Charter Reform Recommendations Come To City Council Rules Committee

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Recommendations from the LA City Charter Reform Commission will be considered by LA City Council’s rules committee over a period of six weeks, starting on April 30. However, public comment is only going to occur at the first meeting.

Key items in the proposed reform package include:

Expand city council from 15 to 25 single-member districts
Adopt ranked-choice voting to ensure majority support
Lower voting age to 16 for city and LAUSD elections
Reduce ballot access barriers so more candidates can run
Add a Preamble stating the city’s values
Establish periodic charter review every ten years
Give ethics commission independent legal counsel and protected budget
Strengthen police accountability with council oversight authority
Establish a director of Public Works to coordinate infrastructure
Allocate a minimum 2% of budget to infrastructure
Double charter-mandated funding for Recreation and Parks
Create chief financial officer for long-term fiscal coordination
Implement a two-year budget cycle with participatory budgeting
Bifurcate city attorney into city attorney and city prosecutor
Enshrine controller’s fraud, waste, and abuse authority
Update Neighborhood Council provisions
Streamline land use processes
Modernize procurement rules

After the rules committee considers the recommendations, they will be taken up by the full city council who will draft one or more ballot measures for the public to vote on this November.