Following a heated debate, the Los Angeles City Council Tuesday approved a package of proposals intended to update the City Charter — though one member urged for a slower process to be taken.
Council members voted 14-1 to instruct Sharon Tso, the city’s legislative analyst, to summarize the proposals into two categories — sections that will be placed on the November ballot and those that will require further consideration by the Charter Reform Commission, once it’s been established.
The council also instructed the City Attorney’s Office to begin developing ballot measure language for those proposals agreed to go before the voters.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez voted against the package, which she described as being “rushed” through the council.
“I think it runs amiss for what true reform really looks like,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to go through one through 50. I still think it’s way to premature and that we haven’t really reflected on the implications of the decisions that are being proposed here.”
At the start of the meeting, a handful of amendments were introduced by several council members — most were approved while others were referred to the Charter Reform Commission.
Overall, of the more contentious proposals put forth, council members argued about a change that would designate Matt Szabo, the city administrative officer, as the chief financial officer of the city. City Controller Kenneth Mejia on Monday urged against it, and again on Tuesday stood by his position.
“We disagree with designating the CAO as the city’s chief financial officer and disagree with the notion that this proposed change is just a technical change that is just providing clarification,” Mejia said.
According to Mejia, the controller — who performs a number of roles such as overseeing the city’s financial condition, accounting operations, among other things — is widely and publicly known as the chief financial officer, such as in New York, San Francisco, Houston and Milwaukee.
Mejia argued that if the CAO were to be designated as the CFO it would impact financial oversight of the city, and would cause unintended consequences.
If the city is going to make such a change, he said it should come from a robust charter reform process and not be done “hastily under the cover of being non controversial.”
The CFO is responsible for developing, analyzing, and making recommendations to the budget — responsibilities that are “clearly within (my) office,” Szabo said. Another point he made was that the CFO should be able to report to the mayor’s office and City Council.
While agreeing with certain points Mejia mentioned, Council President Paul Krekorian said that in his 15 years of serving on council he’s never heard of any discussion of the controller being the city’s CFO.
“It’s not acceptable for us to have a scenario by which an elected official can just assume the title of CFO,” Krekorian said.
Mejia emphasized that the CFO should be an elected position held by an individual with financial experience. But as it stands now, CFO would be a politically appointed position.
Council members concluded to send that proposal to the City Charter Commission for further discussion, and until the commission announces a decision no one will assume the role of CFO.
Another proposal that council members took time discussing was a plan to reduce the number of City Council meetings.
Council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Tim McOsker proposed it in hopes of giving the council more flexibility to address major challenges each member faces in their respective district. She said the current three meetings per week “hinders” their ability to perform their duties effectively.
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez backed the proposal, adding that they could do something similar to the county Board of Supervisors, which meets once a week.
Rodriguez argued against it, noting that her constituents have described giving public comment at supervisors’ meeting as “limiting and long.”
“We are providing greater opportunities for public input to come and participate in their local government,” Rodriguez said. “This is what local governance is about — being accessible, having those meeting, and hearing about their (constituents’) concerns.”
The council decided to refer Yaroslavsky’s proposal to the City Charter Commission.
Some proposals the council advanced with little discussion involved changes to how employees are hired, specifically how potential candidates score on the civil service test. Another proposal moved forward to the council would give the city more flexibility with contracts.