Can LA City Council reform itself?
Expanding the council isn’t a concept that LA’s councilmembers have warmed up to, even if, as polling and public comment shows, their constituents are clearly ready for change.
September 8, 2023
Welcome to the second issue of Report Forward by journalist Alissa Walker.
The Big Report
OUR LA coalition members talk governance reform in West Adams on August 31. Photo by Roxana Reyes
Since 1924, the 15-member legislative body that has met in LA’s City Hall hasn’t expanded, even as the city’s population has quadrupled. Now, for the first time in a century, there are real signs that may change. A 33-page report delivered to LA City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Reform last week by the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) indicated “broad support for expanding the size of the City Council” with “a preference for a Council that is equal to or greater than 21 members.” Even Council President Paul Krekorian acknowledged that 23 council members would be the “sweet spot.” But as the subsequent discussion revealed, it’s a concept that many of the seven councilmembers in attendance hadn’t quite warmed up to yet, even if, as polling and public comment confirms, their constituents are clearly ready to build an addition to the very horseshoe they were seated around.
Over the past year, two coalitions have been at the forefront of the conversations around council expansion: Fair Rep LA and OUR LA. Fair Rep LA was established after the rocky 2021 redistricting season raised questions about the blatant inequities in LA’s process — inequities which were, of course, later confirmed when the leaked audio recordings exposed the backroom deals being made to disempower renters, Black constituents, and immigrant communities. In the wake of those recordings being made public in October 2022, OUR LA was formed by 12 organizations with the goal of creating a community-based reform agenda with policy recommendations addressing the needs of low-income and BIPOC Angelenos. Additionally, a group of academics known as the Los Angeles Governance Reform Project began convening shortly after the leaked recording. All three groups published recommendations — Fair Rep LA; OUR LA; Governance Reform Project — which call for an expansion to at least 23 councilmembers.
The three groups are also making recommendations about another key governance reform issue: moving LA to an independent redistricting process — meaning the redistricting commissioners who draw the lines would not be appointed by councilmembers, nor would the final districts be subject to council approval — which they argue needs to happen in concert with council expansion in order to draw fairer, more representative districts. (And, honestly, should probably include a do-over of what we now know was a corrupted 2021 process.)
Changing LA’s redistricting process to an independent one has plenty of political support; it seems very likely to happen, as Krekorian said, “come hell or high water.” This is due to the stench of the 2021 process revealed by the Fed Tapes, but also because measures introduced at the state level over the past year might force the city to move to an independent redistricting process anyway, thanks to groups like Common Cause, which have long advocated for a independent process. (Although how independent LA’s process will be is the big question.)
But increasing the number of councilmembers is a much more complex and sometimes contentious proposition. Namely because doing so would require sitting councilmembers to surrender some of their own power. And that power is vast. Each of LA’s 15 councilmembers represent an average of 264,885 constituents, which is fairly astounding when you consider that the two other most populous cities in the U.S. have more than three times the number of representatives: New York City’s 51 councilmembers represent 172,631 people each, Chicago’s 50 councilmembers represent 54,944 people each. When comparing residents per elected official across the country, the city of LA is an outlier in almost every aspect. The only local government bodies with worse ratios are large California counties, topped by — wait for it — Los Angeles County, where five supervisors represent more than two million people each. (That’s a whole other expansion conversation, and one which hasn’t even really begun in a serious way.)
When it comes to residents per elected official, no U.S. city comes close to Los Angeles. Chart by Fair Rep LA
Because the council size is defined by Los Angeles’s city charter (basically, the city’s constitution), the city’s voters will need to vote on a charter amendment to change the number of councilmembers. But this type of ballot measure hasn’t passed since 1924, when the council was expanded to its current 15 members. There have been other efforts at council expansion — in 1999, two competing ballot measures to expand the council to 21 and 25 members both failed — but the difference now is the combination of racist officials scheming on tape and a streak of councilmember indictments has forged real momentum around the issue. Angelenos have been able to plug into community meetings and teach-ins, participate in polls and surveys, see simulations and modeling, and even make hypothetical crowdsourced maps using sophisticated software tools to demonstrate what a city with smaller districts might look like. (Imagine: a Koreatown council district that actually looks a lot like Koreatown!) And this is all in addition to the public hearings of the City Council’s own governance reform committee (although these have been harder to attend in-person as they’re often held during the day, don’t allow remote comment, and the recordings sometimes have very poor audio quality).
