LA Politicians Voluntarily Limit Their Own Power – Find Out Why?

Los Angeles politicians have been caught in a paradoxical situation – feeling pressured to enact meaningful reforms to regain the public’s trust after recent scandals, while also instinctively resisting measures that would significantly reduce their own power and influence. The result has been incremental and uneven progress on the reform front by the LA City Council. In this article we talk about LA Politicians Voluntarily Limit Their Own Power.

The Ethics Storm Brewing in LA

According to Santa Monica Daily Press, The storm of ethics controversies swirling around LA’s City Hall reached a fever pitch after a leaked audio recording captured several council members and a union leader engaging in an appalling discussion laced with racist language about gerrymandering district boundaries for political gain. This sparked outrage and calls for resignations, ultimately leading to former Council President Nury Martinez stepping down.

At the core of the scandal was an intent to disenfranchise voters by manipulating district lines to boost Latino representation at the expense of Black residents. As Councilman Paul Krekorian, who took over as Council President after the fallout, stated, it was essentially a conversation aimed at “literally to disenfranchise” voters’ rights.

Mild But Promising Reforms Approved

Faced with this crisis of public confidence, even the council’s most stubborn members realized they needed to take action. A series of mild but promising reforms have been adopted:

1) Raising Fines for Ethics Violations:
The city’s Ethics Commission sought and received council approval to increase fines for those who violate ethics rules, making violations more financially punitive.

2) Ethics Commission Budget Protection:
The council also agreed to insulate the Ethics Commission’s budget from political interference, enhancing its independence.

3) Independent Redistricting Commission:
Perhaps the biggest reform was clearing the way for LA voters to consider creating an independent citizen’s redistricting commission in November’s election. If approved, this would remove politicians’ ability to gerrymander district boundaries for their own political benefit.

While the fines are attention-grabbing, establishing an independent redistricting commission represents the most significant step forward in addressing the very issue that sparked the crisis – protecting voters’ rights during redistricting.

Shortcomings and Resistance

However, the reform package fell short in key areas, highlighting the council’s reluctance to remake systems that preserve their power:

1) Council Blocks Ethics Commission Ballot Access:
A provision that would have allowed the Ethics Commission to take matters directly to voters, bypassing council approval, was stripped from the final reforms. Ethics expert Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University sees this as undermining true independence for the commission.

2) Punting on Expanding Council Size:
For over 20 years, reformers have pushed to increase the number of council seats to reduce the massive populations in each district (over 250,000 currently). This would foster better neighborhood-level representation. However, competing proposals with different seat numbers made it easy for the council to temporarily table the idea.

The Long Road of Charter Reform

While disappointing, the council did approve creating a charter reform commission that could ultimately put increasing council size to a public vote. This 13-member commission would have a mix of mayoral, council president, and citizen appointees evaluating potential overhauls to LA’s city charter, including the size of the council.

Council President Krekorian remains committed to this path of “council district-size reduction,” seeing it as vital for re-establishing public trust. However, the commission route underscores how circuitous and incremental the process has been so far.

Taking Baby Steps

In Krekorian’s words, “tremendous progress” has been made, even if many reformers are unsatisfied with the half-measures to date. The council has accepted independent redistricting and higher ethics violation fines, but fought hard to preserve control over the Ethics Commission’s autonomy and their own districts’ sizes.

This uneven push-and-pull dynamic stems from the conflict between the public’s desire for accountability and transparency, and the politicians’ self-preservation instincts to protect their power bases. As Fernando Guerra acknowledges, “I’m not that surprised” that reforms fell short – public outrage was more muted than expected.

LA’s reform saga reveals how arduous it can be for elected leaders to voluntarily relinquish influence, even after serious breaches of public trust. The City Council has taken baby steps, but regaining that trust will require bolder actions that they’ve so far been reluctant to take. The road ahead remains long, but at least the journey has finally begun. I sincerely hope you find this “LA Politicians Voluntarily Limit Their Own Power – Find Out Why?” article helpful.