When it Comes to Needed Governance Reforms in the City of LA, the List is Long. Will the Next Mayor Have the Political Will to Truly Tackle Some of Them?
As candidates in the race to be the next Mayor of the City of Los Angeles settle in, they come bearing good ideas and good intentions. That’s their job for now.
The big question is will they have the political will once in power to tackle some of the City’s long-standing roadblocks that keep it from functioning as a 21st century institution.
Los Angeles’ population has largely remained indifferent to local politics for the past 100 years. Someone once quipped that in order to be civically engaged in the City you must find City Hall first.
And once one does, they will find a beautiful exterior of a building that is housing a labyrinth of hallways, elevators, and stairs, that convey that one is not welcome and the bureaucracy is unbearable.
No where is this more evident than in City Hall’s 27-story tower that houses thousands of government employees who remain further out of reach from the public they serve as the floors go higher.
For years this has lent to an environment where a handful of incompetent, occasionally corrupt politicians have had an opportunity to break the law or push ethical boundaries; overshadowing some of the great work being done by the larger majority of City Officials and the 44,000 plus city employees who go to work every day to serve Angelenos.
A handful of times in the past, business and civic leaders stepped up to address this weakness by directing their financial resources and political contacts to take action.
“The Committee of 25” was one of the most prominent groups that worked to overcome this challenge. They were very disciplined in setting an agenda that was focused and limited to law and order and creating business-friendly city ordinances.
Two of their initiatives helped reshape the City’s image—securing the appointment of Police Chief William Parker to professionalize and modernize the Los Angeles Police Department and supporting the building of a baseball stadium to persuade Walter Francis O’Malley to move his Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Their third initiative—the Music Center—was largely shaped by Dorothy Chandler.
The weakness of the Committee was its collective tendency to focus solely on its business agenda. It ignored long-term and expensive infrastructure investments, such as paving city streets, building parks, and improving public transportation. It excluded many other influential residents because of their religion, neighborhood, and industry.
Today the script seems to have flipped, where the latter issues are being addressed, while key issues of governance are not being addressed. This is keeping City government at arms length from the people it serves.
Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso recently announced a detailed plan and pledge to run the cleanest and most transparent mayoral administration in the history of Los Angeles.
No matter who gets elected they will be reminded that managing the creativity needed to modernize City Hall’s governance structure and business systems will involve a series of difficult balancing acts: giving people the freedom to come up with new ideas, but making sure they are able to operate within an overall structure influenced by a powerful public culture with a long history of fighting change.
It was refreshing to see candidate Caruso offer some of his ideas for reform and thanks to some great work of groups like the LA Coalition, the Central City Association of Downtown LA and public sector leaders, we would like to add to that list and offer additional recommendations to make City Hall more open, transparent, and effective in serving Angelenos.
Issue: Development
LA City Councilmembers have an outsized role and too much discretion in approving development.
Ideas:
Remove Council’s ability to assert jurisdiction from City Planning Commission. Leadership support is needed on a pending Council motion that seeks to eliminate Sec. 245 through charter amendment.
Consider rotating committee chair and members for the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and/or consider a rotating Council Presidency similar to the Board of Supervisors Chair position. This would require a legislative fix.
Advance a proposal to establish an Inspector General Office to oversee city planning decisions and consider support. This could be done through legislation.
Issue: City’s Real Estate Portfolio
The City is not fully transparent with its use of its real estate assets (land & property) and does not optimize them to the best and highest use.
Ideas:
Create one responsible entity, such as a City Economic Development Corporation to optimize city-owned land and property. Its assets -- such as outdated buildings, undeveloped land, brownfield spaces, and air rights -- could generate value and a revenue stream to fund government budgets, lower taxes, or pay for vital infrastructure.This issue of service governance is referenced in Sec. 103 of the City Charter.
Or Create a Public Wealth Fund: This independent and professional holding company would oversee the City’s public commercial assets. This can be accomplished through an independent balance sheet that encourages active long-term governance aimed at greater societal and financial value. Without running a proper analysis of the 2015 Los Angeles County Tax Roll , a rough estimate of the real estate owned by the public sector inside the jurisdiction of the City of L.A. is worth potentially a quarter of the total real estate market value or some $159 billion and cover 71,045 acres (288 km2). This would represent some 57 percent of L.A.’s GDP.•
Or absent the bullets above, appoint a Chief Real Estate Manager: A new leadership role is critical to operating a more centralized management of the City’s construction, sales, leases, development, joint ventures, etc. of city-owned facilities.
Issue: Housing
Housing development is delayed by a burdensome approval process further compounding the housing & homelessness crisis and the City arbitrarily limits development to 13:1 FAR.
Ideas:
Consider consolidating development approvals into a Development Services model. This would require a legislative fix.
Raise FAR in appropriate areas of the city. A Charter amendment (Sec. 104) or ballot initiative is needed.
Issue: City’s Business Tax
The Business Tax is cumbersome and overburdens few while exempting many.
Idea:
Create a flat tax to maximize clarity, compliance and increase city revenues. This will require a legislative fix.
