To Do the Job Right Takes Money

Los Angeles’ effort to reform its charter is in a perilous state that no one could have predicted a year ago when Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council were sparring over how they were going to do it--if they were going to do it. In the interim, the council, city attorney and city controller went ahead and appointed a 21-member charter reform commission. The mayor campaigned for his commission with the understanding that he would match the appointed commission’s funding with donations from the private sector--initially, $300,000, now an estimated $1 million to $2 million. The mayor has committed $300,000, but since his slate of commission candidates lost in the spring election, he has not promised more, and the elected commission will have a very hard time matching the resources of the appointed commission.

This is where we are. Not where we wanted to be. Not where anyone thought we would be. The question is, where do we go from here?

Many thoughtful observers believe strongly that Los Angeles needs to change its structure of government to reflect the changed nature of the population and the changed expectations about city government. Many believe that the process of reform could be the most healing thing we could do: Asking ourselves what city government is and could be; how we are going to pay for it; who will make the decisions, and how we will guarantee everyone a place at the table. Many believe that now is the best time to do it: Because of term limits, most of today’s city officeholders will be gone before the new charter takes effect. With fewer personal agendas to factor in, this is the window of opportunity.

This is also the period of maximum confusion. There are a number of people on each commission who sincerely believe they ought to work together. There are some commissioners who don’t, and others who have a hard time imagining how they possibly could. The appointed commission will return its recommendations to the city council for the council to review and place what they see fit on the ballot in the spring of 1999. The elected commission will put its proposals directly on the ballot at the same time, bypassing council review.

The city charter is a complex document, and if there were simple solutions to the frustrations of Angelenos, they would have been found years ago. The most important ingredient of successful charter reform is not so much the best idea as it is what everyone can agree to. Consensus is going to be the most elusive element to find with two competing commissions. Even if 95% of their recommendations agree, the areas in which they disagree will be the focus of the ballot campaigns. Having an informed electorate will be crucial to ensure the best outcome for the charter.

The voters will have to be educated. This is where the League of Women Voters comes in.

The league has participated in charter reform in Los Angeles since the 1920s when the original charter was written. It is committed today to doing what it does best: educating voters in a nonpartisan way, defining the issues and explaining the pros and cons. Given the prospect of having to explain the output of two charter commissions, the league, too, is asking the city for financial help because it needs to create a large number of study groups throughout the city in a very short period of time to provide a platform for informed discussions.

There are no real villains in this drama. Applying the wonderfully grammatical “past exonerative” phrase so common in politics, it might be appropriate to say that “mistakes were made,” but this is where things are today. We can support the efforts we began or we can let things drift to a halt, losing what little confidence there is that we ever can gain control over our own destiny.

The city council, which has shown considerable leadership in the past few years, should bite the bullet and fund both commissions plus the independent education and outreach effort. It is in everyone’s interest to put as much time, energy and money as necessary into this process so that as many Angelenos as possible learn as much as they can about our city and our government and participate in its restructuring.