The Los Angeles County Governance Reform Task Force conducted six public sessions in August and will meet again Wednesday evening, Sept. 9, in East Los Angeles to rough-hew the job of elected county executive, as well as the positions of legislative analyst and management and budget director, and send a package of recommendations on these to the Board of Supervisors for its review. Discussion on rules to implement a new requirement to post agendas 120 hours in advance of Board of Supervisors meetings has also been virtually concluded.
The supervisors are expected to consider drafting and adopting ordinances that would put the recommendations, or alternatives hammered out by the board, into law. Measure G requires the 120-hour requirement to be in place by the end of the year. The county executive is to be elected in 2028, and the legislative analyst and budget director positions also must be in place then. But the Task Force is recommending a budget and staffing ramp-up to begin almost immediately, to ease the transition.
Candidates to be the first-ever elected Los Angeles County executive were eligible to begin raising campaign funds on Labor Day, Sept. 7.
Here are my highlights - including video excerpts - from three of the August sessions. I'll be posting my takes on three more meetings later this week (if jury duty allows).
–Aug. 7: The Los Angeles County Governance Reform Task Force began its August marathon with discussions about the contours of the new county executive position. It became clear that not every Task Force member had been aware of the extent to which Measure G transfers power from the Board of Supervisors to the executive. Discussions included whether the board was to retain the power to articulate the county’s position on proposed legislation in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., or the executive was to now have that power, or both the board and executive were to have the power. Members differed on the issue but in a later August meeting agreed that the executive would have the power.
The task force also discussed whether the Board of Supervisors or the executive, or both, were to be responsible for delivering constituent services.
See my "Point of Entry" post in Los Angeles Rules.
–Aug. 12: The Task Force met in South Los Angeles to discuss how to comply with the new requirement that Board of Supervisors agendas be publicly posted at least 120 hours in advance of the meeting.
This is one of the more obscure parts of Measure G. Why 120 hours instead of the 72 hours mandated by state law? It’s because the board meets on Tuesdays, so the last possible moment to post an agenda is late afternoon or evening of the previous Friday. That means that community groups, labor unions, cities and others with a stake in board motions (including other supervisors who will be voting on the motions) don’t find out until after close of business each Friday whether they will have to spend their weekend mobilizing their troops to study, lobby or take other actions in advance of a Tuesday vote that could affect them.
See my "Friday afternoon massacre" post.
–Aug. 17: The Task Force held a special meeting to hear testimony from representatives of cities, organizers, nonprofit organizations, community leaders and others about how they currently interact with the county through their supervisors, and how their practices must change once there is a county executive. Presenters included representatives of the California League of Cities, the San Gabriel Valley, South Bay and Gateway Cities Councils of Governments; Our L.A.’ Reimagine L.A.; the Southeast L.A. Collaborative; and the League of Women Voters.
GRTF members continued their discussion about how best to deliver constituent services without adding new layers of bureaucracy and without splitting the political power to deliver from the political accountability for failing to deliver.
See my "We didn't even know how to get into this building" post.
–Aug. 21: The Task Force met to discuss the chief legislative analyst and director of budget and management positions. There appeared to be consensus that the analyst would report solely to the Board of Supervisors and be restricted to working on proposed county legislation, with no authority over legislative advocacy in Sacramento, Washington, D.C. or anywhere else. The budget office is to be relatively independent.
–Aug. 21, part 2: The Task Force hosted a public engagement session at which invited groups and other members of the public were to participate in six break-out sessions to discuss what they wanted to see in a new county executive. It got the kind of response one might expect for a meeting scheduled at 5 p.m. on a Friday evening in a locked government building in downtown Los Angeles with no parking offered. Fewer than a dozen people showed up.
–Aug. 26: The Task Force met to discuss the duties of the county executive and implementation of the 120-hour requirement, and hear a presentation by Prof. Timothy Krebs on the new legislative analyst position. Krebs said that in independent executive systems, there is an information and power imbalance in favor of the executive and political friction with the legislative branch. The legislative analyst partially, but not completely, rebalances the system.
Coming up
The Governance Reform Task Force meets on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. at the East Los Angeles Library, 4837 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90022. The agenda includes discussion and votes on rules for the new county executive office.
Task Force members meet on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at noon at the Board Hearing Room in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 to publicly interview finalists for a position on the new county Ethics Commission. and additional day of interviews, if necessary, is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 18 at noon in the same location.
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