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba determined that prosecutors had provided enough evidence to move forward on four counts of voting on matters in which Price had a conflict of interest, four counts of embezzlement and four counts of perjury.

Price, who is set to leave the City Council after reaching his term limit at the end of the year, declined to comment after the hearing.

The councilman, who has represented South L.A. for more than a decade, was charged in June 2023. Prosecutors allege Price repeatedly voted to approve sales of land to developers or funding for agencies who had done business with his wife, Del Richardson, and her consulting company. Some of the votes involved funding and grants for the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city housing authority.

Price, 75, is also accused of perjury for failing to include Richardson’s income on disclosure forms and embezzlement for including her on his city health insurance plan before they were legally married. He is due back in court in March, Torrealba said.

Richardson was named as a “suspect” in the district attorney’s office’s initial investigation in 2022, according to documents made public last year, but she was never charged with a crime. She has been among a group of Price’s supporters who have been in court for the past week. The two wore matching burgundy suits during Wednesday’s hearing.

Much of the weeklong proceeding centered around whether Price knew of potential conflicts of interest before casting votes, or intended to hide his financial stakes in them from the public. Delphi Smith, a former staffer for the councilman, and Price’s deputy chief of staff Maritza Alcaraz took the stand to explain the process they used to flag problematic council votes for Price and insisted they made their best efforts to highlight agenda items linked to vendors or agencies who had worked with Richardson.

“If the Councilman voted on something that was a potential conflict, he did so without knowing,” Alcaraz testified Wednesday.

L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Casey Higgins, however, said Price is ultimately responsible for disclosing conflicts of interest and argued blaming his subordinates was not a defense to corruption charges.

“It’s not only hiding. It’s trying to create a wall around himself, to create this plausible deniability,” Higgins said. “It’s this ostrich with his head in the sand approach.”

Higgins said Alcaraz and Smith were “trying to jump in front of the bus” and that it was impossible to believe that Price had no knowledge of the conflicts. The dealings allegedly took place between 2019 and 2021 — after a 2019 Times investigation revealed he voted on decisions involving at least 10 companies in the same years they were listed as providing at least $10,000 in income to Richardson’s firm.

Price’s defense attorney, Michael Schafler, has argued there is no evidence that Price knew of the conflicts, and claimed payments to Richardson had no influence on Price’s voting decisions. All of the votes referenced in the criminal complaint passed with overwhelming support, and Price’s vote made no difference in the final result.

“There’s been no evidence presented that Mr. Price acted with any wrongful intent. No testimony from any witness … who said Mr. Price acted with willful intent,” Schafler said Wednesday. “I’ve never seen a public corruption case like that in my life.”

There were enormous sums of money on the line in each vote referenced in the criminal complaint. Richardson took in more than a half-million from October 2019 to June 2020 from the city housing authority before Price voted in favor of millions in grant funding for the agency, according to an amended complaint filed against Price last year.

Prosecutors also alleged Price wrote a motion to give $30 million to the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority during a time frame when Richardson was paid upward of $200,000 by the agency.

After Torrealba’s ruling, Schafler said he was “disappointed” but thought the evidence presented over the past week revealed that “the prosecution’s case has a lot of gaps, a lot of holes, it’s based largely on speculation.”

Some of Price’s City Council colleagues have said Price’s alleged crimes were tantamount to paperwork errors, and should have been handled by the city’s Ethics Commission.

While questioning former employees of Price and Richardson, Higgins sought to paint a more nefarious picture. He repeatedly scrutinized the way that Price’s staff and a former employee of Del Richardson & Associates compiled a list of the firm’s projects that could represent conflicts and communicated about them.

Much of the conflict information was placed on a flash drive and given to Smith in person by Martisa Garcia, an employee of Richardson, Higgins said. Updates to the file were then made over the phone, and not discussed via e-mail, according to Higgins. When Smith and Alcaraz discussed votes in which Price might have to recuse himself, they did so on personal phones rather than city-issued devices, according to evidence Higgins put forth.

Higgins suggested Price’s staff was trying to hide the conflicts of interest.

“Was the thumb drive used to avoid public records requests?” Higgins asked Alcaraz, who curtly replied “No.”

Generally speaking, California Public Records Act requests for an elected official’s communications will only capture what is contained on government devices, not personal phones or e-mails. A spokeswoman for Price, Angelina Valenica, said there was no “intent to avoid PRA requirements” on the part of Price’s staff.

“The Councilmember was not involved in the handling, transport or storage of this information,” she said. “He relied on and trusted his staff to handle the matter appropriately and to seek guidance as necessary.”

While it’s unlikely Price will stand trial before his term runs out, the case could loom large over the race to replace him. A field of seven candidates is running for his council seat, including Price’s deputy chief of staff, Jose Ugarte, who has faced allegations that he failed to disclose consulting income that are similar to the basis of the perjury charges against his boss.

Chris Martin, a candidate and civil rights attorney with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said Wednesday that if the allegations are true, Price and his staff need to step down.

“It’s a serious breach of public trust. It’s important that we have leaders in the 9th District who will walk with integrity,” Martin said. “It also seems like he’s got a major issue with his staff enabling him. They should all resign.”