Kenneth Mejia
Official portrait, 2023
20thCity Controller of Los Angeles
Incumbent
Assumed office December 12, 2022
Mayor	Karen Bass
Preceded by	Ron Galperin
Personal details
Born	(1990-11-07)November 7, 1990 (age 35) Los Angeles,California, U.S.[1]
Party	Independent (2024–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic (before 2017; 2021–2024) Green (2017–2021)
Alma mater	Woodbury University (BS)
Occupation	Certified Public Accountant
Website	controller.lacity.gov

Kenneth Mejia (born November 7, 1990)^[2] is an American activist,accountant, and politician, serving as theCity Controller of Los Angeles since 2022. Mejia was a three-time candidate for theUnited States House of Representatives inCalifornia's 34th congressional district, prior to his candidacy andsubsequent election as City Controller in 2022.^[3][4][5]

Elected to succeedRon Galperin, Mejia is the first Filipino American elected official in the city ofLos Angeles, the first Asian American elected to a citywide office, the youngest, and the first person of color to hold the position of City Controller in over a century.

Mejia isFilipino American and was born and raised in Los Angeles.^[6][7] Mejia graduated fromWoodbury University in two and a half years, finishing in 2010 with aB.S. inaccounting.^[8]

Mejia has held hisCertified Public Accountant (CPA) designation since around 2013, although the status of his CPA license was "expired" or "inactive" from November 2018 until January 2022.^[9][2] He worked atErnst & Young but left in 2014. He then worked for a hedge fund according to his Twitter account, which he left May 6, 2016, to focus on his campaign.^[8][9] In 2016, he co-founded We Can Make a Difference, a community volunteer organization that provided food and hygiene items to low-income and homeless people in Los Angeles.^[10] He then worked atEVgo but left in late 2021 to focus on campaigning.^[2][11][12] Mejia is a member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.^[13]

Mejia was inspired by the2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders to engage more in politics, leading him to become a candidate to the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention.^[8][14] Mejia was a write-inDemocratic Party candidate inCalifornia's 34th congressional district in 2016.^[15]

Having grown disenchanted with the Democratic Party, Mejia ran as aU.S. Green Party candidate in the same district in 2017 and 2018.^{[16][17][5][18][19]} His 2017 bid was noted for its reliance on small-dollar donations.^[20] Mejia's 2018 bid advanced to the general election and yielded more than 40,000 votes, setting the record for the highest vote percentage cast for any Green candidate against a Democrat for Congress.^[21][22] Mejia continued to work as an accountant while campaigning in 2018.^[23]

Mejia announced his candidacy for City Controller, a nonpartisan office, in the2022 Los Angeles elections.^[24] It has been historically uncommon for the city controller to have extensive accounting experience; Mejia claims the office has never been held by a CPA.^[10] He was the only city candidate in 2022 to receive ballot access through signatures alone.^[4] During his candidacy, Mejia drew attention toLos Angeles Fire Department employees receiving more than half a million dollars a year, the use of about half of the city's funds from theAmerican Rescue Plan on theLos Angeles Police Department, and the amount of police funding in the budget proposed in 2022 by MayorEric Garcetti.^{[25][26][27][24][28]}

On June 7, 2022, Mejia took first place in the primary for LA City Controller, with over 230,163 votes. He obtained 42.75% of the vote, while opponentsPaul Koretz and Stephanie Clements obtained 23.83% and 16.01%.^[29] On November 8, 2022, Mejia won the general election in a landslide with 62% of the vote, defeating Koretz.^[3]

Mejia appointedRick Cole to serve as his Chief Deputy Controller and Sergio Perez to serve as Chief of Accountability and Oversight. Cole is an Urban Studies professor and was the former mayor ofPasadena and deputy mayor for Los Angeles. Sergio Perez left his position as theLos Angeles Department of Water and Power's Inspector General to serve.^[30]

In November 2025, Mejia announced that he had left the Democratic Party in January 2024 and would not seek their endorsement (nor the Republican Party's) for his 2026 reelection campaign, stating: "I couldn’t support a party that preferred to spend our tax dollars on bombs while Americans struggle to put food on the table."^[31] The accompanying video referenced American support forIsrael in thewar in Gaza.^[32]

• Politicians from Los Angeles
• Woodbury University alumni
• American politicians of Filipino descent
• American accountants
• American housing rights activists
• Activists from Los Angeles
• California Democrats
• California Greens
• Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from California
• Living people
• 1990 births
• Candidates in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from December 2022