Issue: Procurement
City is prohibited from providing incentives to businesses owned by people of color, veterans or women when awarding city contracts. And the City does not enforce the current Local Bid Preference policy. Most department procurements don't include or if they do they weight it sufficiently enough to matter.
Ideas:
Allow people of color, veterans or women to be preferred for City contracts and business by amending the City Charter (371a and Sec. 372) to specify what types of preferences they are able to provide as a City. The estimated cost is 15 Million dollars for Charter amendments to be on ballot and City Council needs to approve entire amendment language to place for the ballot.
Have the City better enforce the current Local Bid Preference policy.
Issue: Technology
The City’s budget is not capable of investing the necessary resources into the City’s technology infrastructure.
Idea:
Appoint a “Smart City Committee”: The goal of the group is to develop a Catalyst Fund that brings together L.A. government agencies (ITA, Public Works, LADOT, Procurement), private firms, and community stakeholders to develop and deploy innovative Smart City technologies, data collection and management tools to address public sector’s goals around equity, mobility, affordability, sustainability, community health and safety, and workforce development. Initiatives will generate social, environmental, and financial returns on investment that will be reinvested to support Smart City infrastructure.
Issue: Public Health
The City does not have defined role in public health.
Idea:
In the short-term appoint a Chief Health Officer and/or consider establishing a City health department which is referenced in Sec. 102 of the City Charter.
Issue: City Pension Costs
The City pension costs are outpacing revenues and the City lacks an ability to revise union contracts and previous agreements as city revenues dip and budgets need to be revised.
Idea:
Change legislative process for the City to revise union contracts and previous agreements as city revenues dip and budgets need to be revised. This is referenced in the City Charter Secs. 310-315 and would require a legislative fix.
Issue: City Budget
The City budget is unstable.
Idea:
Expand City revenues to include sources that are not as dependent on consumer spending such as greater use of city assets. This is referenced in Secs. 310-315 of the City Charter and would require a legislative fix.
Issue: City Service System
The City’s Civil Service System has barely been updated substantially since its establishment in 1941 which makes it hard to retain and hire the best people to serve L.A.’s residents and businesses. And City employees receive limited workforce development resources resulting in the need to hire consultants, costing the city more in terms of resources and time.
Ideas:
Expand the amount of exempt positions to hire more skilled talent from the private sector and transfer them into the civil service. This will require an amendment to the administrative code.
The City should create Career Executive Assignment positions in the top managerial levels of civil service to support broad responsibility for policy implementation and extensive participation in policy development. This will require legislation.
The City must invest in workforce development and training for city employees. This would require a legislative fix.
Issue: City Attorney
The City Attorney is a citywide elected position, which can lead to politicized decision making.
Idea:
Change the City Attorney to an appointed position. A charter amendment (Sec. 202) or ballot initiative is required.
Issue: Public Safety
The City’s Chief of Police (COP) lacks authority to remove officers.
Idea:
The COP should be provided more discretion to remove officers. This will require a charter amendment (Sec. 1070) or a ballot initiative.
Issue: Ethics
There is a lack of clear rules for removing elected officials who are under investigation. This has led to council regions not having representation for scores months.
Idea:
Rules need to be added for greater suspension powers and replacement options when an elected leader is under investigation. a charter amendment (sec. 207) or ballot initiative is required.
Issue: Redistricting Commission
The Redistricting Commission is appointed by elected officials, preventing it from being an independent/non-political body and it should be more transparent in its communications.
Ideas:
Ban ex-parte communications and make all communications subject to the CA Public Records Act. This could be done through legislation.
Consider changing current appointment structure with lottery or another system that removes elected official’s power to appoint commissioners. This will require a charter amendment (sec. 204) or ballot initiative.
Issue: State Legislative Agenda
There is a lack of clarity about the City’s positions on State legislation.
Idea:
There is a need to establish a lead entity (Council or Mayor) to convey City’s positions. This would require a charter amendment (Sec. 254) or ballot initiative.
Issue: K-12 Education
LAUSD is too big to govern effectively. The 7 LAUSD Board members represent ~450k students and their families.
Idea:
Increase the number of board districts so that each board member can focus on a fewer number of students and their families. A charter amendment (Secs. 800-806) or ballot initiative is required.
Issue: Campaign fundraising
Campaign fundraising plays an outsized role in city elections.
Idea:
Consideration should be given for greater expansion of public campaign financing. This would require a charter amendment (Sec. 470) or ballot initiative.
Issue: City Hall’s Bureaucracy
City Hall houses a labyrinth of hallways, elevators, and stairs, that convey that one is not welcome and the bureaucracy is unbearable. No where is this more evident than in City Hall’s 27-story tower that houses thousands of government employees who remain further out of reach from the public they serve as the floors go higher.
Idea:
Relocate a number of city staff members from the tower to more publicly accessible city-owned sites, where appropriate. In turn make tower* office space available to non-profits and tech incubators linked to addressing the needs of the public sector, including developing a skilled- workforce and enterprise solutions for government.
**Book recommendation:
NETWORKS AND POWER, FROM THE FREEMASONS TO FACEBOOK
By Niall Ferguson