Happy New Year, California! (Is it still okay to say that?)
This year has begun with extraordinarily heavy days for our communities. One of our neighbors here in Los Angeles and two neighbors in Minnesota have been murdered at the hands of ICE agents while so many are detained, have been deported, or are disappeared. These federal actions have shaken trust, broken families, and reminded us how real the stakes are for our people. But even in moments like this, local government remains the closest, most accountable line of defense our neighbors have. You are the leaders we need. What you do in city halls, school boards, and county offices matters profoundly right now and you’ve all been proof of that. Here’s a peek at what our members and partners have been working on.
🥂 Toasting to Our Growing Team
This January we welcomed Brian Molina to the Local Progress team as our California Director at our first social of the year. Our team hosted the Good Trouble Happy Hour in Downtown Los Angeles to celebrate the now-official Local Progress California chapter and kick off the new year among our members and organizational partners. The energy in the room was the energy we needed: fired up and ready to protect our people, communities, and our democracy. We heard from our Executive Director Ivan Luevanos-Elms, Los Angeles Unified School District Board Vice President and LPCA Founding Organizing Committee Member Rocio Rivas, Los Angeles City Councilmember and LP Public Safety Steering Committee Member Eunisses Hernandez, and our new California Director Brian. Thank you to all the nearly fifty members, organizational partners, and LP staff who attended. 🩷💜
Join us in welcoming Brian Molina to the Local Progress team! You can email him here. San Diego area members, keep an eye out for a Good Trouble Happy Hour coming to you soon!
💵 Santa Monica’s Affordability Agenda
Inspired by our recently released Affordability for All: An Agenda to Bring Down Costs for Working Families, members Mayor Caroline Torosis, Councilmember Dan Hall, and Councilmember Ellis Raskin have introduced their own Affordability Agenda to evaluate and advance targeted affordability strategies to address the cost of living crisis so many are facing. It includes looking into public grocery, baby baskets, tenant unionization support, supporting ICE-detained workers and their families, protecting tips, new tenant protections, among other ideas.
🤝 We Are California
Our partner coalition, We Are California, is leading on several campaigns to push back against fascism and support one another in these times. Among those campaigns is a call to boycott any business that funds or enables the bigots, bullies and billionaires funding the violence. Pledge to join the boycott today.
🚫 No Secret Police in California
Over the last few months, Local Progress members have led the way – spearheading policies and taking action to protect our most vulnerable community members and standing against the surveillance, detainment, and deportation of our neighbors. Local governments continue to be the last line of defense for residents’ right to safety in this era of rising authoritarianism.
Local Progress has created the No Secret Police Local Policy Toolkit to help local governments wield their power in counties, cities and school districts to disrupt the rise in authoritarian tactics utilized by the Trump administration. The toolkit features model ordinances and guidance for how local governments can cut ties with harmful surveillance technology and detention centers in our communities, end partnerships with federal immigration enforcement agencies, and create robust sanctuary policy to keep our students safe and create welcoming school environments. If you’re interested in spearheading one or more of these policies in your communities, please see this messaging resource, which includes talking points / messaging guidance for each policy included in this toolkit.
📜 Introduce a Resolution to Demand: ICE OUT!
Congress has until February 13th to reach an agreement on how and whether to fund DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol. As local elected officials, we must use our power and our voices to turn the pressure up and together say: ICE OUT.
Local Progress members have been calling on Congress to use the power of the purse to stop ICE. Last week, Local Progress member Teresa Mosqueda (King County, WA) introduced and passed a first-of-its-kind resolution calling for funding restrictions and regulations for DHS. We are following her lead and organizing members like you across the country to pass resolutions of your own. We’ve created sample resolutions for cities, counties, and school boards to give you a head start. Will you join our organized force to protect our communities and stop ICE and DHS from wreaking more havoc?
