Stop Thwarting the People’s Will

Thanks to the support of more than 300,000 Angelenos and the unequivocal ruling of U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, Los Angeles residents soon may get to vote on a proposal to create an elected, 15-person city charter reform commission. This week, the city attorney and the City Council will be called upon to respond to the court’s ruling. A number of council member have now called for more legal battles to delay Angelenos’ right to vote on this citizens’ initiative.

It would be unfortunate to see more legal delays to a public vote. History here is instructive: A 1963 Town Hall study of the city’s deficient charter concluded that council “inaction or very limited action has followed most charter studies.” In 1969, another city charter commission found that “the City Council has been the major obstacle in the path of charter reform . . . proposals, thus preventing the voters from expressing their judgments on them.”

Now yet again, this council is reluctant to allow a vote on charter reform. In September, the council rejected a compromise that would have put reform recommendations directly to the voters because it did not want to give up its right to modify the commission’s recommendations. Once the council rejected the compromise, supporters of charter reform proceeded to address various concerns about a proposed elected commission. The most significant concern was that the state law that permits an elected charter commission appears to contemplate an at-large election, under which the top 15 vote-getters throughout the city would be elected. But an at-large system wouldn’t ensure adequate representation from Los Angeles’ many diverse districts and neighborhoods.

We made the decision to challenge this system under the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minority representation where voting patterns are likely to be racially polarized. We had hoped this would be a friendly lawsuit, believing that council members would conclude that district election for charter reform commissioners was fair for minority voters. Our claims used statistics indicating that African Americans and Latinos were likely to be elected only in districts where they were the majority.

Instead, the council instructed the city attorney to “vigorously” contest the suit, which he did. For example, the city attorney alleged that African Americans may not be prejudiced by racially polarized voting in Los Angeles, citing Mayor Tom Bradley’s five victories. But Pfaelzer agreed with reform supporters’ position and ordered that the city find an alternative to an at-large election.

Council members have important roles to play in charter reform. The commission appointed by the council has begun its work. We hope and expect that the council members will participate actively in the public evaluation of the candidates for the elected commission. Under the proposal to create an elected commission, voters will directly control the process, and elected officials will help voters to understand the many diverse perspectives on these complex issues. Each council member can help educate the public about what does and doesn’t work in city government.

Candidates for this important commission will offer different and exciting visions of how Los Angeles can be redesigned to meet the challenges of the millennium. We hope that there will be many candidates and that Angelenos will be energized by the debate. But one thing is clear: The voters who signed the charter reform petition expect--and are entitled--to vote this April on the proposal to create an elected charter reform commission.

“No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more,” Mark Twain wrote in 1873. We call on members of the council and the city attorney to honor the democratic roots of this initiative and give voters their right to decide. We also call on elected officials to state where they stand on these issues critical to the future of our great city.