Mike Bonin is one of Occidental’s newest professors and a previous member of the Los Angeles City Council and LA County Metro Board of Directors from July 2013 to Dec. 2022. In the Fall semester, he came to Occidental to deliver a talk on the leaked tapes in which his fellow councilmembers delivered racist remarks about his adopted Black son. He teaches a three-hour class every Monday titled “Reimagining Public Safety: Debates Over Policing and Criminal Justice.”
Bonin said that his political career began when he was younger, working on campaigns for his uncle, a Massachusetts state legislator. Despite this experience, he said he was always interested in becoming a journalist.
Bonin worked as a newspaper reporter in Massachusetts and South Los Angeles for a few years after getting into college, covering politics and crime, Bonin said. However, feeling like the newspaper industry was about to collapse, he said he started thinking of other things to do.
According to Bonin, during his youth he had abused drugs and alcohol, but after becoming sober, he felt like he had a second chance in life and an obligation to participate more in politics.
“There are times I’d be sitting in a meeting covering a council meeting and I wanted to raise my hands and say, ‘Guys, why don’t you just f**king do this?’” Bonin said.
Bonin said he started working for an LA councilmember representing Venice, helping with campaigns on the side. He also worked for several elected officials, including Bill Rosendahl. Bonin said he ran Rosendahl’s campaign and got him reelected, then worked as his chief of staff for eight years.
According to Bonin, while he was managing Rosendahl’s re-election in 2012, Rosendahl got ill with cancer and could not run again. Bonin said he made the decision to run for office and was elected in 2013.
According to Bonin, he and former Mayor Eric Garcetti were very close and governed from a progressive perspective. They established a $15 minimum wage, being the first major city to do such a thing, according to Bonin.
According to Bonin, he changed dramatically during his second term in office and after the death of his father-in-law, who was a progressive labor leader. He said he felt like his father-in-law had handed him his responsibility and power.
Bonin said he felt that the period when the Black Lives Matter protests started after the murder of George Floyd was the perfect time for elected officials to expand the scope of what they do and change harmful systems. Bonin said he pushed for a lot, but the discussions within city council always stayed narrow, which frustrated him. According to Bonin, the whole city, renters, service workers and others deeply affected by the pandemic were frustrated and wanted to see different approaches to policies.
“I eventually decided not to seek a third term, in part because I wanted to work on mental health issues and spend more time with my family. I’ve suffered from depression [and] anxiety for a long time. So I’m like, time is right for me to step away. I threw myself into getting the next generation of progressives elected,” Bonin said.
After deciding not to run for re-election in Jan. 2022, Bonin said he wanted to continue being active on issues he cares about and wanted to pursue journalism, writing, creating podcasts and also teaching.
“I was going to teach and I don’t have an advanced degree. My selling point was that I had a lot of practical experience and lived experience in the world of government and politics,” Bonin said.
According to Bonin, he started talking to several colleges, until he connected with Professor Peter Dreier from Occidental’s Department of Urban and Environmental Politics (UEP), with whom he had previously done work with.
Noah Weitzner (junior) is one of the students in Bonin’s class. According to Weitzner, he was at Bonin’s talk in the Fall semester, which is where he decided to take his class.
“He was a little choked up during the talk and he just felt like a real person. He was a sweetheart. He gave me a hug after and I think what made me want to take his course on top of his sweet demeanor was just the fact that he had so much experience with LAPD, with policing in LA from a political perspective,” Weitzner said.
The class has welcomed guest speakers such as Councilmember (CD-1) Eunisses Hernandez, city controller Kenneth Mejia and Melina Abdullah (one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles), according to Bonin and Weitzner.
“He knows a lot of people and is bringing a lot of knowledgeable and experienced people in the space of LA politics and LA policing,” Weitzner said. “He is able to answer every question not only with a research professorial response but also as an experience.”
Politics professor Isaac Hale said the UEP and politics departments along with the college as a whole are working to ensure that students have community engaged learning experiences.
“One way to do that is to go out and do field trips, visit City Hall. Another way is to bring the LA City experience right here into the classroom, and I think professor Mike Bonin’s class is a fantastic example of that,” Hale said.
Despite not wanting to go back into city council, Bonin said has also been involved in politics in other ways. According to Bonin, he is the host of a podcast called “What’s Next, Los Angeles?” and also does consulting work for an organization called Local Progress, a national network of locally elected progressive officials.
Bonin said he also works on getting the next generation of progressives elected. He endorsed Councilmember (CD-13) Hugo Soto-Martinez, City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Hernandez all of whom got elected.
“I don’t really miss stuff at City Hall,” Bonin said. “I thought I would have remorse or regret and I don’t, I made what was absolutely the right decision for me and I’ve stayed active in various ways and I think I’m striking the right balance.”
According to Bonin, the younger generation now places a lot more emphasis on mental health, with many younger activists encouraging him to focus on self-care.
“One of the great freedoms of not being in office is I get to choose what I care about,” Bonin said. “The longer I was in office there was a growing gap between what I wanted to focus on and what allowed segment of my district wanted me to focus on.”
According to Bonin, he now also spends a lot more time being a dad. He cannot imagine going back to office, and his family would not let him return, according to Bonin.
“When I announced I wasn’t running, I think everybody assumed well, former councilmembers either become lobbyists or they tend to disappear,” Bonin said. “I’m not leaving the fights. I’m just gonna fight them in a different way from a different perch.”
Contact Francine Ghazarian at ghazarian@oxy.edu
