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ELECTION 2024 -
Proposed Charter Revisions will Bring LA County into the 21st Century!
The most important and substantial ballot measure this November seems the be sleep-walking with virtually no discussion, debate or campaign.
In 1985, Bergen County located in the state of New Jersey passed a charter reform measure creating the position of a directly elected county executive, forever changing the structure of that government.
The legislative body that ran county government were then known as “freeholders,” of which nine were elected at-large and amongst themselves they selected a chair and vice-chair to manage that legislative body.
The size of the freeholder board was reduced from nine to seven with charter reform and approved by the voters.
They have since changed the name from freeholder to commissioner.
The population of Bergen County is just a shade under 1 million people, but the largest of the state’s 21 counties and just one-tenth the size of Los Angeles County.
In some cities like San Francisco, the city and county’s governance are one in the same, much like Philadelphia, and in the state of Connecticut, there is no county government.
But the creation of a directly elected, countywide executive ends the farce of a quasi-legislative, quasi-executive format in which just five individuals elected from distinct legislative districts will no longer govern the County of Los Angeles.
As the country’s largest county, Los Angeles has a population larger then forty states, with over 9 million residents and 88 municipalities, it would be the 11th largest state squeezed between Michigan and New Jersey.
For you have a system of governance where the Sheriff reports to a Board of Supervisors of which none are elected at-large, yet they control the purse strings for countywide elected officials like the District Attorney, Assessor’s office and the Sheriff.
While the proposed expansion of the Board of Supervisors is anemic to a total of nine, at least the burden of representing some 2 million people in just five districts will hopefully end once and for all with voter approval.
In contrast, Members of the House of Representatives represent 750,000 or less per congressional district.
For the question is evident, can five supervisors from five different legislative districts successfully manage a $46 billion dollar budget?
For this county ballot reform initiative known as Measure “G,” also creates an independent Ethics board, that will monitor lobbying efforts while offering a nonpartisan legislative analyst to proposed county policies.
This kind of reform will ultimately strengthen an anachronistic and archaic form of government that is listless, lifeless and unaccountable to the average resident, who has little understanding of this white elephant of bureaucracy that seemingly can’t get out of its own way!
One only looks at the county’s inability to make any real progress when it comes to homelessness, the absolute failure of governance here in LA.
And while the creation and consolidation of power into a directly elected chief executive will put a scare into the numerous collective bargaining units that pretty much get what they desire regardless of cost or need, this major reform in the delivery of services, governance and power will give the voters directly and finally an individual who can change the direction of county government as well as it’s ridiculous cost.
It is not surprising that there is little conversation on what is the most important item on the 2024 ballot, but should it pass it will be ironic that several of the sitting supervisors will like nothing more than to become the county’s first executive, a position that could easily springboard and serve as a proving ground for statewide office with an eye on the office of governor.
For what Measure “G” does is expand our county democracy from a closed club of five faceless individuals who are rarely if ever challenged, to more competitive opportunities to seek four more additional seats while the process of becoming the county’s first executive a true news event and reform that will bring the transparency and accountability that does not exist today.
While most residents probably could not name a single sitting supervisor, the “BOS” likes it that way as being powerful, but invisible political beings detached from the voters and their function.
For it was Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Supervisor Janice Hahn who proposed the ballot measure last July!
But why didn’t Horvath or Hahn not go on the record publicly supporting Measure G in the Voter Guide?
Several calls and e-mails to Horvath’s legislative office went unreturned.
For the notion of five individuals running a county the size of New Jersey is institutionally and inherently not possible, as New Jersey has a governor, a 40-member senate and 80-member general assembly, this limited expansion in democracy is a step in the right direction, For the expansion of democracy should also occur with that other College of Cardinals known as the LA City Council of just fifteen members when you consider both the City of Chicago and New York City have bodies in excess of fifty members (50 aldermen, with a population of 2.6 million), and New York with 51 members and a population of 8.3 million plus five borough presidents representing the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Los Angeles for the record is the least diversified, and most underrepresented of large cities with a population of 3.8 million, or half that of New York and only fifteen members.
One would assume the position of a directly elected executive would include term limits, so those now serving as supervisors could potentially remain in county government and continue to serve in a position they strangely or publicly will not endorse?
For why not endorse the reforms they placed on the ballot in the first place?
With the news on Measure G as silent as a political corpse, it will be interesting if some underground movement is seeking to torpedo an honest reform.
We shall find out soon enough on Tuesday, November 5th.
(Nick Antonicello served as a confidential legislative aide (1984-85) for the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders in New Jersey and is a thirty-one year resident of Venice where he covers the issue of homelessness encampments and RV’s. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].)