In long-term impression, probably the most important measure on California’s Nov. 5 poll could also be one which, if handed, would overhaul governance in Los Angeles Countydwelling to 1 / 4 of the state’s practically 40 million residents.
The proposition would develop the county Board of Supervisors from 5 to 9 members and make the county government, now appointed by the board, an elected place with substantial authority — primarily a county mayor.
“It’s time to expand the board so it is more representative of the beautiful diversity of Los Angeles County,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, one of many proposal’s originators, mentioned throughout one of many board’s in depth debates on the difficulty. Horvath, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis voted to put the measure on the poll whereas Kathryn Barger and Holly Mitchell mentioned the thought wanted extra research.
The five-member board now wields just about all governing authority in a county that’s extra populous than most states. The measure would apportion legislative energy amongst extra elected officers whereas creating an government place that arguably can be second solely to the governor in energy and status.
If the recipe for bettering governance in Los Angeles is extra diffusion, in San Francisco it might be extra consolidation.
Superficially, the Metropolis and County of San Francisco is ruled by an elected mayor and an 11-member Board of Supervisors — roughly the identical construction that the Los Angeles poll measure would undertake.
Nevertheless, a lot of the true energy in San Francisco is within the fingers of greater than 100 boards, commissions and advisory our bodies that supposedly oversee town’s bureaucracies and/or wield direct authority over specific points, one being improvement initiatives.
For years, reformers have declared that the construction is actually a mechanism for making it terribly troublesome, and typically inconceivable, to get something significant executed within the metropolis whereas subjecting extraordinary San Franciscans to a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucratic footdragging.
In June San Francisco’s civil grand jury, in a report titled “Commission Impossible?” counted 115 commissions, saying that it needed to assemble the listing by itself as a result of it’s nowhere to be present in Metropolis Corridor. The grand jury beneficial creating yet another fee that may suggest which of the 115 ought to be retained and which ought to be abolished.
“The rich irony of recommending a new commission to reduce the number of commissions is not lost on us,” the grand jury conceded. “The system needs significant reform which includes fewer commissions, centralized oversight, consistent standards, and performance assessments.”
“In true San Francisco fashion, however, even proposed solutions to this problem are dysfunctional,” San Francisco Chronicle columnist Emily Hoeven – a former colleague at CalMatters.org – famous. “Instead of our leaders coming together to fix things, they’re forcing voters to do the dirty work of choosing between two complicated, competing commission streamlining ballot measures in November.”
Proposition D, sponsored by an ideologically average group referred to as TogetherSF Motion, would retain 22 commissions coping with very important public companies, akin to these overseeing the airport, planning and police, however the different practically 100 can be abolished until particularly renewed. It additionally would strip legislative and rule-making energy from commissions, making them advisory our bodies, and strengthen the mayor’s function in appointing fee members and overseeing metropolis departments.
Proposition E, backed by 4 of probably the most left-leaning members of the Board of Supervisors, would set up a process pressure to suggest methods to “modify, eliminate or combine” boards and commissions.
The civic and political leaders of Los Angeles County and San Francisco are no less than making an attempt to enhance their governance methods. Possibly it should rub off on the antiquated construction of California’s state authorities.