But there has never been more public engagement on governance reform than there has over the last year, and that alone is significant, says Kristin Nimmers, the Policy and Campaign Manager for the California Black Power Network, and OUR LA coalition member. “They’ve presented this option of expansion to voters a couple of times, and it's gotten rejected. And part of that was because the work hadn't been done with community members that we're doing through these convenings,” she says. “So if we can make sure this process is equitable, then we can make sure a lot of these other processes are equitable.”
What Do the People Say?
The findings illustrate one clear through line: Angelenos are, in general, very supportive of governance reform, including council expansion; and Black, Asian, and multiracial voters feel particularly underrepresented by LA’s current government. According to a scientific poll of likely voters conducted this summer by FM3 Research and released by Fair Rep LA: “Majorities favor expanding the City Council, including 62% who support expanding to 23 members and 55% who support 29 members. After pro and con messaging on Council expansion, opinions remain solid and increase slightly in favorability to 64% for 23 members and 59% for 29 members, respectively.”
Overall, according to FM3, people of color are more in favor of expansion than white Angelenos, with 66% of Latino Angelenos, 64% of APA Angelenos and 59% of Black Angelenos in favor compared to 53% of white Angelenos.
Data from FM3 Research’s 2023 poll.
These results match up with a CAUSE scientific poll of LA registered voters conducted by Strategies 360 in late 2022. Nearly two-thirds of Black Angelenos favored expansion after hearing pro/con messaging, along with approximately three out of five Latino, APA, and white Angelenos. That poll’s authors noted that “less than half of Asian Pacific Americans feel represented well in Los Angeles City Hall (46%), the lowest of any group by double digits… The APA community’s openness to expansion of the number of city council seats may be tied to feeling not being represented well in City Hall.”
Questions from a Strategies 360 poll conducted in 2022.
Across coalitions, there is general agreement that at least 23 councilmembers would mean more representative districts, potentially giving Black and APA constituents multiple districts with their own pluralities, which is not possible with 15 districts. (Based on its modeling, OUR LA contends that going above 31 districts starts to dissolve these pluralities.) But a city as fractured as LA might require some additional creativity, which is why the Los Angeles Governance Reform Project landed on a recommendation of 25 members with a twist: 21 council districts, plus 4 at-large reps, which could be elected citywide or divided up geographically by region. (Although it’s still unclear if this hybrid approach, which exists in cities like Houston and Philadelphia, would pass legal muster under the California Voting Rights Act.) There’s an opportunity here for a place like LA to be a true innovator on the issues of disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, and voting rights that are affecting the entire nation, says Sara Sadhwani, a professor of politics at Pomona College specializing in Asian American and Latino voting behavior and a member of the Los Angeles Governance Reform Project. “It’s not so much that LA has grown significantly as a population, but also demographically — we are changing and diversifying, and that is putting pressure on communities to be in competition for representation,” she says. “I see an opening to a broader conversation about achieving representation in a multiracial era.”
So What’s Next?
The first step for council expansion means actually putting a measure up to voters, which must be approved for the ballot by those very same hesitant councilmembers. During committee meetings, many of them expressed concern that divvying up the city into more districts would lead to reductions in staff or services. There is also a web of logistical questions for implementation:
How will elections for an expanded council work within our current system that alternates election cycles between even- and odd-numbered districts? (It may mean we elect everyone at once.)
Should it change size every 10 years based on population growth (or decrease)?
Should we implement other major reforms to improve representation and combat corruption — create a more independent ethics commission, implement public funding of elections with democracy vouchers, switch to ranked choice voting, limit council’s discretionary power over land-use decisions, overhaul the Neighborhood Council system, or expand participatory budgeting — before we consider growing this flawed legislative body?
