Charter Reform Panel Vows Changes

As a citizens panel began the arduous task Thursday of rewriting the city’s 71-year-old charter, several members promised that the group will propose changes to shake up the status quo at City Hall.

The 21-member panel--appointed by the council, controller and city attorney--met for the first time Thursday to begin studying reform proposals to address long-standing complaints that City Hall is inaccessible and inefficient.

“We will not just be recommending minor tinkering,” said Linda Griego, a commission member and president of Rebuild LA, the post-riot recovery program. “We will be working to bring the charter into the 20th century.”

Another commission member, Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), agreed, saying, “I don’t think anyone is interested in tinkering around the edges.”

Several of the commissioners declined to discuss what particular City Hall problems they planned to tackle once the commission begins to meet, saying they want to begin the effort with an open mind.

But the history of charter reform is marked by many failed attempts to redesign the often confusing power structure that distributes authority among the council, mayor and about 40 commissions.

The meeting focused mostly on organizational matters, such as scheduling future meetings and setting goals for the group. Griego was elected interim chairwoman and the next meeting was scheduled at City Hall for Dec. 10.

During the public comment period, Robert Scott, a member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., urged the group to consider recommending an increase in the size of the 15-member City Council to give residents more access to their representatives.

He also recommended the panel propose the creation of dozens of “community councils” that would allow neighborhoods to decide local planning and budgeting issues.

Dating to the drafting of the original charter in 1925, several attempts to rewrite it failed due to opposition by council members or city workers, who felt threatened by radical changes in the government structure, according to historians and others.

The latest attempt is already caught in a power struggle between the council and Mayor Richard Riordan, who has criticized the panel, saying it very likely will not create true reform because the council retained the power to reject or rewrite any reform ideas before they go on the ballot.

In response, Riordan financed a campaign that collected 303,000 signatures for a ballot measure, asking voters to create an elected reform panel with the power to put proposed changes directly on the ballot. Election officials are now working to verify the 197,000 signatures needed to qualify that measure for the ballot.

Former county Supervisor Ed Edelman, a member of the appointed commission, said the conflict makes the task of reforming city government more difficult, complaining of “people going in different directions.”

Councilman Marvin Braude assured the panel Thursday that the council would not try to influence the panel’s work. “We wanted you to be independent, there is no doubt in my mind,” he said.

Despite Riordan’s predictions that the council could water down the reform commission’s proposals, Edelman and others said the council would have a tough time doing that, considering the influence of some of its members.

In addition to Griego, Archie-Hudson and Edelman, the panel includes NAACP leader Jose De Sosa, retired Judge James Reese, UCLA political scientist Xandra Kayden and Anton Calleia, former executive assistant to former Mayor Tom Bradley.