This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Los Angeles this summer is the epicenter of both sweeping municipal governance overhaul and stultifying governmental stasis.
The foot-dragging comes from the L.A. City Council, which shut down a series of broadly popular charter reforms in late June because, members said, the proposals hadn’t been sufficiently vetted — despite nine grueling months of commission hearings and debates and, frankly, years of discussion over the biggest-ticket items, like expanding the council.
By contrast, the county Board of Supervisors is finalizing a clean-up measure for the November ballot after having moved too fast and broken too many things with a 2024 charter reform that created new offices and new official duties, but that threatens to wreck the county’s signature justice reforms because of rushed and careless drafting.
It’s a surprising role reversal, at least in image, with the traditionally plodding, state-sized county government looking suddenly more urgent and creative (but accident-prone) than the smaller and comparatively scrappier City Hall.
Which of the two governments landed on the right formula? Is it better to be swift than certain? Should politics or policy set the pace?
Continue reading in CalMatters.