This funding impasse gives us a chance to restrain their barbaric tactics. The resolution calls on Congress to:
- End enforcement surges in places like Minneapolis;
- Prohibit masks and end racial targeting and targeting of daycares and schools;
- Place strong guardrails on ICE including requiring judicial warrants and allowing localities to investigate misconduct;
- End detention center abuses and restore people’s access to bond hearings; and
- Make deep cuts to the $170 billion dollars given to DHS in last year’s funding legislation.
➡️ From Campaigns to Governance: A Partner’s Guide to Building Our Base Together
Do you know someone who won last November? With nearly 1,800 members, Local Progress continues to be the best place for values-aligned local elected officials to be in community with one another. As one member shared in our survey last year, “The support and friendship I have built over the years are what keep me going!” With your help, we can identify new members to join the network and have the community you have come to cherish. Check out our partner’s guide.
🎙️ Listen to the Preemption Download
Across our membership, nearly every local official has faced some form of preemption or encroachment on local control. From state capitals to D.C., state and federal representatives continue to pass new laws that strip local governments of their powers. But across our network of nearly 1,800 local officials, there are many incredible stories of resistance and new strategies for fighting back.
Local Progress is proud to launch our new audio series, “The Preemption Download”! Over the course of ten episodes, we’ll introduce you to ten local elected officials who have faced preemption and came away with a stronger understanding of how to fight it. For our first episode, we spoke with Tallahassee City Commissioner Jack Porter about the everyday preemption battles she faces as a local elected official in Florida. You can listen here on our Instagram.
🏡 Your One Stop for Caucuses
Trying to remember when the next Nuestro Caucus General meeting is? Want to join the Black Caucus signal group chat? Or find your caucus playlist? Look no further! Your one stop shop for all things caucus is right here!
📨 Help Us Find the Next Collaborative Governance Academy Director!
With our recent re-launch of the Collaborative Governance (CGA), formerly known as Progressive Governance Academy or PGA, we are looking for a deeply collaborative and strategic leader to evolve and elevate this joint initiative, both as a model for progressive leadership development and as a model for collective impact. The CGA Director will bring their vision and expertise to shaping and formalizing the CGA as an enduring program by setting a renewed strategy with a focus on scaling for impact. Click here to share the posting!
⚡️ National Convening Registration Launching Soon for Members & Alumni Leaders!
Are you ready for this year’s convening? We can’t wait to see you in Baltimore, MD on July 9-11! Over the past year, the community care amongst the incredible Local Progress network in this moment makes crystal clear what we’ve always known – that even in the midst of relentless attacks on immigrants, Black and Brown folks, LGBTQ+ people, workers, youth, and our communities – localities are not only at the forefront but serve as the bedrock of transformative change. It is this movement of local elected officials leading fearlessly to build a world where all of us can be grounded in our joy and freedom that inspires our 2026 theme: Fearless Leadership * Joyful Liberation.
🩷💜Want to get involved with our chapter or have an idea? Let’s talk!
Local Progress members have access to a slew of policy and strategic resources, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start, so let’s connect about it. I am based in Los Angeles and I would love to meet with you online or wherever you are. Schedule a meeting with me!
🌊Help us in the Central Coast
Our Local Progress California Steering Committee is missing critical representation from the Central Coast region. If you’d like to support the growth of our California work and represent the Central Coast, please let me know.
Dr. Heber Marquez was first elected to the Maywood City Council in November of 2018 after being pushed by his students to run for office. He was recently selected to lead as Mayor. He joined Local Progress in Summer 2022 and has attended the National Convening which he feels reignites his fire, reaffirms his commitment to humanity, and reminds him that he is not fighting alone.
His work is guided by love for his community and informed by data, which is how he plans to strengthen and introduce policies that protect our immigrant neighbors, expand access to mental health resources by exploring how social prescribing can be implemented in Maywood, introduce art as a means to strengthen community and address root causes of crime, strengthen the Youth Commission, and review their housing policies to ensure they align with the lived realities and needs of residents.
Fun fact about Maywood: Most people don’t know that Maywood was once the home of the famous Tapatio Hot Sauce.