[7] Lara and her City Council colleague Ruthzee Louijeune authored a resolution that was passed by the Boston City Council in late 2022 which urged Mayor Michelle Wu to raise the affordable housing unit requirements for new residential developments from 13% to 20% and to lower the threshold for which the requirements apply from buildings with nine or more units to buildings with five or more.
[8] In 2023, a city council attorney filed an internal complaint against Lara and fellow councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Julia Mejia accusing all three of bullying and lambasting her during an April meeting.
During the arraignment, the judge ruled that Lara should face two more charges: operating negligently so as to endanger and recklessly permitting bodily injury to a child under 14.
Fellow council member Michael Flaherty called for her resignation saying, "[Lara's] behavior is one of habitual scofflaw, and to go 10 years without a license isn't a mistake, it's the middle finger, frankly.
Following a vehicle accident in July 2023, media outlets claimed they were unable to verify Lara's residency, as she was found to have lived at several addresses in recent years.
Several of her constituents from district 6 subsequently challenged her residency, claiming that she had provided two addresses and two different names on legal documents during the past year.