Charter Reform Panel Wins Council Backing

A plan to form a citizens commission that would recommend ways to reform the city’s 71-year-old charter took a key step forward Tuesday when it received initial support from seven Los Angeles City Council members.

The citizens commission was suggested last week by San Fernando Valley business and political leaders in response to talk of secession in the Valley. As envisioned, a new charter would make the city more responsive to disenfranchised citizens.

As proposed Tuesday by Councilman Mike Feuer, the commission would comprise 21 members, one appointed by each council member and six appointed by the mayor. The panel would be given three years to hold hearings throughout the city before recommending the revisions to the council.

“If this is going to be done in a thoughtful way, it can’t be done in a couple of days,” Feuer said.

The proposal is expected to go before Feuer’s Rules and Elections Committee in three weeks. Mayor Richard Riordan has already voiced support for the effort.

The motion to establish the commission was introduced by Feuer and seconded by council members Marvin Braude, Laura Chick, Richard Alatorre, Joel Wachs, Richard Alarcon and John Ferraro. All but Alatorre have districts that include parts of the Valley.

Feuer said the plan would have received the support of more than seven of the 15 council members but open meeting laws bar a majority of the council from taking action on any measure before a public hearing is held.

The current city charter, which acts as a blueprint for Los Angeles’ system of government, was adopted in 1925 and was originally designed to diffuse power among the mayor, the 15 council members and the 40 or so city commissions.

But since then, it has been amended 400 times, most recently to include changes that imposed term limits for all elected officials, created an ethics commission and gave the mayor more authority to fire department heads.

Feuer said the call for charter reform is different from past efforts. He said the 694-page charter needs to be updated, streamlined and made simpler and more flexible so it can be changed to reflect a changing city.

“There is no question that we are finding citizens throughout the city requesting a more responsible government that is more responsive,” he said.

Although Feuer talked about charter reform several months ago, he acknowledged that the plan to form a citizens commission was prompted by a bill by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) that would make secession easier in Los Angeles.

Feuer was among the council majority who opposed the bill, saying it was unfair because it would not allow residents throughout the city a vote on secession by a portion of the city. But even supporters of the bill, such as Braude, endorsed the charter reform movement.

Braude said he backs both charter reform and the Boland bill because they would empower citizens to make changes in the way they are governed.

“It’s all part of the same thing,” he said. “The essential element is to give people participatory government.”

Still, Braude said he believes charter reform would be much easier and quicker to accomplish than breaking away to form a separate city.

“It’s my judgment that the practical difficulties of achieving a secession are very onerous,” he said.

Tuesday’s action was not the first recent attempt to reform the city charter.

Just three years ago, attorneys, community activists and political scientists proposed charter reform in light of the city’s troubled economy and the need to rebuild after the riots.

At that time, proponents said the charter needed to give the mayor more power to govern the widespread and diverse city.

UCLA political scientist Xandra Kayden, who was involved in that proposal, said the effort fizzled as reformists waited for government leaders to take the reins on the movement.

She now hopes this latest attempt will finally bring long-needed charter reform. “I’m more than willing to participate in this effort,” Kayden said.

Although the current reform movement calls for more neighborhood empowerment as well as Kayden’s efforts aimed at more centralized power, she said both goals can be met.

“What needs to be done is to decentralize those things that need to be decentralized and centralize power in other areas,” she said.

“It’s the same thing that has been called for as far back as 1926,” Kayden added.