2026 Culver Crescent Voters Guide

Culver City voters will have a chance to influence the direction of the community locally and beyond in the November 3, 2026 General Election. The information below is intended to provide non-partisan information on the decisions that are being placed before Culver City voters.

City Council Candidate Interviews

Voters may select up to two candidates to fill the seats of the current councilmembers whose terms expire this year: Freddy Puza and Dan O’Brien.

Freddy Puza

(Release Date: October 16)

Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin

(Release Date: October 17)

Franklin Carvajal

(Release Date: October 18)

Thomas Small

(Release Date: October 19)

Kimberley Griffin

(Release Date: October 20)

CCUSD Board of Education Candidate Interviews

Voters may select up to three candidates to fill the seats of the current Culver City Unified School District Board of Education members whose terms expire this year: Triston Ezidore, Brian Guerrero, and Stephanie Loredo.

Darrel Menthe

(Release Date: October 21)

Brian Guerrero

(Release Date: October 22)

Stephanie Loredo

(Release Date: October 23)

Triston Ezidore

(Release Date: October 24)

Ballot Measures

Culver City voters can vote on 14 statewide ballot measures, two countywide measures, and three local ballot measures this election.

State and County Ballot Measures

Measure AA (Parcel Tax Initiative)

Shall the measure, to strengthen academic excellence, attract and retain teachers, support music/ arts/ athletics/ STEM programs, instructional aides, and for other designated purposes, by imposing a special tax on all real estate parcels, including commercial use, of $0.48/ building square foot, with senior exemptions, independent citizen/ auditor oversight, subject to a tax cap, for 10 years, generating approximately $18,000,000 annually in local funds for Culver City public schools that the state cannot take, be adopted?

What is a Parcel Tax?

A parcel tax is a tax charged to property owners. Unlike normal property taxes, which are assessed based on the value of the property, a parcel tax is based on the property's characteristics, such as size or type of use.

Parcel taxes are considered “special taxes,” whose revenues are designated for a specific purpose, while “general taxes” are deposited into the city’s General Fund for future allocation.

These taxes are one of a small handful of methods available to school districts and other Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to directly increase revenue through outside methods.

Under normal circumstances, special taxes require a higher approval threshold to pass than general taxes. However, parcel taxes and other special taxes placed on the ballot through a citizens’ initiative like Measure AA require the normal simple majority approval — which is 50% + one voter — to pass.

City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis of Measure AA

Creates a new forty-eight cents ($0.48) per square foot on all improvements on Culver City parcels up to a maximum of $15,000 per parcel
- Improvements: Any structures built on or into the parcel
Lasts for 10 years unless rescinded or renewed in a future election
The city would collect tax annually and have each parcel owner pay it the same way as other property taxes.
Property owners 65 years and older, anyone who receives Supplemental Security Income for a disability, or those who receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits are exempt.
The City and District jointly form an oversight board to monitor how the funds are used to ensure they are used for educational purposes.
- Must consist of Culver City residents, including parents or guardians of District Students of various grade levels, representatives of District employee bargaining units, and members of the community at large.
- Proper uses of funds include salaries and professional development for staff, maintaining STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs, art, music, visual and performing arts, technology, counseling, health, and extracurricular activities.
  - Funds may not be used for administrative salaries.

Culver Crescent's Analysis of Measure AA

Coming Soon…

Measure YV (Vote 16)

Shall the measure amending the City of Culver City Charter to allow Culver City residents aged 16 and 17, who are otherwise eligible to vote under state and local law, to vote on City and School District candidates and ballot measures, provided that each legislative body has approved budgetary funds and determined logistical systems are in place, and that inclusion would not prevent consolidation of City or School District elections with county elections, be adopted?

City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis of Measure YV

Proposes to add Section 1506, “Voting Age”, to the Charter, which would allow 16- and 17-year-old City residents, who are otherwise eligible under state and local law, to vote in City and CCUSD elections and amends Section 1500 regarding School Board elections to refer to the new provisions.
- Allows the City and the CCUSD to independently decide, as to their respective elections, the manner, method, and times at which 16- and 17-year-olds may cast their votes, which do not need to be the same as those for persons 18 and older.
City Council and the CCUSD Board must each decide to do the following for their respective elections:
1. Approve the budgetary funds to cover any additional election costs that may be incurred;
2. Determine that logistical systems are in place to conduct the election; and
3. Determine that including 16- and 17-year-olds in the election would not prevent consolidation of the election with the County election, which has occurred since 2020.
Equipment, software, and procedures must be in place for voter registration and for casting votes during the election.
- Systems and logistics must be technically capable and ready to handle accommodating 16- and 17-year-old voting.
No direct fiscal impact outlined

Culver Crescent’s Analysis of Measure YV

Measure T (Transient Occupancy Tax Increase)

Shall an ordinance to maintain Culver City emergency response/firefighter/paramedic/ police staffing; affordable housing/ mental health/ homeless reduction programs; improve streets, sidewalks, public transportation, infrastructure, parks and other general fund services by raising Culver City’s transient occupancy tax paid by hotel/ motel guests from 14% to 15% until March 1, 2028, and then to 16%, generating up to approximately $2,000,000 annually until ended by voters, requiring annual audits, public spending disclosures, with all funds used locally, be adopted?

