Ethics Wins, and It’s Not Even Close : * L.A. Votes Itself a New System, and Hands Watchdog Commission a Key Role

With their commanding approval of Charter Amendment H, the people of Los Angeles have not only enacted a model code of electoral and governmental ethics, but also given California and the nation an example of how the critical process of civic reform ought to proceed. Cities across America currently are wrestling with the consequences of plummeting public confidence in local governments widely perceived to be ineffective, venal and subject to manipulation by special interests.

If it is diligently implemented, the new city ethics code holds the potential to arrest that downward spiral, much as the reforms of the Progressive Era redeemed an earlier period in our history marked by popular cynicism and the corrupting influence of moneyed interests. The code’s scope and promise are themselves a product of a novel process that, over the past year, has engaged the city’s entire polity. Charter Amendment H was drafted by a citizens’ commission appointed by--but independent of--Mayor Tom Bradley, passed on by the City Council after days of historic, open debate and, finally, ratified by a decisive 57% of the city’s voters. Few proposals in recent memory have been the object of such thorough deliberations; fewer still can claim as clear a mandate.

The issue now is how that mandate is to be carried out. One of the new code’s most important provisions is the creation of a permanent city ethics commission charged with enforcing the new regulations. Under the terms of Charter Amendment H, two members of the commission, including its chairman, will be appointed by the mayor, one by the council president and one each by the city attorney and the controller. All five appointments must be confirmed by the full council.

If the commission is to function as it should, it is essential that the four elected officials making those appointments reach beyond the circle of political intimates and well-connected insiders from which such nominees normally would be drawn. Similarly, careful attention ought to be given to creating a panel that has sufficient diversity, balance and community standing to command public confidence from the outset. As the composition of the original citizens’ commission proves, such a panel is within reach.

Passage of Charter Amendment H has put Los Angeles on the threshold of a new era of effective local government and open, honest electoral politics. Now the city needs the right ethics commission to help it through the door.