You Can Fight City Hall

Sometimes things that make perfect sense in a bureaucrat’s ledger book make no sense at all in the real world. So it was with a surcharge levied on residents of the San Fernando Valley and other neighborhoods away from downtown. Until last week, Los Angeles residents who wanted a street-use permit had to either drive downtown or pay an additional 7%--as West Hills resident Bob Bostroff found out when he sought permission to store lumber for a remodeling job on the street outside his house.

Bostroff paid the extra $4.60, but understandably was none too happy about it. So he complained. Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to abolish the surcharge, which was imposed to cover the cost of faxing materials back and forth between the Department of Engineering’s downtown headquarters and branch offices. Although that sounds like a perfectly legitimate way to defray costs and add convenience for residents who dread the drive downtown, it actually penalizes those who choose to live in neighborhoods from Sylmar to San Pedro.

And it only supports the view of some that the Valley gets overcharged and shortchanged by City Hall, one of the sentiments fueling the misguided drive to split Los Angeles.

If last week’s vote is any indication, City Hall is waking up--however slowly--to the fact that it must change if it wants Los Angeles to be anything more than a memory. It starts with understanding the role of democratic government in a free market society: It exists not to perpetuate itself but to serve the needs of its citizens.

Sometimes that means acting like a business. Smart businesses understand the importance of keeping customers happy, of understanding how their actions are perceived in the marketplace. A good business incorporates overhead into its selling costs. How would shoppers feel if a box of laundry soap cost 7% more at the Target in Woodland Hills than at the Target in Northridge? They would probably just shop elsewhere. Los Angeles residents cannot just go to another city for something like a permit to store lumber in the street--unless, of course, Valley secessionists get their way.

Customers vote with their feet. But citizens have more responsibility to the government they share. It takes more than grousing about what’s wrong with City Hall to fix it. Bostroff complained--not about the $4.60, but about the principle--and followed through. He took on City Hall. And he won.