At this point, the polling shows that really anything is on the table for voters, and reforms should aim high, says retired councilmember Mike Bonin. “Angelenos are hungry for a better way of doing things, and these results show they have a hefty appetite for a full menu of smart proposals,” he says. “We need to get these reforms on the ballot and give voters the chance to make the changes they demand.”
What feels the most up in the air, particularly after the committee’s conversation last week, is the date when any proposed reforms would be implemented. The questions of independent redistricting and council expansion are now likely to land on the November 2024 ballot, when a presidential election would turn out a larger and more diverse electorate. But whether the city would be required to carry out an independent redistricting with more districts (assuming both measures pass), in time for the 2026 elections is anything but certain. The CLA report seems to hint at a much slower timeline, where the first election of the expanded council might not happen until 2032 — a full decade after the leaked audio recording, even if voters passed independent redistricting in 2024. If the council expansion is the first step, that’s much too long to wait for more changes which the headlines of the past year have proven to be increasingly urgent. “This council expansion won't solve all the problems, but it's building momentum for us to get towards deeper structural reforms,” says Nimmers. “It’s a stepping stone for us to continue this fight.”
Have more questions about council expansion? (Of course you do, it’s complicated!) You’re invited to “Report Forward Live!,” an opportunity to hear more about these reforms to curb corruption and build a more representative democracy. Join a Zoom conversation with LAFI Deputy Director Godfrey Plata and me, journalist Alissa Walker, on Thursday, September 14, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Please RSVP at https://www.laforward.org/events/charter-reform
Progress Report
Just before Measure ULA went into effect April 1, a city report estimated that the new tax on sales of properties valued over $5 million could bring in as much as $672 million for homelessness prevention each year. But that figure will be much lower for the immediate future, partially due to external factors like skyrocketing mortgage rates which are curtailing real-estate transactions, and partially due to loopholes being exploited by the city’s wealthiest property owners. (There’s also a state lawsuit going to court next month attempting to overturn the measure entirely; a federal one was dismissed.) In the meantime, Mayor Karen Bass’s administration put together a creative temporary fix: using FEMA dollars to advance ULA’s first $150 million, therefore establishing the six-program expenditure plan designed to keep Angelenos housed right away. As Laura Raymond, Director of ACT-LA, described the decision during a conversation with Bass held at SEIU Local 2015 last month: “This is a moment to do something very big and very bold.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman joined the United to House LA coalition on the steps of City Hall last week. Photo by Council District 4
That “very big and very bold” move was finalized last week as the City Council officially passed the $150 million United to House LA funding plan. In addition to the city’s first dedicated fund to produce affordable housing, ULA will deliver the first-ever city-financed eviction prevention, right-to-counsel, and anti-harassment programs, as well as a brand-new emergency rental assistance fund that will launch in mid-September. “Today is a momentous day for Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs the Housing and Homelessness Committee. “With over 44,000 Angelenos without a permanent home in the City of Los Angeles and with evictions surging, the need for these funds has never been more pronounced.”
Local report
Just 3 percent of LA-area renters who receive eviction notices have legal representation, compared to 88 percent of landlords, according to a very timely report from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) and the Los Angeles Right to Counsel Coalition. In addition to highlighting the racial inequities of this power imbalance, the report walks through the many benefits that guaranteeing renters the right to an attorney would deliver to the region, including saving taxpayers a lot of money each year — $120.3 million for the City of Los Angeles and $226.9 million for Los Angeles County — that could be put towards housing instead.
About 1 in 5 LA city jobs are currently vacant per a report-back from the Personnel Department (which is itself facing a 11.5 percent vacancy rate). Those numbers are particularly alarming after 12 councilmembers voted to approve $1 billion over four years in raises and incentives for LAPD, a department that only has a 17 percent vacancy rate. Yet there’s no plan in place (yet) to boost numbers for the 22 other departments facing crisis-level staffing issues, like Street Services (23.44 percent vacant), Sanitation (21.38 percent vacant), or Recreation and Parks (27.32 percent vacant). Improving hiring and retention practices to fill those vacancies was among the demands of city workers during their one-day strike last month.
