Charter Reform

The United Chambers of Commerce recently voted narrowly to support the proposed charter on the June 8 ballot. This vote reflects the ambivalent feelings about the new charter. While it is far from what we hoped for, the vote reflects the view that it will be an improvement over the current charter.

The most recent fiasco over unused Department of Water and Power office space while the city pays high lease costs for other space is simply one more indication that there are no controls over the city bureaucracy and no fiscal accountability or sense of responsibility to the taxpayers under the current system. The new charter will give the mayor the authority to instill these values or make the changes necessary to bring them about.

We support the new charter and urge its adoption June 8.

ROSS HOPKINS Chairman, United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley

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I’ve just waded through the lengthy voter information pamphlet on the upcoming charter reform. Beforehand, I had a preconceived notion that perhaps something new might be better. I was mistaken.

The basic and most significant change in the proposed charter is that it gives enormously more power to the mayor and takes it away from our elected [City] Council, thus depriving us of necessary checks and balances.

In addition, the new charter would admittedly cost an estimated $4 million to $6 million every year, a prediction, like the subway, that is probably much too low.

Furthermore, as if compensating for the huge shift in community power, the new charter would establish something called an advisory Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. I’ve attended neighborhood meetings with [Mayor Richard] Riordan and [Councilwoman Cindy] Miscikowski, proponents of the new charter, and I know how futile and powerless they are. I’m voting no.

RAY GOLDSTONE, Van Nuys