The phantom limbs of L.A. city government

With summer officially over, the Los Angeles officials who were elected in May lose their newbie status; their remaining organizational work should be attended to without further delay. In the case of Mayor Eric Garcetti, that includes the appointment of the city’s commissioners. He already has put his stamp on most of the citizen panels, but a few high-profile picks remain, for example on the Harbor Commission. It’s time to finish the task.

It is interesting to see who the mayor appoints. Early on he put Kevin James on the Board of Public Works, and no amount of explanation will wipe away the quite reasonable perception that the appointment to one of the city’s few salaried posts was payback for votes that Garcetti’s former election rival delivered in the runoff. But the question that really needs to be asked is why there remains a paid, full-time Board of Public Works at all, one of many phantom limbs left over from a previous era in City Hall, when local government was designed to leave as little power as possible in the hands of politicians.

Citizen commissions used to be an actual third branch of city government, with members appointed by the mayor, confirmed by the City Council and thereafter sufficiently independent of both to virtually run City Hall. Members served staggered five-year terms to provide stability of leadership despite the comings and goings of elected politicians. Commissioners couldn’t be ousted unless the mayor and a council supermajority agreed.

But all that independence left no one clearly in charge and, importantly, no one directly accountable to voters for government action or inaction. Over time, most commissions became purely advisory bodies, answerable to the mayor and then only to ensure that his policy directives were put in place.

As a result, accountability remains elusive, in large part because so many city panels still have the trappings of power and the veneer of independence. Members can be booted at the mayor’s whim, but on paper, at least, they’ve got those five-year terms.

Mayors need not even be forthright about firing commissioners, because they routinely require their appointees to sign undated resignation forms to be pulled out when it’s convenient.

Whether fairly or otherwise, Garcetti has long been and will continue to be scrutinized for having or lacking backbone and for his willingness to be held accountable for his actions, so it’s encouraging that he didn’t pull out the “resignation” forms of predecessor Antonio Villaraigosa’s appointees; Garcetti simply fired them.

By the same token, it’s disappointing that Garcetti is continuing the practice of collecting pre-signed resignations from his appointees. Voters should expect their mayor to stand up and say “you’re fired” if he wants to unload a panelist or change the policy direction of a city commission.