Los Angeles County is the nation’s most overgrown native jurisdiction, with the biggest inhabitants (greater than 10 million individuals) and the biggest price range ($43 billion). Its authorities’s duties 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 right now 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 legal professional and assessor — function inside their very own spheres.
L.A. County authorities underrepresents and underserves its individuals.
Measure G on the Nov. 5 poll would change that. It could broaden the Board of Supervisors to 9, shrinking the scale of the large districts and giving county residents a larger voice. It could create an independently elected government — in impact, a county mayor — who can reply to challenges and crises extra shortly than the board. It could 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 adjustments are lengthy overdue. The Occasions 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 outdoor analysts to review the measure and contemplate options.
The criticism is comprehensible. It could be good if the measure had come out of a constitution reform fee of the kind town of Los Angeles used (it really had two of them, concurrently) within the Nineties to replace its governing framework. Even now, town is organizing a brand new fee to advocate constitution adjustments — 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 town adopted its new constitution 1 / 4 of a century in the past, lots of the reformers who had been concerned in or watched 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 executed 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 after 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, compelled on the supervisors by state lawmakers or voter initiatives. In 2000, they sent voters a ballot measure to broaden the board, however solely beneath 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 necessary improvement. Given the board’s poor document of sharing energy, laying aside the choice for an additional election doesn’t look like 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 individual accountable, and ship service to the unincorporated parts of the county — areas not represented by metropolis governments.
In different phrases, Measure G would lastly carry to the county the identical types of checks and balances which have been 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 a number of hand-wringing. It’s higher than 5. It could enhance the possibilities for residents to decide on leaders who replicate their values and their coverage targets. It’s necessary 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 in opposition to Latino voters. Even now, in a county nearly 50% Latino, the five-member board has just one. A bigger board can be extra consultant, not simply of the county’s ethnic range but in addition of its various infrastructure wants, geography and politics.
If 9 remains to be too few, a county authorities with extra accountability and an ethics fee is extra probably than the current one to pave the way in which for additional enhancements, together with extra seats.
How a couple of bigger board, however with out a county mayor? Bad idea. That may solely enlarge governmental dysfunction with out fixing it. Checks and balances are key, and the Board of Supervisors has proven that it’ll not voluntarily cede government authority.
The maddening irony concerning the present county authorities is that, opposite to widespread perception, many of the elected officers work arduous and do a great job. However they’re hampered by a construction that invitations stasis and is ill-suited to addressing issues equivalent to homelessness, poverty, inequity, injustice — precisely these challenges assigned to county authorities. Measure G is the way in which ahead.