Friction Rises on Reform of City Charter

By HUGO MARTIN

July 26, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Signaling trouble for a widely hailed movement to overhaul Los Angeles city government, a San Fernando Valley leader of the effort said Thursday he fears that the City Council will water down measures that threaten the council’s power.

To prevent that, David Fleming, president of the city’s Fire Commission, challenged the council to give a citizens panel the power to place reform measures directly on the ballot.

Fleming, a Studio City attorney, made the proposal during the first hearing on a City Charter reform plan. He said he doesn’t trust the council to enact reforms that would erode its control.

“The council loathes to give up power,” he said.

Fleming’s comments were the first hint of friction in an effort to rewrite the city’s 70-year-old charter to give citizens more influence over and access to City Hall.

Also Thursday, the city administrative officer estimated that staffing and equipment for a proposed three-year charter reform study could cost up to $1.4 million, prompting city officials to suggest seeking private donations.

Councilman Mike Feuer, who teamed up with Fleming last month to lead the reform effort, declined to take a position on Fleming’s proposal to put proposed changes directly to the voters, bypassing the council. Feuer said he first wants the city attorney to study whether it is legally feasible.

“I have to be careful about making promises I can’t keep,” he said.

In response to threats of secession by the Valley, Feuer and Fleming announced plans last month to lead an effort to rewrite the City Charter, which acts as a blueprint for a complex--and, critics say, unworkable--system of local government.

Under Feuer’s proposal, a 24-member citizens commission appointed by the council, the mayor and other elected officials would draft charter reform measures.

But state law gives the council final say on what measures appear on the ballot.

Fleming suggested that the citizen commission be elected, which would give it the power to place measures directly on the ballot.