Charter Panels May Cooperate on Reforms

After brief debate Monday, a citizens panel elected to draft a new governing charter for the city of Los Angeles postponed a decision on a proposal to unite with a separate panel appointed by the City Council to do the same job.

Several members of the Charter Commission said the proposal by Commissioner Nick Pacheco was premature because the elected panel began meeting only last week. The appointed panel has been working since November.

Pacheco said that the two panels should unite to create one charter proposal because putting two charter proposals on a ballot would confuse the voters. He said that by working together the two panels could still remain independent, just as the two houses of Congress work together but retain distinct identities.

Commissioner Bill Weinberger, an attorney, called Pacheco’s proposal “laudable” but said the elected panel should begin its own work in earnest before considering uniting with the other panel.

“I think it would be premature to adopt a resolution such as this with specific ideas without more discussion among ourselves about what we want to do,” he said.

Pacheco’s proposal was tabled indefinitely on an 11-2 vote.

The two panels were separately created to overhaul the 72-year-old charter that acts as the city’s constitution and outlines the balance of power in City Hall.

Pacheco’s proposal was the first effort to unite the competing panels created by a power struggle between Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles City Council.

Riordan and the council began promoting the idea of charter reform last summer in response to threats of a San Fernando Valley secession. But the two sides could not agree on the best way to overhaul the voluminous document.

The council created and funded a 21-member appointed panel that can only recommend changes to the council, which retained the power to rewrite or reject its suggestions, or put them to the voters for approval.

Meanwhile, Riordan led and largely funded a petition drive to create a 15-member elected panel. He helped fund the campaign of several hand-picked candidates and has vowed to help fund the panel’s work. The elected panel is empowered to put its recommendations directly before the voters for approval.

The cost to create and staff the two panels so far exceeds $3 million.

Under Pacheco’s proposal, the two panels would research and rewrite the charter together. If both panels agreed on the revisions, the elected panel could put the new charter directly before voters for final approval, without council review.

To take effect, the unification proposal must be approved by both panels as well as by the City Council.

In recent weeks, the council has expressed some support for having the two panels work together, especially since most of Riordan’s hand-picked candidates for the elected panel were rejected by the voters in the April primaries and the June runoffs.

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In other action, the elected panel sought to eliminate confusion between the two panels by adopting an official name: “‘The Elected Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission.”

The appointed panel is called the “City of Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission.”

The elected panel also put off a decision on a motion by Commissioner Erwin Chemerinsky, a USC law professor, to seek city funding from the City Council to pay for staff and supplies.

When Riordan helped created the elected panel, he promised to get funding for its work from nonprofit foundations and other contributors. He also vowed to contribute $300,000 from his own pocket.

But Chemerinsky said the panel needs money immediately and cannot wait for Riordan to make good on his promise.

“We don’t have time to go to foundations to try to raise $1 million or so,” he said.

The matter is to be referred to a subcommittee for further study.