Hydee Feldstein Soto (born 1958) is an American attorney and politician, who is the incumbent City Attorney of Los Angeles. She is a member of the Democratic Party.[1]
Early life and career
Feldstein Soto was born in 1958 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the mainland United States at age 17 to attend Swarthmore College and Columbia Law School, graduating from the latter in 1982.[2] As an attorney, she served as a general counsel and worked in several private practices.[3]
Los Angeles City Attorney
In 2021, Feldstein Soto announced her candidacy for Los Angeles City Attorney.[4][5] She was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times.[1] She prevailed in the general election, becoming the first female City Attorney in L.A. history, and the first Latina elected to citywide office in Los Angeles.[6][7]
Tenure
On September 12, 2023, Feldstein Soto announced that the City Attorney’s Office had filed a lawsuit against the owners and operator of a motel in South Los Angeles that has served as a “hub for prostitution” for several years.[8]
At the start of Labor Day Weekend, on September 1, 2023, Feldstein Soto joined Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Tim McOsker to unveil new legislation to strengthen the enforcement of wage theft violations.[9][10]
On August 15, 2023, Feldstein Soto announced her office had filed a lawsuit against a company, Nightfall Group, that offers luxury party houses for short term rentals saying that they violate city laws and create a public nuisance. Feldstein Soto said that police have been called more than 250 times in the last two years because of problems at houses that the business rents out in the Hollywood area.[11][12][13]
Affordable housing
While running for office, Feldstein Soto opposed the construction of 140 units of affordable housing in Venice.[14] In July 2024, once Feldstein Soto was in office, advocates for low-income housing sued the city of Los Angeles, accusing Feldstein Soto of violating fair housing laws by blocking the housing development in Venice.[14][15] The Los Angeles Times editorial board criticized Feldstein Soto for derailing the housing development.[16]
Guns
Feldstein Soto announced a settlement in her office's lawsuit against Polymer80, the nation's largest manufacturer of weapons parts kits and components, permanently prohibiting the company from selling its weapons parts kits its in California without first conducting background checks of buyers and serializing its products. In addition, the company and its founders were ordered to pay $5 million in civil penalties.[17] The lawsuit had been filed in February 2021, almost two years before Feldstein Soto took office, and was prosecuted by staff who predated Feldstein Soto's election along with Everytown Law and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.[18][19]
Skid Row Housing Trust
In March 2023, Feldstein Soto asked a court to appoint Mark Adams as a receiver for the Skid Row Housing Trust, which holds a collection of 29 buildings home to 1,500 formerly unhoused people. Feldstein Soto described Adams as "the most experienced health and safety receiver we were able to locate in the state of California".[20] A Los Angeles Times review of Adams's record showed that he had a history of overbilling local governments, failing to maintain the conditions of his properties and putting vulnerable tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness.[21][22] In July 2023, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Adams had hosted a fundraiser for Feldstein Soto. She subsequently withdrew her support for Adams, who resigned.[23]
In 2023, the Los Angeles Times reported that Feldstein Soto had instructed city agencies to not interact with the developers of a project for homeless and affordable housing on a city-owned parking lot in Venice, an affluent neighborhood of L.A. The project had been approved by the City Council and had survived NIMBY lawsuits, but Feldstein Soto's actions delayed it from moving forward.[24][25]
Police Officer Photographs and Public Records
Under Feldstein Soto's leadership, her office sued journalist Ben Camacho and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a local advocacy organization, to return a flash drive containing photographs of LAPD officers. The City of Los Angeles had given Camacho the pictures in response to a public records request, and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition subsequently published them on the website WatchTheWatchers.net as well as for download on the Internet Archive[26] A coalition of media organizations denounced the lawsuit as limiting the freedom of the press.[27] Constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky commented that "the city is on very weak legal grounds".[28] In June of 2024, The city of Los Angeles agreed to pay $300,000 in a tentative settlement to Knock LA journalist Ben Camacho and the group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition for their legal fees.[29]
Weakening of California Public Records Act
Following the LAPD picture release, Feldstein Soto suggested to several California state legislators to weaken the California Public Records Act of 1968 by exempting "images or data that may personally identify an individual". The ACLU described Feldstein Soto's proposal as a "gutting" of the Public Records Act.[30]
