Nury Martinez

As City Council President during the COVID-19 pandemic, Martinez has used her role to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding as part of her Families First agenda, supporting impacted Angelenos with rent, child care, and utility bills, as well as assistance to small businesses to stay afloat. In July 2020, she launched the Emergency Renters Assistance Program, which provided $103 million in subsidies of up to $2,000 per household for renters who could demonstrate how they were impacted by COVID-19 and who earned less than 80% of the area median income.[6]

She also allocated $50 million to provide two weeks pay to those who were infected and could not work,[7] $40 million for a regional COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Fund to provide grants to small businesses, which included specific allocations for micro-entrepreneurs like street vendors and for victims of domestic violence,[8] and $30 million to assist low-income families access child care, which included $10 million to establish 50 Alternative Learning Centers at city parks, and $20 million to help child care facilities stay open and offer vouchers to families. In October 2020, she announced a $50 million program to provide one-time grants of $500 to help Angelenos who lost work because of the pandemic pay their utility bills over the holidays.[9][10]

The fight against domestic violence and human trafficking has been a signature issue for Martinez. In 2015, she championed a plan to create a Valley Bureau Human Trafficking Task Force, which among other things would target the criminal enterprise behind prostitution and the "johns" that supported this activity. One tactic that the LAPD was to employ as part of this effort, was to send "dear john" letters to people who travel areas frequented by prostitutes. In 2019, Martinez advocated for California Senate Bill 630,[11] which called for certain businesses and entities to post bills that state the human trafficking laws as well as funding a human trafficking hotline.[12]

Councilwoman Martinez has also been an advocate for the undocumented community in the San Fernando Valley. In January 2020, she placed a ban on migrant centers within Los Angeles city limits after a children's migrant center was proposed in the community of Arleta in her district. [13]

As the former Executive Director of Pacoima Beautiful, Martinez focuses on environmental justice. In early 2019, she joined several of her colleagues to introduce a local Green New Deal for the City of Los Angeles.[14] In August 2020, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power revealed that there had been methane gas leaks at the Valley Generating Station in Martinez's district for over a year. Martinez subsequently called for the plant to be shut down, which was formalized by a vote of the City Council in November 2020 directing the department to develop a timeline for the plant's closure.[15]

In 2015, Martinez's reelection campaign was accused of submitting fraudulent donor information in order to receive $65,360 in taxpayer-matched funds.[16] In 2019, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office ended its investigation into Martinez's 2015 campaign, citing insufficient evidence to pursue a fraud case.[17]