Contempt for the Voters

A Los Angeles zoning initiative was going to be difficult enough for voters to puzzle through under any circumstances. The Los Angeles City Council now has made it impossible by enacting a law adding a long list of loopholes. Mayor Tom Bradley has chipped in by signing the law. For shame.

As if the sheer arrogance of that action were not enough, Council President Pat Russell is now prodding the city Planning Department to rush through more exemptions to the initiative, Proposition U. Russell wants the city to rezone 4,100 acres of property, from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley, in the one month left before the election. That would make it even harder to downzone those properties should Proposition U pass. Even presuming that were necessary, rushing it through is expensive and could lead to bureaucratic foul-ups for years to come.

The city attorney has warned the council that its current course is setting the stage for costly litigation if the growth-limitation initiative eventually passes. That council members persist in their wrongheaded effort in spite of this advice is amazing. Can the developers and labor unions that dislike Proposition U (they worry that it will limit future construction in the city) be that powerful? Or are council members just trying to protect favored construction projects in their fiefdoms--er, districts? And, by so blithely going along with the council, Bradley casts doubt on his claim to be concerned about the best interests of the entire city.

Proposition U is a complex proposal that requires thoughtful consideration and debate. It is on the city ballot because more than 100,000 voters signed petitions to put it there. The voters deserve a say on this matter, and, by moving to undermine that right, Bradley and the council are not just being stubborn and unresponsive, they are also being contemptuous of us all.