Wednesday, 4/9/97
Measure 8 passes; city charter to be rewritten
Initiative creates smaller districts, more citizen
involvement
By Hannah Miller and John Digrado
Daily Bruin Staff
Within two years, Los Angeles will be getting a new
constitution.
The passage of Proposition 8 with a 58 percent margin on Tuesday
creates a 15-member committee charged with drafting a new charter
for the city – and redirecting L.A.’s municipal government.
The city’s charter outlines the goals and powers of most
municipal bodies, from the police to the school system. Los
Angeles’ current charter, dating from 1925, has recently been
blamed for creating an inefficient and diffuse power structure.
"Seventy years is a long time, and a lot of change has taken
place in L.A.," Riordan supporter John Iino said, echoing the
popular sentiment that put Proposition 8 on the ballot.
"There is too much disparity between the valley and the inner
city," Iino commented. "This will mean more equality in the
distribution of limited resources," he said of Proposition 8’s
passage.
The city council itself made the initial move towards charter
reform in September 1996, handpicking a 21-member ad hoc committee
to revise what they recognized to be an outdated vision of city
government.
Proposition 8 offered a competing plan for reform. The
significant difference is that the new committee members have each
been locally elected from city council districts.
For the next two years, these commissioners will hammer out a
new charter to be presented to the voters for approval. Each of the
newly elected commissioners brings a separate agenda to the table,
hoping to solve the city’s problems with a hodgepodge of
proposals.
These proposals range from increasing the number of city council
districts to creating special neighborhood councils designed to
increase government accountability.
Many voters saw Proposition 8 as a viable method of increasing
citizen participation in city government. "We need more people
involved in the process to make decisions," said voter the Rev.
Phillip Miles.
Although supporters, such as Miles, see Proposition 8 as a
democratically driven reform process, defeated mayoral candidate
Tom Hayden expressed concern that the reforms would still be open
to political influence.
That political influence could come in the form of re-elected
Mayor Richard Riordan. Having donated $1.5 million to the
Proposition 8 campaign, Riordan is in a prime position to make
"recommendations" to the commission.
"It is a means by the mayor’s office to usurp power," Hayden
charged. "Although both sides will choose the members of the
commission, the goal of the mayor’s office is to increase their
power."
Though Riordan has thus far refused to specify his
recommendations, he is widely expected to advocate increasing
mayoral power over city employees, and reducing the city council’s
checks on executive power.
Erwin Chemerinsky, elected to represent the 5th District, which
includes UCLA, has practical experience with drafting governmental
guidelines.
Chemerinsky, a USC law professor who helped write the
constitution of Belarus, is endorsed by labor and the county
Democratic Party. He handily defeated six other candidates Tuesday,
winning 52 percent of the vote.
"The city charter commission needs to spend its first six months
holding public hearings to hear what the people want," Chemerinsky
said.
During the campaign, Chemerinsky stated his support for the
creation of neighborhood councils to act as the link between L.A.’s
15 City Council members and their individual districts.
"The problem with a city as geographically vast as Los Angeles
is we have one government entity making decisions over everyone and
that tends to leave some people out of the process," Chemerinsky
told the Los Angeles Times last week.
When the new commission goes to work next year, it will face
many of the hottest questions currently posed about city
government. In recent months, attempts by representatives from the
San Fernando Valley to secede from the city have failed narrowly in
the state Assembly and Senate.
Although a measure to break up the mammoth Los Angeles Unified
School District was closely defeated in Sacramento last summer,
there is still strong support for the idea.
Many supporters of these movements see charter reform as the
means to these ends.
Opponents of the measure had argued that the council’s
commission, selected with the racial diversity of Los Angeles in
mind, would have altered the charter more democratically than "15
strangers."
What remains unknown is the overall direction of the newly
elected commission. "Now we can get a chance to see if anyone has
any good ideas," voter Peter Schick said.
For some voters, this is too much potential change. "They needed
some changes in (the charter), but I don’t think it needed to be as
drastic," Los Angeles resident Edward Velarde said.
Yet, overall Proposition 8’s passage and the promise of charter
reform brought a positive response from voters. "It’s definitely a
good idea. It will help us evolve into a more metropolitan area,"
Dr. Tad Fujiwara commented after the election.
With reports from Hala Ali and Tyler Maxwell, Daily Bruin
Contributors.