Reform Movement Unites the Divided

It’s no secret that San Fernando Valley residents want big changes in City Hall. Calls for charter reform. Threats of secession. But a Times Poll shows that the Valley is hardly alone. Nearly two-thirds--or 64%--of Los Angeles residents said they favor revising the city’s 72-year-old charter. In the Valley, sentiment ran a little deeper, with 69% saying they favored fixes to the charter to make government work better.

The numbers reveal an opportunity for the Valley to help lead the city into a new era of municipal government. Despite talk of splitting away from Los Angeles, Valley residents want the same thing residents across the city want: more responsive, more responsible government. The Valley’s fight is the city’s fight.

Local legislators and leaders of homeowners associations already have helped stoke efforts to get a measure on the April ballot that asks voters to create an elected panel to rewrite the 680-page charter, which acts as the city’s constitution. More than 100 people--many from the Valley--submitted candidacy papers for the 15-seat panel. A good start for which Valley activists can claim most of the credit.

Proposals to split the Valley from Los Angeles appeal to many because it often feels like no one in City Hall is listening. They’re listening now. Efforts now should focus on generating the kind of enthusiasm citywide that has been building in the Valley for months, with special care that geographic rivalries and suspicions not spoil what could be a truly unified movement. To that end, informational meetings between Valley reform leaders and residents across the city are a step in the right direction.

It’s premature to call charter reform a movement of the people. It remains the domain of plugged-in homeowners, academics and the politically connected--the bulk of them from the Valley. But their idealistic message of better government cuts across income, politics, geography and race. And in a city divided for too long by too many of those things, that in itself is an accomplishment.