National Report
Unions Good: The hot labor summer sweeping the nation has a new fan: the U.S. Treasury Department. An August report by the department says that "increased unionization has the potential to contribute to the reversal of the stark increase in inequality seen over the last half-century,” noting that unions increase worker wages by 15 to 20 percent. It’s a resonant message here in LA, which has become the epicenter of labor power — and is also an epicenter of income inequality.
Water Gone: A sweeping New York Times investigation projects a dire forecast for the country’s overtaxed aquifers, where groundwater supplies are running dry. Here in California, both local drinking water and the nation’s food supply are threatened. Because LA still prioritizes pavement over permeability, most of the record-breaking August rainfall of Hurricane Hilary was quickly funneled out to sea, but Measure W is slowly funding infrastructure that helps us retain and reuse some of that water.
Field Report
LA Forward Institute has begun hosting a series of nonpartisan candidate forums for the March 2024 elections. So far, there have been two forums — one for LA City Council District 2 last week and another for LA City Council District 10 last night. In response to community members’ questions, candidates spoke about police and unarmed response; social housing; City Council expansion; mobility and transportation, and climate. Full videos can be watched at https://www.laforward.institute/forums.
LAFI Council District 10 Nonpartisan Candidate Forum
LAFI Council District 2 Nonpartisan Candidate Forum
Coming up next…
LAFI’s Housing Justice Reading Group meets on Sunday, September 10 at 7:00 p.m. to discuss Race for Profit by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was legally banned. RSVP for the Zoom at https://www.laforward.org/events/race-for-profit
Join the first-ever Report Forward Live! to learn about council expansion and other governance reform efforts on Thursday, September 14, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. RSVP for the Zoom at https://www.laforward.org/events/charter-reform
LAFI Council District 14 Forum will be held Thursday, September 21, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. RSVP for the Zoom at https://www.laforward.org/events/cd14-forum
Report in
Hi, Alissa Walker here — I’ll be compiling Report Forward every month. Please send reports, studies, white papers, and big policy wins to me at reports@laf.institute — and forward this to someone working to make LA a better place.
Want to make sure to get these issues every month? Sign up for our email list below!
Report Forward launches
Each issue will spotlight one or two policy proposals from LA County movement groups, plus other local policy happenings, national policy reports, progress updates on the real-world impact of past reports, and in-person opportunities to share knowledge and celebrate big wins.
Welcome to the first issue of Report Forward, a project of the LA Forward Institute! We’re doing this because movement groups generate brilliant ideas and research, but frequently their work doesn’t get the attention it deserves. LA Forward Institute is dedicated to changing that with a new publication. The first feature is Report Forward — a monthly newsletter researched and written by journalist Alissa Walker.
Each issue will spotlight one or two policy proposals from LA County movement groups, plus progress updates on the real-world impact of past reports, other local policy happenings, national policy reports, and in-person opportunities to share knowledge, and celebrate big wins.
We hope you find this useful and interesting. Happy reading and learning!
David Levitus, Ph.D.
Founder & Executive Director
LA Forward Institute
The Big Report
Over 100 advocates rallied for “free and frequent transit for all” outside Metro’s headquarters before Mayor Karen Bass’s first full meeting as board chair. Photo by Jun Ampig/SAJE
As transit agencies across the country work to regain riders while confronting a looming fiscal cliff, a new report by the Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) makes a compelling case for LA to tackle both issues at once by making Metro free. The Road to Equity: The Case for Universal Fareless Transit in Los Angeles is the most comprehensive fare-free argument to date, and it’s one that ACT-LA and SAJE are making along with ongoing demands for more frequent service, says Oscar Zarate, SAJE’s Director of Building Equity and Transit. “Not only do we want our buses to be very fast and reliable, but we also want to make sure that everybody can get on them,” he says. “Someone walking from downtown LA to Watts because they don't have 75 cents is the same issue as someone waiting for a bus for 30 minutes under the hot sun with no shelter.”
