Plan for Ousting Council Members to Go on Ballot
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved placing on the June ballot a proposed charter amendment that would give members broader powers to replace ailing or uninterested colleagues.
The proposed amendment would give the council the authority to deem a council seat vacant if the incumbent is incapacitated by illness or is not performing his or her duties for 90 days or more.
Council members began discussing such a move after the late Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay suffered a debilitating stroke and was in a coma for three months.
Under current rules, the council has no authority to declare a seat vacant if the incumbent is alive, only if he or she is out of the city for 60 days or more.
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