Los Angeles took a giant step down the Road to Reform this week when the Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform, chaired by Council President Paul Krekorian, approved a complete set of set of recommendations for an amendment to the City Charter creating an Independent Redistricting Commission to draw the boundaries of City Council districts in future elections. The proposed amendment will now be submitted to the City Council to place on the November 2024 ballot.
"We’re going to give Councilmembers and the public a month to review this proposal before we hear it in Council, so everyone knows exactly what we’re voting on before this goes to the voters,” said Council President Krekorian. “We are going to give the voters exactly what they have rightly demanded, a redistricting process in which the Council will play no part. Not in selecting the commissioners, not in drawing the maps or reviewing the commission’s work. A process where the voters choose their representatives and not the other way around,” said Krekorian.
The proposal approved by the Committee also strictly prohibits communication between members of the proposed commission and Councilmembers or their staff. Future Ad Hoc meetings will explore issues including a Charter amendment to reduce the size of Council districts by increasing the number of seats on the Council.