The report highlights the stark differences in the way L.A.’s transit system functions compared to other large cities. Metro overwhelmingly serves low-income communities of color yet the system operates with an unusually low farebox recovery ratio, meaning that instead of being forced to rely on fares, LA’s public transit is mostly funded by federal and state funds and sales taxes like Measure M. In fact, fares will make up only 4.8 percent of Metro’s operating costs this fiscal year, and the efforts to collect and enforce fares often end up costing more than the revenue recouped. Unlike other large systems, Metro has also technically piloted this concept: the agency ran its buses fare-free for almost two years as part of its pandemic-era protections, during which time its ridership recovered at a faster rate than any other major city — data corroborated in the report by interviews with frequent riders who said they took more trips more often when the bus was free. (Notably, one-third of Metro’s riders currently pay with cash, meaning they cannot benefit from money-saving policies like low-income discounts or fare-capping.)
The report’s recommendations are also particularly salient as Metro weighs creating its own police force — as the report notes, in 2019, 53 percent of fare evasion citations went to Black riders, even though only 20 percent of riders are Black — and Zarate argues that going fare-free would address other safety concerns, too, pointing to a recent Woodland Hills incident where a bus operator was stabbed over a fare dispute. “What we don’t talk about as much is how much of a safety issue fare enforcement can be for drivers,” he says. As LA City Mayor Karen Bass assumes the role of Metro Board Chair, Zarate hopes the report will remind her of the pledge she made to voters: “What she said during her campaign is that she promised that no Angeleno would ever have to pay to ride a Metro train and bus again.” Bass seemed to confirm as much at Metro’s State of the Agency earlier this month, saying, “That is still a goal.”
Speaking of waiting for a Metro bus for 30 minutes in the sun… did you know that LA City has 6,315 bus stops and only 1,870 bus shelters? Investing in Place compiled the first-ever citywide infrastructure inventory, tallying up the total number of 125 elements in LA’s right-of-way, from street lights (220,735) to public bathrooms (14 — yes, 14). What’s most shocking about the inventory is how much basic information about LA’s streets is missing or unavailable — really, we don’t know the number of billboards as councilmembers approved a new outdoor advertising contract? — or only made available through surveys conducted by institutions outside the city. “We’ve worked closely with City staff who have been just as frustrated as we are with the lack of access to comprehensive, citywide data about the very things the City is charged with maintaining,” says Investing in Place’s Executive Director Jessica Meaney.
But creating a clearinghouse of all LA’s assets is only the first step, the report notes: now LA needs to determine the condition of those assets and decide which fixes should be made first. And to do so, Meaney recommends that the City implement a capital infrastructure plan (CIP), a multi-year, cross-department strategy for funding the city’s streets and sidewalks. Currently, LA is the only major U.S. city without one. Having a CIP would mean creating a citywide project list where investments could be prioritized by existing climate or equity goals — not approved one-by-one by council motion, says Meaney. “City leaders can’t wisely invest in our sidewalks and roads if they can’t see the city as a whole, rather than as a collection of more than 200 neighborhoods pitted against each other to fight for a piece of the pie.”
Progress Report
LA is one step closer to creating a public bank as the council voted to allocate $460,000 to a feasibility study — thanks in part to a landmark report which brought the possibilities of municipal banking to life. After a local ballot measure failed in 2018 that would have allowed the city to explore the concept, a new state law passed in 2019 cleared the way for California cities to form municipal banks without changing their charters. Working with longtime Public Bank Los Angeles organizers, researchers from the Jain Family Institute and the Berggruen Institute assembled a five-part report that envisions a hypothetical Municipal Bank of Los Angeles structured around three focus areas: financing affordable housing production, providing loans for worker-owned small businesses, and funding renewable energy like community solar projects. The report even includes a nifty balance sheet simulator, and using these real-world examples to highlight the benefits of municipally financing the city’s existing goals particularly resonated with councilmembers.
