City Council Urged to Put Unified Charter on Ballot

Hoping to preserve the fragile consensus of Los Angeles’ elected and appointed charter commissions, City Council members proposed Wednesday that the council commit to putting the commissions’ unified proposal on the June ballot without revisions.

Councilman Joel Wachs said he will introduce such a motion Friday.

The two commissions have agreed on the principles of the unified charter, a draft of which was released Wednesday. They are set to consider the draft Monday.

“Once the commissions finalize their decisions, the City Council should respect the extraordinary effort that has been put into the development of the consensus proposal by endorsing it in its entirety and place it as presented on the next municipal ballot,” Wachs said.

Council members Laura Chick and Mike Feuer also supported the proposal, saying that any changes made by the council could jeopardize the fragile consensus reached by the commissions.

Not all council members agree with all the proposed changes.

Councilwoman Rita Walters said she does not think the mayor should be given control over litigation, as proposed.

But she said she would be reluctant to begin rewriting the unified charter if it jeopardizes the consensus.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg disagrees with giving the mayor more power and not providing an alternative to expanding the City Council to 21 or 25 members.

“I have disagreements with a lot of it, but is it better than what we have now? I don’t know yet,” Goldberg said.

The councilwoman said she would probably agree to put the charter on the ballot unchanged, but thinks the council should be able to hold hearings first so that all members feel comfortable with the proposal.