What is the Transient Occupancy Tax?

The Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is a tax charged to hotel guests and users of short-term home stay programs like those facilitated by Airbnb. Hotels charge the TOT as a percentage of the room rate and collect it before remitting it to the city.

Cities collect this tax where the hotel or home stay is located, and deposit the money into the city’s General Fund for future allocation. There is no statewide cap on TOT rates, and rates are not uniform across cities in the Los Angeles area.

City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis of Measure T

Increases the City of Culver City’s current Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) from 14% to 16% in two phases.
- Effective March 1, 2027, the TOT would increase from 14% to 15%.
- Effective March 1, 2028, the TOT would increase from 15% to 16%.
- Does not change the method of collection of the TOT or any other regulations governing it
The current rate has been in effect since 2012
Expected to generate up to an additional $1,000,000, approximately, in the first year of its implementation and up to approximately $2,000,000 per year thereafter, in General Fund revenue to fund City services.

Culver Crescent’s Analysis of Measure T

Coming Soon…

Other Local Candidates

Several races will determine who will represent Culver City in Sacramento and who will be appointed as justices to the L.A. County Superior Court, the largest single unified trial court in the United States.

Recent news these offices helped shape includes an increase in the sales tax cap in L.A. County cities — including Culver City — the $4 billion L.A. County Sexual Abuse settlement, and the new trial and resentencing of the Menendez Brothers.

California Senate, 28th District

Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D), incumbent
- Background: State senator since 2022; previously a journalist, labor organizer, and co-founder of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. She has also worked with SEIU and the UCLA Labor Center.
- Policy positions: Prioritizes worker protections, collective bargaining, union jobs, affordable housing, social-safety-net programs, environmental justice, and universal health care. On criminal justice, she favors diversion, rehabilitation, de-escalation, and alternatives to incarceration, while emphasizing investments in services and economic opportunity.
- Legislative record: Has authored legislation addressing wage theft and retaliation, displaced retail workers, community benefits on infrastructure projects, and affordable/mixed-use housing development.
Joe Lisuzzo (R)
- Background: Businessman with 32 years in the food-manufacturing industry; holds degrees from Cal State and UCLA and serves as an elected member of the South Robertson Neighborhood Council.
- Policy positions: Makes affordability, homelessness, and public safety his three principal priorities. He supports reducing taxes — including eliminating the state gasoline excise tax — cutting government spending and regulations, preserving Proposition 13, and auditing government spending on homelessness.
- Other positions: Supports increased law-enforcement funding and closer cooperation between state and federal authorities on immigration enforcement. He opposes expanding state-subsidized health care to undocumented immigrants and favors reducing regulatory barriers to housing construction. He has also argued for rolling back some state climate and fossil-fuel policies that he believes contribute to higher gasoline prices.

California Assembly District 55

Isaac G. Bryan (D), incumbent
- Background: Assemblymember since May 2021; holds a master's degree in public policy from UCLA. Before entering the Legislature, he worked on economic, environmental, housing, and social-justice issues and co-chaired the campaign for L.A. County's Measure J.
- Policy positions: Prioritizes affordable housing, worker protections and livable wages, environmental protections, youth investment, and economic opportunity. He supports changing the criminal-justice system toward prevention and addressing underlying causes of crime through community investment rather than relying primarily on incarceration.
- Legislative record: Highlights legislation and funding for affordable housing, environmental protections (including neighborhood oil drilling), small businesses, and youth programs. Authored AB 1768, which raised L.A. County's sales tax cap, enabling voters to pass Measure ER and increase sales tax countywide (including in Culver City).
Ashley M. Brown (D)
- Background: School social worker, educator, and union member. Her campaign has emphasized her professional experience working with students and families and described itself as a grassroots campaign.
- Policy positions: Her campaign has centered on mental-health infrastructure, education, economic stability, and prevention-based community safety, including investment in youth and schools. She has described community safety as beginning with strong schools and accessible mental-health services.
- Other positions: Brown has also emphasized accountable leadership, community involvement, and bringing educators' and social-service professionals' perspectives into state policy.

