Bid for Elected County Executive Quietly Dies

The effort to restructure the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which took a severe beating last week when voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative to increase the number of supervisors, died a quiet death Tuesday.

Supervisors had been scheduled to discuss the creation of an elected county executive, the other long-sought reform proposal that was revived this year by a strange alliance between termed-out politicians and reformers who saw it as a way of improving local government.

But supervisors allowed the item to expire rather than restart a debate that would lessen their power.

Although reshaping of the county power structure has been deferred, observers say other developments could leave their mark on the county’s political landscape over the next two years.

In 2002, for instance, voters are likely to get the chance to consider a term-limits proposal that was headed to this month’s ballot until county officials erroneously disqualified it. And members of Los Angeles’ resurgent labor movement, angered by supervisors’ positions during recent strikes, have promised to back candidates who challenge incumbent supervisors.

Any challenge would be an uphill battle. No elected incumbent supervisor has been defeated at the polls for 20 years, and the three who were up for reelection this year ran unopposed.

That was a central complaint of those who sought board expansion, most prominently state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). He is Senate majority leader and one of the most powerful figures in Sacramento. His term expires in 2002--he is barred by term limits from seeking reelection--and he was thought by some observers to covet a slot on an expanded board.

Polanco declined to discuss the defeat of his effort to expand the board. His chief of staff, Bill Mabie, said Polanco pushed expansion not out of self-interest but to improve constituent services and create a more ethnically diverse board.

Mabie acknowledged that the defeat of the measure narrows his boss’ options. Polanco is thought to be eyeing a seat on the Los Angeles City Council but may want a statewide office instead. Mabie pointed out that the controller and secretary of state will soon be forced from office by term limits themselves.

Polanco is “perusing all of his options, as any person in his position would be,” Mabie said. “We didn’t have all our eggs in this basket.”

He added that Polanco and other supporters of board expansion are still dissecting last week’s voter rejection of the plan by 64% to 36%.

That is almost identical to the 65%-to-35% margin by which expansion was rejected in 1992. This is the sixth time in the last 100 years that voters have declined to expand the board, opponents contend.

“The people have spoken,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who, as one of three board members who opposed expansion, campaigned against it. “Sacramento politicians should get the message that the public does not want board expansion.”

Yaroslavsky, an advocate of an elected countywide executive, said he would consider helping draft a ballot measure to establish the post.

But expansion backers still believe there is a receptive audience for more supervisors. They point to Pasadena, where voters agreed to expand the school board, as evidence.

And they blame sitting supervisors--especially Yaroslavsky, whose photo appeared on a mailer that incorrectly implied that Gov. Gray Davis opposed expansion--for the measure’s lopsided failure.