A plan to overhaul Los Angeles County government inched closer to a November vote Tuesday, despite concerns from a minority of supervisors that the overhaul was rushed and chaotic.
In an unusually tense meeting, supervisors voted 3-0 to direct county attorneys to draft an amendment to the county charter that would nearly double the size of the five-member Board of Supervisors and create an elected position to oversee daily operations.
Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Holly Mitchell, who criticized parts of the plan during the meeting, abstained from voting.
Supervisor Hilda Solis cast the decisive yes vote, joining the plan’s authors, Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn, in pushing it forward. Horvath and Hahn have said their goal is to make the government structure, which hasn’t fundamentally changed for more than a century, more responsive to the county’s 10 million residents.
Each of the five supervisors oversees a district of about two million people. In 1912, when voters first approved a charter, the ratio was one supervisor for every 50,000 people.
“I’ve always thought we need to have more representation,” Solís said.
Under the proposed charter amendment, the number of supervisors would increase to nine. The county executive director, who oversees the budget and manages day-to-day operations, would be elected by voters rather than appointed by the board. And the county would create an independent ethics commission to investigate corruption.
The amendment must return to the board two more times for a vote before appearing on the November ballot.
Barger and Mitchell posed a series of pointed questions to their colleagues and two experts.
Why nine supervisors and not seven or 15?
Could a study be done to determine the correct number?
Would having an elected executive make the office partisan?
What would be needed to finance the reform?
“I have some questions,” Mitchell said. “I think there are too many risks involved for us to risk trying something that is not absolutely ideal.”
Barger leveled some of the harshest criticism, saying he felt county supervisors were plagued not by structural problems but rather by crippling indecision. He pointed to long delays in closing the Men’s Central Jail, a dilapidated facility that supervisors voted to close years ago. The problem there, he said at the meeting, was that supervisors had “no will to make the difficult decision” about what should replace it.
Both Barger and Mitchell also criticized the process of formulating the ballot measure, which came to light last week with a news conference. Barger said he felt his colleagues had excluded Mitchell, who had submitted two plans early last year: one successfulone No — improve the structure of county government.
“This process was anything but transparent in terms of how it was implemented,” Barger said.
It was an unusually contentious meeting between supervisors who, at least publicly, like to agree (or disagree) on the most polite terms.
“You’re really upset about this,” Hahn said, noting that she and Barger often agree. “I’m sorry.”
Horvath and the experts she and Hahn had invited tried to ease some of the concerns, saying the proposal, while not a panacea, would likely make the government more responsive.
Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for Los Angeles Studies at Loyola Marymount University, told supervisors he had never heard of a jurisdiction with 10 million people that didn't have an elected executive.
“It may not be perfect and it may not meet the needs of all five members, but I maintain that it is the right thing to do,” Horvath told his colleagues.
Under the plan, the nine-supervisor structure would not begin until 2032, following a redistricting process that could give some racial and ethnic groups new political prominence, particularly those in unincorporated parts of the county that are often overlooked.
Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College who served on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, pointed out to the board that Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights have large Asian American populations, while East Los Angeles has a significant Latino community, which could form powerful voting blocs depending on how the lines are drawn.
There has never been an Asian American supervisor in the county, and Solis is the only Latina on the all-female board, in a county that is nearly 50% Latino.
“These districts are so large that we have an incredible dilution of various communities of color,” Sadhwani said.
Horvath's office said the plan is for the final two votes on the charter amendment language to take place on July 23 and Aug. 6.
The final vote of the board would have to occur before August 9 for the amendment to be included in the November vote.
