Charter: the Sooner the Better

This is a big moment. Today the authors of the unified city charter will present their draft document to the City Council. After more than two years and thousands of hours of public meetings, Los Angeles is close to having a proposed charter that would reestablish some of the ties that should exist between citizens and their local government. Only a few key details--and approval by the City Council--remain before the package goes to voters in June. One big detail is the date the charter would take effect.

The draft charter prunes away much of the duplication and confusion in the existing 700-page monster. It clarifies lines of authority, increases the mayor’s power and gives neighborhoods new clout. Compromise and consensus between the two charter commissions have been hard-won and are still fragile; the City Council would be reckless to bury this proposal or amend it wholesale. The hurried drafting over the past weeks has also, not surprisingly, left errors sprinkled through the document. These must be fixed.

The draft specifies that the new charter will take effect July 1, 2001. But if voters approve the charter this June, why should they have to wait two full years to realize its advantages? Neither panel had discussed the effective date. The chairmen of the commissions, George Kieffer and Erwin Chemerinsky, picked July 1, 2001, during the closing rush of drafting. “We thought about it for 30 seconds,” Chemerinsky said. Both say they were mindful of the work to be done before the new charter can take effect: The council will have to adopt enabling ordinances, create new departments, abolish others and draw districts for new planning agencies as well as neighborhood councils. None of this can start until and unless the voters adopt the charter in June.

The two drafters also took to heart Mayor Richard Riordan’s avowals that charter reform, particularly provisions to strengthen the mayor’s authority, would benefit future mayors, not him. July 1, 2001, is the date his successor will take office. Now Riordan is crying foul, insisting that his experience makes him the right mayor to put the new charter into effect. But the debate shouldn’t be about Riordan.

A small group from both reform panels is now working, with input from the council and the city attorney, to resolve the last policy issues. As they do, Chemerinsky and Kieffer should give serious thought to how long it should reasonably take city officials to put this charter into effect. July 1, 2001, will mark nearly five years since the reform process got underway. That seems too long to wait for change.