Topics
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Governance
Governance covers the practical structures of our democratic system. There is no perfect form that suits every government and every era. Changing governance structures is one way to attempt to fix inefficiences or other shortcomings that separate people from the officials they choose to represent and lead them.
11 articles -
Measure G
Measure G is the 2024 ballot measure that created an elected Los Angeles County executive, expanded the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine, required an independent Ethics Commission and made a number of other changes to the county charter. It achieved structrual changes that county critics have been seeking for decades.
9 articles -
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is currently the county's governing body and has ultimate authority over all county operations except for duties assigned to the sheriff, the district attorney and the assessor. Those powers and duties will change under Measure G, which assigns the board to a legislative and oversight role and eliminates its executive powers. It remains unclear whether supervisors will retain executive powers in unincorporated county areas.
8 articles -
Governance Reform Task Force
The GRTF is a 13-member body of appointees who study how best to put the Measure G charter changes into effect. The panel makes its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.
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Cities
Los Angeles and some other cities in California operate under their own charters, while many smaller "general law" cities are governed according to rules in state law.
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Jurisdictions
What is L.A.? Is it the City of Los Angeles? The county? both? It is common for Angelenos to believe they live in the city when they don't, or that they don't when they do.
5 articles -
County executive
Los Angeles County is moving from an appointed administrator who works for the Board of Supervisors to an independently elected County Executive with direct authority over most county operations. The idea is to separate executive from legislative functions and impose the checks and balances that characterize other levels of government. Crucial questions linger about how to parcel out authority.
5 articles -
Ethics
Measure G purportedly created an independent county Ethics Commission. But Governance Reform Task Force members discovered that the county must return to the ballot on Nov. 3 to make good on the promised independence.
5 articles -
County counsel
The Los Angeles county counsel is the attorney who represents the municipal entity that is the county. So who speaks on behalf of their client? As a practical matter it has been the Board of Supervisors, but it will become the county executive in late 2028.
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Los Angeles City Council
The 15-member council has been the governing body of the city of Los Angeles since 1925 and enjoys legislative and oversight power, while members exercise some informal executive powers in their own districts. The council has so far fended off a charter reform commission's attempt to expand its membership to 25 while shrinking individual council districts.
4 articles -
Palisades - Eaton fires
The cataclysmic January 2025 fires and their aftermath illustrate failures of Los Angeles city and county to coordinate, and the different degree of attention Angelenos pay to the governments of each. Mayor Karen Bass was blamed not only for the Palisades fire in the city, but also the Eaton Canyon fire in unincorporated Altadena. The county Board of Supervisors escaped that level of scrutiny. After-action reports by both the city and the county avoided assigning responsibility.
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Measure J
Measure J was a 2020 county charter amendment that imposes a spending requirement for alternatives to incarceration and other social support programs. Because of bureaucratic screw-ups, it is due to be eliminated in 2028 by Measure G, the 2024 governance reform amendment. Efforts to preserve Measure J include a lawsuit set for trial in February and yet another charter amendment on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
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Criminal justice
Much of Los Angeles County's role is to administer the criminal justice system. The Superior Court is no longer a county department (although it was for much of the county's history). But the indepedently elected sheriff and district attorney are both county offices. So are the public defender and the alternate public defender. The Countywide Criminal Justice Coordination Committee brings those offices, and non-county offices as well, together.
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California laws
The state Constitution and state law govern much of how California cities and counties are organized and operate.
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Juvenile justice
The county has the central role in the juvenile justice system through the troubled Probation Department. The county is currently violating a state oversight agency's order to close its juvenile hall.
1 article