The interactive balance sheet simulator allows anyone to tinker with proposed LA public bank investments.
”It’s burdensome and expensive to get loans from private banks to build out critical projects in our city like affordable housing, infrastructure improvements, and solutions to climate change,” said Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez in an explainer sent to CD 13 constituents. “But with a public bank, these projects would not only be cheaper and more efficient, but actually grow our public funds!” Some critics who are supportive of the concept overall still hold reservations that maybe the city shouldn’t be creating a public bank until we resolve some of our own local corruption — these are valid concerns — but if you think LA’s corrupt, wait until you hear about big banks!
Local report
126 City-owned properties could house at least 1,000 people within six months, according to a report by the Center for Pacific Urbanism and the Committee for Greater LA, which includes a plan to quickly build units on those sites. Bass responded with an open letter pointing to her own executive directive to expedite the use of city land for housing. Which is why it’s important for Bass to use her powers to override City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s effort to stop progress on an affordable housing project on City-owned property in Venice which has already been approved by Council twice.
The number of cars being used as shelters rose 16 percent, and vans as shelters rose 44 percent from 2022 to 2023 per point-in-time LA County homeless count data. Even though the number of tents being used as shelters is slightly down from 2022, LAHSA’s report shows the most significant increase has been in vehicle dwellings, with 14,000 cars and vans being used as homes.
90 percent of the state’s homeless residents lost their homes in California, and 75 percent were previously housed in the county in which they currently experience homelessness, say UCSF researchers, who soundly debunk a persistent and pernicious myth with the most comprehensive statewide homelessness survey in California history.
One person in Compton, population 93,500, is killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies each year, according to a sweeping new investigation by Knock LA’s Cerise Castle that tracks the neighborhood-level impacts of police shootings. The report, conducted with support from USC’s Center for Health Journalism and the International Women’s Media Foundation, includes the first-ever searchable database of LASD shootings along with an interactive map. Nearly three-quarters of Compton residents surveyed said that interactions with LASD had negatively impacted their mental health.
National Report
TOO DAMN HIGH: Even as housing production sluggishly increases, the number of low-cost rentals have decreased in every state. This disparity is especially apparent in California, where 677,000 units renting for $1,000-1,399 vanished over the last decade, the largest decline of any state.
A COUNTRY DIVIDED: Smart Growth America’s Divided by Design report shows how highways and freeways continue to sever Black and brown communities and what can be done to knit them back together. (A reminder that we are still widening freeways here in LA.)
FOSSIL-FUELED LOBBYING: A shocking number of “double agent” lobbyists — including many in California — are representing municipalities working to phase out fossil fuels while simultaneously representing those fossil fuel companies.
Field Report
Reception attendees at Inclusive Action for the City’s Anti-Displacement Forum, which included two days of talks and site visits around the city. Photo by Farah Sosa/Inclusive Action for the City
Inclusive Action for the City’s Anti-Displacement Forum convened 150 local leaders and a cohort of fellows from the national Small Business Anti-Displacement Network to share best practices for fighting displacement and creating new land-ownership models. “During the multi-day forum, we learned about community land trusts and land bank pilots here in Los Angeles, and dug into the nuts and bolts of real estate and where we as a field still need to innovate,” says Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director of Inclusive Action. “We have a lot of work to do, but we can get it done if we stick together.”
Coming up next…
LA Forward turns five! Celebrating a half-decade of building progressive political power, LA Forward’s Summer Party is Sunday, August 6 in a beautiful shaded backyard, with ice cream sundaes and lots of cold drinks to keep you cool. Get your free tickets TODAY at https://www.laforward.org/party
LA Forward Institute is re-launching its Housing Justice Reading Group which has read and discussed books including Race for Profit, The Color of Law, and Evicted. If you’re interested in participating, sign up here for details.
Report in
Hi, this is Alissa Walker and I’ll be compiling Report Forward every month. Please send reports, studies, white papers, and big policy wins to me at reports@laf.institute — and forward this to someone working to make LA a better place.
Want to make sure get these issues every month? Sign up for our email list list below!