Mayor Gets Chance to Fill Charter Panel Spot at Key Time

As the debate over reforming the city’s charter nears a critical phase, a long-absent member of both City Charter commissions formally quit her posts Monday, clearing the way for Mayor Richard Riordan to appoint a replacement just weeks before an important vote.

“My new duties as president of Talledega College, Talladega, Ala., prevent me from giving the time necessary to carry out the duties of commissioner,” Marguerite Archie-Hudson wrote in a letter to the mayor. “I wish my fellow commissioners and the citizens of Los Angeles well and hope that the new charter will be one which all Angelenos can embrace as the city’s blueprint for the future.”

As a practical matter, the move has little immediate effect.

Archie-Hudson has rarely attended meetings of the 15-member elected panel--one of two reviewing the City Charter. She had refused to give up her post on either panel, even after leaving the Los Angeles area earlier this year and despite the pleadings of some of her colleagues on the elected commission who complained that her absences complicated commission business and deprived her South-Central constituency of a place in the debate over the city’s future.

Archie-Hudson has been so removed from the process that her letter, copied to commission Chairman Erwin Chemerinsky, misspelled his name.

But Archie-Hudson’s decision to resign gives Riordan the power to appoint her successor to the elected panel at a key juncture--and that appointment could tip the scales on what has

become the most contentious issue still on the table in the charter debate.

Riordan has lobbied hard for the city’s next mayor to have the power to fire department heads without the approval of the City Council. That power, which he says is vital to enable the mayor to hold department heads accountable, initially won the support of the elected commission, but in recent weeks a sustained lobbying campaign led by city labor organizations has eroded the mayor’s once solid majority on the issue.

Labor and its allies argue that giving the mayor unfettered firing authority will make department heads too dependent on the mayor’s favor, and thus make them less independent and willing to risk offending the city’s chief executive.

A number of elected commissioners are moving to reconsider the matter, which would also bring their commission in line with recommendations of a second panel appointed by the council. Unlike the elected commission, which can put its proposed charter directly on the city ballot, the appointed panel makes recommendations to the council, which can decide to forward them to voters as written, amend them or toss out the entire package.

With the vote on reconsideration of mayoral firing power considered too close to call, both sides are busily trying to gauge their prospects.

Archie-Hudson was considered a likely vote against Riordan, but her replacement now will be hand-picked by him. Although Riordan aides would not comment on whom the mayor might select, Riordan informed City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas of his decision.

Ridley-Thomas said it was Ken Lombard, a member of the Water and Power Commission and a partner of Earvin “Magic” Johnson in Johnson’s business dealings.

Reaction was not all positive. Ridley-Thomas said he was troubled that Riordan had made the selection without more consultation, and said he thought there were other qualified residents of South Los Angeles who were not already serving on a commission at Riordan’s behest.

Meanwhile, the city’s elected commission continued to plow ahead in its effort to finish a draft of its charter by the end of the month.

After a long and difficult debate over how to improve civilian oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department, the panel voted Monday to allow the LAPD’s inspector general broad powers to investigate wrongdoing and to be able to appeal if that person’s superiors try to fire him or her.

The charter commission wrestled with those questions over two long meetings, but in the end voted unanimously to allow the inspector general broad latitude in investigating complaints.

With the clock running on the elected commission’s work, organized labor offered a strong endorsement Monday of a proposal to place language in the new City Charter that would guarantee workers employed by companies with city business a so-called living wage.

That protection already exists under city ordinance, but placing the language in the charter would make it more difficult for future mayors and city councils to change it.

Fabian Nunez, political director for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, argued that including the language in the charter would “send a loud and clear message throughout the entire country that this city is not going to tolerate the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.”

Riordan is eager to win labor support for his version of the charter and has decided not to fight charter language on the living wage. Nunez and other labor leaders stress, however, that they have not agreed to any deal that would have them support the charter in return for the mayor’s help on the living wage.