Los Angeles County is the nation’s most overgrown native jurisdiction, with the most important inhabitants (greater than 10 million folks) and the most important price range ($43 billion). Its authorities’s tasks are immense.
But it has the identical type of elected management it had 174 years in the past when it was created, and the identical as different California counties at present which have a fraction of the inhabitants and price range: a five-member Board of Supervisors with a rotating chair, and no independently elected government. The three countywide elected officers — sheriff, district lawyer and assessor — function inside their very own spheres.
L.A. County authorities underrepresents and underserves its folks.
Measure G on the Nov. 5 poll would change that. It might develop the Board of Supervisors to 9, shrinking the dimensions of the huge districts and giving county residents a larger voice. It might create an independently elected government — in impact, a county mayor — who can reply to challenges and crises extra shortly than the board. It might for the primary time create a county ethics fee.
The measure prohibits the county from spending extra on its expanded authorities than it does on the present one.
These modifications are lengthy overdue. The Instances recommends a Sure vote on county Measure G.
The measure was proposed by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn in July, only a few months earlier than the election. Critics argue that there was too little time for out of doors analysts to review the measure and think about alternate options.
The criticism is comprehensible. It might be good if the measure had come out of a constitution reform fee of the sort the town of Los Angeles used (it really had two of them, concurrently) within the Nineties to replace its governing framework. Even now, the town is organizing a brand new fee to suggest constitution modifications — together with a bigger Metropolis Council.
However the county has proven little curiosity in organizing such a physique or in any other case reforming itself. After the town adopted its new constitution 1 / 4 of a century in the past, lots of the reformers who have been concerned in or watched the town course of appeared earlier than the Board of Supervisors to name on the county to do the identical factor. The board scoffed and did nothing.
And it has performed little within the years since. One of many solely two significant changes came in 2007 when the supervisors tried giving their appointed chief government extra direct energy over county operations. They shortly took a lot of it again.
The opposite got here in 2022 once they requested voters to give them even more power: to take away an elected sheriff. The sheriff on the time was unpopular, and voters agreed to the change.
There have been earlier stabs at reform, pressured on the supervisors by state lawmakers or voter initiatives. In 2000, they sent voters a ballot measure to develop the board, however solely below stress from the Legislature. The measure failed.
This 12 months the board voted 3 to 2 to place Measure G on the poll. That’s an essential growth. Given the board’s poor file of sharing energy, pushing aside the choice for one more election doesn’t appear to be an excellent possibility.
The brand new format would allocate government energy to at least one particular person, simply because the U.S. Structure, each state structure, and most bigger cities do. The supervisors’ job can be to legislate, scrutinize the chief to carry that particular person accountable, and ship service to the unincorporated parts of the county — areas not represented by metropolis governments.
In different phrases, Measure G would lastly convey to the county the identical kinds of checks and balances which were the cornerstone of fine authorities all through the nation’s historical past.
Is 9 the “proper” variety of supervisors? It’s a good query however doesn’t require quite a lot of hand-wringing. It’s higher than 5. It might enhance the probabilities for residents to decide on leaders who replicate their values and their coverage targets. It’s essential to keep in mind that because the county’s inhabitants turned more and more Latino, the board had no Latino member till it misplaced a lawsuit over district traces that discriminated towards Latino voters. Even now, in a county virtually 50% Latino, the five-member board has just one. A bigger board can be extra consultant, not simply of the county’s ethnic variety but in addition of its various infrastructure wants, geography and politics.
If 9 continues to be too few, a county authorities with extra accountability and an ethics fee is extra possible than the current one to pave the best way for additional enhancements, together with extra seats.
How a couple of bigger board, however and not using a county mayor? Bad idea. That might solely enlarge governmental dysfunction with out fixing it. Checks and balances are key, and the Board of Supervisors has proven that it’s going to not voluntarily cede government authority.
The maddening irony concerning the present county authorities is that, opposite to standard perception, a lot of the elected officers work exhausting and do a great job. However they’re hampered by a construction that invitations stasis and is ill-suited to addressing issues comparable to homelessness, poverty, inequity, injustice — precisely these challenges assigned to county authorities. Measure G is the best way ahead.
