Dealing With New Realities of Illness : Proposition 3 would allow court to remove incapacitated city officials

It happened several months ago, but the sad image still lingers: news pictures of Councilman Gilbert Lindsay on a gurney, largely covered by a sheet, barely alive. The 90-year-old councilman could not speak. He obviously could not perform his duties as an elected official. His constituents, and his council colleagues, watched helplessly.

Lindsay died several weeks later. But the memory of an ailing man unable to do his job--and unable to even say he couldn’t do it--should be enough to make Proposition 3 law in the city of Los Angeles.

Proposition 3, on the June 4 ballot, would correct a major oversight in the City Charter. The charter, as written, provides for declaring an office vacant if the incumbent: dies, resigns, is adjudged insane, convicted of a felony or of an offense involving violation of official duties, takes up residence outside the city, or is absent from the city without council consent for 60 consecutive days.

When Lindsay fell ill, the 60-day absence was the only option the council had to replace him; since he was hospitalized in Inglewood, there were frantic and anguished attempts to declare Lindsay’s office vacant. No one on the council was comfortable with the attempt to oust an elected official in that manner; but no one was comfortable with the reality that thousands of Los Angeles’ poorest residents had been deprived a voice in city decisions.

Under Proposition 3, the court would step in when an elected official becomes incapacitated. A vacancy would exist when a court found that for at least 90 consecutive days an official was physically or mentally incapable of performing the job and that there was good reason to believe that the official would not be able to perform the duties for the rest of the term.

The measure also deals with absences and failure to perform duties; neither provision significantly changes the charter. But the provision dealing with incapacitation provision is crucial. Given medical advances of recent years, it is no longer unusual for very ill people to survive for long periods. There can be many different circumstances under which a person would be unable to perform the many duties required of an elected official.

In order to assure that the unfortunate predicament of Gilbert Lindsay--and his constituents--never recurs, city voters should approve Proposition 3.