Commission’s LAPD Report

It seemed to me that the political leaders in Los Angeles would not be feeling so helpless if they had been more alert during the 1970s when their political neighbors on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took decisive action to reform an archaic Civil Service system that insulated the appointed managers of the county bureaucracy from public accountability.

The residents of Los Angeles County overwhelmingly approved reform measures that were placed on the ballot. The lesson to be learned from the county experience is that government bureaucracies can become more responsive to citizen concerns about the quantity and quality of government services without jeopardizing the Civil Service basic oversight responsibility for avoiding the development of a “spoils” system.

I am not familiar enough with the city’s Charter and ordinance provisions that protect Gates to suggest a specific remedy under current rules. But it seems to me that the Christopher Commission report is a good longer-term solution.

HERB KAPLAN, Monarch Beach