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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A report released Thursday by a group of leading academics from local universities calls for sweeping reforms to improve Los Angeles' city governance in response to a series of corruption and ethics scandals among the City Council.
The Los Angeles Governance Reform Project, led by a group of university leaders and researchers, calls for the creation of two independent redistricting commissions to draw boundaries for City Council and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In addition, the report recommends the City Council expand to include 25 members, four of which would be elected at-large, and adopt provisions to empower the city's Ethics Commission.
"Los Angeles is a dynamic city that is constantly evolving," said Ange-Marie Hancock, a USC professor of gender studies and political science and co-chair of LAGRP.
"We came together because we needed an independent analysis prioritizing the needs of residents. Our goal is to provide recommendations that help make Los Angeles' governance structure represent the city's diverse population and set rigorous standards of accountability."
On Thursday afternoon, LAGRP hosted a Zoom meeting to summarize and provide key details on the report.
Gary Segura, co-chair of LAGRP and a professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, explained that the two independent redistricting commissions would be composed of residents 18 years and older. Those commissioners would be selected in an open application process. LAGRP recommended applicants be drawn from geographical regions of the city based on community planning districts and that a comparable geographic approach would be taken with the school board commission.
On expanding the City Council, Segura explained the current Council has 15 members representing approximately 260,000 residents. The report recommends expanding the council to 25 members, with 21 members elected by district to each serve approximately 180,000 and four at-large members elected in staggered years.
"The mixed-system proposal is unusual," Segura said. "It was something that we've discussed at length, but it's one that we think simultaneously reduces the size of the council districts, while at the same time, creating a small cadre of citywide elected officials on the Council -- who when they think of benefiting their district are actually thinking of what's in the best interest of the entire city."
Last, the report recommended reforms to the city's ethics regulations. Primarily, by empowering the city's Ethics Commission to "influence and create ethics ordinances."
This could be done by allowing the commission to propose ordinance measures directly on the ballot with a 4 to 5 commission vote.
"We have to have standards and abilities to enforce ethical guidelines such that public officials are held to the highest possible standard," Segura said. "In order to do that, we wanted to invest in how the city's ethics process works."
Segura noted LAGRP's considered ways to empower the city's ethics work in light of recent scandals -- with the most recent being Councilman Current Price, who was charged with theft by embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest for allegedly voting on projects involving developers tied to his wife's consulting firm, then failing to report the connections.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Price sent a letter to Council President Paul Krekorian announcing his decision to step down as Council president pro tem, and surrender all of his committee assignments.
"While I navigate through the judicial system to defend my name against unwarranted charges filed against me, the last thing I want to do is be a distraction to the people's business," Price wrote in the letter.
Price is the latest Los Angeles city official to fall into legal or political turmoil. Former Council members Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander have both pleaded guilty to federal charges in recent years, while Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted earlier this year of federal charges for trading votes during his time on the county Board of Supervisors in exchange for benefits provided by USC to his son.
Former City Council President Nury Martinez resigned last year after being caught on tape in a racially charged conversation with two other Council members and a county labor official discussing the Council's redistricting process.
"The proposed reforms are aimed at creating a city government that is responsive, accountable and truly representative of the people it serves," Segura said. "The proposals presented in this interim report serve as a starting point, intended to spark a meaningful and actionable conversation that will drive reform forward."
According to Hancock, the report was the culmination of six months of research, analysis and deliberation. Members of LAGRP spoke with leaders at City Hall, organizations such as Common Cause, California Catalyst, the Civic Alliance and the League of Women Voters, as well as community-based organizations.
LAGRP aims to engage Angelenos and gather input for further improvement of its recommendations in the next six months.
"This is really the opportunity for the public to actually kick the tires of what we're saying and to say this works or that doesn't work," Hancock said.
The group of academics will seek to present its governance reform proposals to the City Council in November -- meeting the election deadlines for these measures to be placed on the 2024 ballot.