City Council approves items including medical-debt data ordinance; clerk reports 14 ayes

The Los Angeles City Council opened the roll and voted on multiple items. The clerk recorded '14 ayes' when tabulating votes for items 1, 17 and 18.

Councilmember Kevin de León Hernandez (referred to in the transcript as Councilmember Hernandez) presented item 13, an ordinance the council described as authorizing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to collect medical-debt data to facilitate relief and identify who is being billed. Hernandez said the city’s ordinance mirrors an existing county model, credited the County Department of Public Health and asked colleagues to support the measure as a tool to help low-income and working-class families avoid financial devastation from medical bills. The council adopted item 13 'forthwith' and the clerk recorded the vote as 14 ayes.

A separate tally of items 1, 17 and 18 was also recorded as 14 ayes earlier in the meeting; the transcript does not include full roll-call name-by-name tallies for every item in the record excerpt but does record the clerk's summary tabulation. The council then moved to announcements and adjourned.

The transcript does not provide the full ordinance text, specific implementation timeline, or detailed budget impacts; the ordinance presentation stated the data collection would occur at 'no cost to the city' and mirror a county approach.