Within 24 hours of last week's historic vote to place creation of an independent redistricting commission on the 2024 ballot, the Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform convened to discuss the challenging issue of district size. The Los Angeles City Council has had 15 districts since the 1925, when the City was barely a million people. Since then, the population has quadrupled, while the number of Council Districts has remained the same. Today, each member of the Council is called on to serve the needs of nearly 270,000 people. These are the largest city council districts in the country, any one of which is big enough to be the third largest city in Los Angeles, County.
Smaller districts would better serve the needs of all Angelenos by bringing elected representatives closer to the people who elect them, by reducing the influence of political money, and by increasing the diversity of representation in our Council.
Among the other issues that will come before the Ad Hoc Committee in the coming months:
- Defining procedures for censure, suspension or replacement of Councilmembers
- Strengthening independence of the Ethics Commission
- Creation of an Inspector General's office to review land use issues
- Revision of the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance
- Creation of an Office of Compliance to advise Council in identifying and avoiding conflicts of interest
- Creation of an independent commission to consider further charter reforms