Election of Reform Panel Members by District Urged

Hoping to resolve a sticky legal problem, Mayor Richard Riordan and his supporters Friday said members of a proposed government reform panel should be elected by council district.

Riordan and Studio City attorney David Fleming are backing a petition drive to create an elected citizens panel that would propose ways to overhaul the city’s governing charter. Fleming said one citizen from each of the 15 council districts should be elected to the panel, rather than on an at-large basis.

“When push comes to shove, we want the panel to be elected by districts,” Fleming said.

Although state law says such commissions should be elected on an at-large basis, current federal law seems to prohibit at-large elections for such panels because they dilute the vote of minorities.

The city attorney’s office was recently unable to clarify the apparent conflict between the laws, but attorneys for Riordan’s campaign believe a panel elected by district has a better chance of standing up to a legal challenge.

“The statutes are definitely a mess,” said Chip Nielson, an attorney working on the initiative drive.

Since the effort began in July, supporters have indicated that the citizens panel would be elected at-large. But Rick Taylor, the campaign manager for the initiative drive, said the campaign has never taken an official position on how the election would be conducted.

Still, the new position did not appease critics of the initiative or resolve ongoing legal questions about the panel.

Most City Council members have been critical of Riordan’s initiative drive, saying it does not give the council a say in the process. Last month, the council voted to create an advisory reform panel of its own.

On Wednesday, the council adopted a motion asking the state Legislature to adopt a bill to clarify the legal conflicts that are troubling Riordan’s campaign.

But Fleming and Nielson fear the council’s motion is a stalling tactic to keep the reform panel from being elected. They worry that even if the petition drive collects the 197,000 valid signatures needed by Oct. 30 to qualify for the April ballot, the council would keep the measure off the ballot until the Legislature acts in the next few years to clarify the legal conflicts.