GHOST WATCH : Not So Dead

Tonight, the world o’er, witches fly, and the dead stalk the Earth. But in Los Angeles, they do more than stalk, they also legislate.

A routine motion filed in 1983 by Councilman Howard Finn was recently approved unanimously by the City Council. But Councilman Finn died in 1986. It seems that a council motion in the City of the Angels is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. A motion lives on indefinitely until either passed or defeated, and this even if its sponsor has shuffled off this mortal coil.

Los Angeles, like Rome, thinks in centuries.

Council President John Ferraro, who seems to regard this nobly farsighted practice as a mere loophole, has proposed eliminating it--and perhaps that is the thing to do. But even he concedes that the practice offers unexpected advantages. The Finn motion in question, for example, called for limiting the length of trucks allowed on city streets to 65 feet. At the time, the trucking industry was opposed, Ferraro says, but the late-arriving motion has now passed without dissent: “I guess we waited them out.”

Our view, not to put too fine a point on it, is that a good idea is a good idea whenever its time comes. And if its time comes post-mortem, why, so be it: After all, many a somnolent legislative session has been compared to the afternoon of the living dead. If a politician returns from that great plenary session in the sky with a message, whether about the length of trucks or any other terrestrial matter, the council should be able to judge the message on its merits, without regard to the liveliness of its progenitor.