LA County Superior Court Office 64

Maria Ghobadi
- Background & qualifications: Ghobadi is a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney with more than 18 years of prosecutorial experience. She says her career has focused particularly on domestic violence, sexual assault, homicide, and gang-related cases. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology before attending law school.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Her campaign emphasizes public safety and equal justice, and she describes her approach as balancing public protection with the constitutional rights of criminal defendants. Her background is predominantly in criminal prosecution.
- LACBA Rating: The Los Angeles County Bar Association's (LACBA) Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee rated Ghobadi “Well Qualified."
- Notable Endorsements
  - Former District Attorneys Steve Cooley and Jackie Lacey
  - Current District Attorney Nathan Hochman

LA County Superior Court — Office 65

Justin Allen Clayton
- Background & qualifications: Clayton is a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender who has practiced law since 2012. He has handled more than 1,000 adult cases and hundreds of juvenile cases, and since 2023 has served as Deputy-in-Charge of the Public Defender's Inglewood branch while continuing to handle cases himself.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Clayton says he would focus on court efficiency, preparation, and timely case resolution, including clearer calendaring and firm but fair enforcement of deadlines. He also emphasizes defendants' constitutional rights and meaningful opportunities for both sides to be heard.
- LACBA Rating: LACBA rated him Qualified
- Notable Endorsements:
  - Culver City Democratic Club
  - Los Angeles County Democratic Party
  - La Defensa
  - Unite Here Local 11
Anna Slotky Reitano
- Background & qualifications: Reitano has more than 17 years of experience as an attorney and has worked in several areas of the justice system. She spent more than a decade as a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender before becoming a Deputy County Counsel in the County's Justice and Safety Division. In that role, she supervises civil litigation and advises departments dealing with public safety, youth violence prevention, and alternatives to incarceration. She graduated from UC Davis School of Law.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Her campaign emphasizes impartiality, applying the law rather than ideology, courtroom efficiency, due process, and treating litigants with dignity. Her current work gives her experience with both litigation and government programs involving public safety and alternatives to incarceration.
- LACBA Rating: Qualified
- Notable Endorsements:
  - State Senator Ben Allen

LA County Superior Court — Office 87

Anthony "A.J." Bayne
- Background & qualifications: Bayne is a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender with more than 31 years of legal experience, including nearly 26 years with the Public Defender's Office. His campaign says he has handled serious and complex criminal and juvenile cases and tried more than 100 cases to verdict.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Bayne's publicly stated approach emphasizes individualized case consideration, public safety, treatment and rehabilitation where appropriate, and judicial discretion within the law. In his VOTE411 responses, he specifically discusses improving the speed and coordination of court-ordered treatment alternatives so that eligible defendants do not remain in custody unnecessarily while waiting for placement.
- LACBA Rating: Well Qualified
- Notable Endorsements:
  - More than 30 judicial officers
  - Peace Officers Research Association of California
David DeJute
- Background & qualifications: DeJute is a lawyer and adjunct law professor. He began his career as a litigator, later spent nearly a decade as Vice President of Litigation at Sony Pictures, and served 11 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, handling federal litigation and trials. He graduated summa cum laude from Notre Dame and cum laude from Harvard Law School. He currently practices complex litigation and teaches at Pepperdine, where he helps provide legal services to wildfire victims.
- Judicial priorities/positions: DeJute emphasizes rule of law, due process, impartiality, and treating litigants with dignity and respect. He has also spoken about ensuring that cases are decided on their merits and that people have confidence they were heard regardless of the outcome.
- LACBA Rating: Qualified
- Notable Endorsements:
  - Los Angeles County Democratic Party
  - Association of Deputy District Attorneys of Southern California

LA County Superior Court — Office 131

David Ross
- Background & qualifications: Ross has about 30 years of public-defense experience, including work as a Riverside County Deputy Public Defender and, since 2000, as a Los Angeles County Deputy Alternate Public Defender. His campaign says he has represented more than 10,000 indigent defendants and completed more than 110 jury trials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a television reporter/documentary producer and as a congressional legislative aide.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Ross says he would emphasize fairness, independence, efficiency, and due process, including moving cases forward in a timely and organized manner while preserving litigants' rights. He has also highlighted making people feel heard and treated fairly by the court.
- LACBA Rating: Qualified
- Endorsements:
  - Culver City Democratic Club
  - ILWU locals
  - Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys
  - La Defensa
Donna Tryfman
- Background & qualifications: Tryfman has been a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender since 1998, with assignments throughout the county. She previously supervised attorneys at Eastlake Juvenile Court and has worked in collaborative drug court. She currently handles special-circumstance homicide cases in the Public Defender's Major Crimes Unit. She has also served as a Superior Court judge pro tem handling traffic and small-claims matters.
- Judicial priorities/positions: Tryfman emphasizes constitutional rights, due process, equal application of the law, and judicial fairness. She has also identified expanding digital access to the courts, particularly for underserved communities, as an area for improvement.
- LACBA Rating: Qualified
- Notable Endorsements:
  - Democrats of Pasadena Foothills
  - Pilipino American Los Angeles Democrats
  - Southern California News Group
  - Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Upcoming Dates to Watch

September 24 – October 13

Secretary of State’s Office will mail the Official Voter Information Guide during this period.
County Election officials will mail the County Voter Information Guide during this period.

October 5

No later than this date, County Elections officials shall begin mailing each registered voter a vote-by-mail ballot
- If you haven't received your ballot by approximately October 12–16, check its status with L.A. County or contact the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
Early Voting sites open