Readers React: Restructuring L.A. County government

You are right that the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors needs to loosen its grip on power. (“For a better L.A., a less-controlling Board of Supervisors,” Editorial, May 19)

There are structural issues with the board. The supervisors should not have legislative and executive powers. There should be a single countywide executive and a separate legislature. Department heads should have one boss, not five.

Furthermore, an independently elected executive such as the sheriff should have his own budget with appropriate independent oversight, not a budget established and controlled by the supervisors.

Finally, we need to look at competence. The board’s scoffing at the recent Blue Ribbon Report, saying that few of the recommendations were new, proves that the supervisors had read the earlier recommendations but not acted on them.

George Wolkon

Pacific Palisades