An interesting movement has been brewing for decades and reached a pivotal moment over a year ago at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The Powerful Board of five elected representatives to serve over 10 million people has been discussing the possibility of expanding the Board. This idea was revisited by Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who last year called for an outside third party to provide an unbiased review of the county’s governance structure; this included determining the best number to expand the Board to based on data and research on best practices and perhaps most importantly, improving the effectiveness and transparency for how the Board creates public policy and its over $43 billion budget – this is at the core of the county’s governance challenges that if left unaddressed it will continue to undermine the Board’s efforts for better governance no matter how many seats are added.
The 2023 motion authored by Supervisor Mitchell and co-authored by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath offered a key theme: the need for a thoughtful and data-informed approach to improving the county’s governance structure. This motion passed, but the implementation phase stalled its progress. The County’s Executive Office has yet to identify an outside entity to review and provide actionable steps for improving the county’s governance structure.
As frustrating as this delay is, rushing past fundamental steps like reviewing current data, getting outside input, and factoring in the budget implications of expanding the Board is not how you exemplify good governance. So, it is surprising to see Supervisor Horvath and Supervisor Janice Hahn introduce a new motion that seemingly does that.
The motion from Horvath and Hahn bypasses the outside review process Horvath initially supported with Mitchell’s motion and calls for a ballot measure this November to allow the public to vote on expanding the Board to 9 without any fiscal impact information. The motion also calls for an elected Chief Executive Officer without any data on whether this would benefit the county’s ability to serve residents or how to support the cost of a newly elected office.
Had Supervisors Mitchell and Horvath’s 2023 motion for good governance been fully implemented or even if the Mitchell motion that is also on the Board’s agenda for tomorrow calling for committees were in place, then this new motion introduced by Supervisors Horvath and Hahn would have been reviewed and analyzed at a policy committee level to ensure it was thoughtfully composed before reaching the Board of Supervisors for a vote. Research could have been done to determine if a nine-member or even a 7-member, 11-member or higher number of Board members was the right number for LA County’s 10 million residents. Citizens and experts would have been provided the opportunity to add valuable insight to the Board as it makes this decision, which the Brown Act limits without a committee structure or longer notice periods.
On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, we find ourselves in a possible “cart before the horse” process and procedure with the Horvath and Hahn motion to present to the voters the choice to expand the Board of Supervisors to 9 and create for the first time an elected LA County Chief Executive Officer—a position that is currently voted on by the Board of Supervisors—without any data that is more than two decades old and not analyzed by a neutral entity on why this is the best approach for voters to vote on.
Ultimately, if the Horvath-Hahn motion passes, the voters will have to decide. But, putting forward a motion to bring sweeping change before the voters without the necessary research and data is not good governance and places an undue burden on the voters to filter through speculative theories on the best resolution to a very promising idea.
At this upcoming Tuesday, July 9, board meeting, Supervisor Holly Mitchell will present a motion calling for a More Equitable and Transparent Governance Model for Los Angeles County. Once again, Mitchell is bringing the focus back to addressing the root of the county’s governance problems—how it creates policies (also known as motions that get voted on every Tuesday) and its budget with little public input or awareness.
Above all, it is critical that any significant changes to the county charter, as currently proposed, be well-vetted and research-informed. It’s imperative that we get it right for the residents of LA County.
