A Los Angeles City Council committee Thursday voted on several proposals for government reform, mainly focused on recommendations for establishing an independent council redistricting commission while leaving the expansion of the Council for another day.
The Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform voted 6-0 with Councilman Bob Blumenfield absent during Thursday’s meeting to approve a package of proposals for the city’s independent council redistricting commission.
“What we don’t do enough of as a council is what this committee has done,” Council President Paul Krekorian, who chairs the committee, said.
“I don’t think there could be any question about the degree of public engagement that we’ve had in this process to create a truly independent redistricting commission,” Krekorian added.
The recommendations for establishing an independent council redistricting commission will head to the full council in 30 days, allowing the public some time to weigh in.
While the committee celebrated their work, there was some concern still about not finalizing recommendations for council expansion.
“I think there is a discussion to be had around whether both of these are a single ballot amendment, single ballot measure or multiple ballot measures, and we have time before we need to make that decision in June (2024), and I just don’t want to divorce these discussion from each other,” Councilwoman Nithya Raman said.
She added, independent redistricting is necessary and expanding council or decreasing the size of the current 15 districts, which are “enormous and the largest in America,” is a smart thing to do.
While her colleagues agreed with her sentiments, some felt there needs to be a larger discussion around the implications of expanding the council, which has yet to happen.
“I want us to be more intentional,” Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez said. “I would love for us to be able to explain how we got this number. There*s still a lot of data and information missing for me to feel like I*m making the appropriate decision, especially for what the community is calling for.”
Any of the proposed reforms would require approval by the full City Council and then revision to the City Charter, which would ultimately land in the hands of L.A. city voters.
The committee has expressed its desire to finalize recommendations and pass them along to voters within the next two election years, 2024 or 2026.
“Independent” is the key word regarding the formation of any new redistricting commission. There is a periodic redistricting process in place now — under which council members appoint representatives to a 21-member commission that meets every 10 years to redraw district boundaries. But the panel’s recommended lines are then submitted to the City Council, which makes the final determinations on boundaries.
The proposed reforms would take the final decisions on boundaries and number of districts out of the influence of council members.
The ad hoc committee is looking to create two independent redistricting commissions — one for the City Council and one for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
John Wickham, an assistant chief legislative analyst, who has been leading the city’s efforts to supply recommendations for governance reform, has said that additional research needs to be done to evaluate options related to the LAUSD commission.
Krekorian called for the CLA’s office to report on redistricting for LAUSD because “We’ve carved that out of this process, which will be very much very similar to this.” Though there will be some “nuanced differences,” he noted.
During Thursday’s meeting, the committee finalized its recommendations regarding several details of the city*s independent redistricting commission, including the composition of the group, selection process, certain considerations when drawing maps, ex parte communication and when maps would take effect.
The Council members’ recommendations were a culmination of eight months of work they’ve done alongside the CLA’s office, including feedback from residents, community groups and organizations such as UnrigLA, the League of Women Voters, L.A. Governance Reform Project, Our LA Coalition and Common Cause.
Under the recommendations, the independent redistricting commission would be composed of 16 members, and four alternates, who will serve a 10 year term.
The commissioners would also not be able to run for or work for specific elected offices or city positions for four years from their end of service or once they complete their 10 year term.
The Council members voted to recommend that any final redistricting maps drawn by the commission will be implemented immediately, at the end of the lengthy process.
The City Clerk’s Office would be responsible for the selection process and the Ethics Department would provide oversight.
All applications would be received, whittled down using certain criteria, followed by public input given online, and final applicants would be determined by the City Clerk’s Office, Ethics Department or some third party, determined by the previous two entities.
Once a total of eight commissioners are selected, they would then determine the remaining commissioners while considering, in part, geographical and diversity criteria. The selection of the four alternates would be randomly drawn.
Council President Pro Tem Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a motion calling for a change in the language from “may” to “should,” which would have made it a focus of the commission to consider cultural and economic assets as part of their map drawing process.
The motion failed to garner enough support and it died in a 3-3 vote, with council members Raman, Krekorian, and Traci Park voting against it.
“It’s not the goal of the process to distribute these equally, or in any way. It’s really about who gets elected and how we can have the greatest representation in the body,” Raman said.
Harris-Dawson had raised concerns over how cultural and economic assets can benefit districts, where certain districts like his 8th District, don’t have many.
“I feel extremely strongly about this question of assets,” Harris-Dawson said. “I have an argument with the fact that it has to be considered at all, you know, in neighborhoods — whether or not you have shade trees depends on if you have economic assets that will help you pay for them. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.”
Though the motion failed, the recommendation still allows the commission to consider cultural and economic assets in their work, but not as prominently.
The Council members determined the commission meetings would be broadcast in Spanish, as well. Additional language translations may be available upon request within a number of days.
Lastly, the Council members approved a proposal to strictly prohibit communication between commissioners and council members, or and their staff.
In terms of Council expansion, the committee has been mulling over increasing council districts from the current 15 to between 23 and 29. In a city with nearly 4 million residents, each of the current Council members represents about 260,000 people.
Council size will be considered in a future meeting, and also finalize a recommendation on five different options that could change the council district election cycle.
The ad hoc committee — as well as calls for an independent commission — followed the leak, last year, of a recorded 2021 conversation involving then-Council President Nury Martinez, Councilman Kevin de León and now former Councilman Gil Cedillo, as well as L.A. County Federation of Labor head Ron Herrera.
That conversation — which contained racist remarks, and led to the resignation of Martinez and calls for de León to resign — took place in October 2021, when the city’s current, Council-led redistricting commission was meeting.
The three Council members in that leaked conversation were heard attempting to have maps drawn in their favor.