When in the Course of Revising Our Municipal Contract . . .

I may be, according to a recent Times poll, one of the few people to have actually read the proposed new charter for the city of Los Angeles.

It’s going to be on the ballot come June so I thought I ought to read it. I have read it four times now. I have some issues.

First off, this thing reads like a car lease agreement. Instead of an opening like, “When in the course of human events,” the new charter begins, “The City of Los Angeles shall continue to be a municipal corporation.” Why it should continue to be so is not even mentioned.

OK, maybe I’m expecting too much of what is basically a contract among the citizens of Los Angeles. But don’t most contracts begin by stating their reason for being? Then again maybe the words, “shall continue” say it all.

There have been lots of speeches and editorials about the charter providing a more responsive government.

The mayor gets more power, which I approve of. And the City Council loses some, which I also approve of. But where in all the 129 pages are the citizens? Oh, I read the section about neighborhood councils. It begins on page 125 and at least starts by stating its goals: “To promote more citizen participation and to make government more responsive to local needs.” But then the charter not only creates a Department of Neighborhood Councils, it envisions a “Congress of Neighborhood Councils.” I thought we already had one of those. It’s called a City Council and it doesn’t seem to work.

Is adding a Congress of Neighborhood Councils (with only advisory powers) going to make the City Council more responsive to citizens? Or just one more level removed from them?

I don’t question the motives of the people who suffered and labored so long and so hard to produce these 129 pages. But this charter does not answer the fundamental question of why Los Angeles should continue.

The citizens must answer that question. They are qualified. They come from a thousand different cultures and are heir to the wealth of nations. But they live in a city of half myth and half truth and this charter is both.

Ignore the advertising and read the contract before you sign. The neighborhood councils seem to have been designed to muffle the voices of the citizens and blur the lines of responsibility leading to the politicians. Only the bureaucrats of City Hall would dare call that reform. I must vote no on the new charter.