The Balloting Was Just the Beginning

Last week’s municipal elections demonstrated the San Fernando Valley’s potential for leadership in a city adrift. The Valley now faces the challenge of living up to that potential by helping to shape efforts to revise Los Angeles’ cumbersome, 72-year-old charter. The focus in the months ahead should be on what Los Angeles residents can do together to make the city more responsive to the needs of all neighborhoods, not just the few whose leaders squawk the loudest.

Working with Mayor Richard Riordan, local community leaders were instrumental in getting Proposition 8--the measure creating an elected charter reform commission--on the ballot and passed. Times Poll data reveal the citywide appeal of the measure. It won a clear majority across the city, with voters in some regions giving Proposition 8 a wider approval margin than voters in the Valley.

For some Valley community leaders, though, the victory was bittersweet. They were disappointed by the victories of candidates endorsed by labor unions, fearing they would thwart real change and fight to maintain the dysfunctional status quo.

The commission has yet to meet and already it’s under fire. Threats of a Valley secession are bubbling back to the surface. It’s ironic that some of people complaining the loudest are those who most strongly advocated a vote of the people.

Well, the people voted. The result: A mixed bag that fairly accurately reflects the diverse interests and needs of Los Angeles. Few would call former Assemblywoman Paula Boland a labor lackey. Eight candidates for the 15 slots on the commission won outright. The rest face runoff elections in June. How successful the commission will be depends in large part on how much support and input it receives from the communities that elected it. That includes the Valley.

Maybe reform leaders failed to get everything they wanted. But they got a lot of what they said they wanted. An elected commission will set to work on the city charter. Its recommendations will be placed directly before the voters. At the same time, a similar commission set up by the City Council will do the same thing. In the end, voters will probably have a choice of which they like better. That’s about as democratic as it gets.

Los Angeles and the Valley are more alike than they are different. The frustrations voiced by the Valley were echoed again and again in neighborhoods all the way down to San Pedro. The Valley’s concerns are the city’s concerns--last week’s election made that clear. The Valley has the opportunity to help reshape city government. If reformers truly want to fix the city--and not divorce it--as they claim, the real work is just beginning.