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It is necessary to reserve some space for the so-called “five little queens”.
Supporters of a ballot measure to expand the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are following days of voting results showing voters are sharply divided on whether to approve a major overhaul of the county’s government structure. He declared victory on Monday afternoon.
The bill, which also includes proposals to elect a chief executive and establish an independent ethics commission, maintains a narrow but steady lead at 51% with some votes yet to be counted. We secured strength.
“The people of Los Angeles County made history by passing Measure G,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who co-authored the bill with Supervisor Janice Hahn, said in a statement. “You will be able to fix what is broken.”
Voters vote to expand the Board of Supervisors, known as the “Five Little Queens” (or Kings for men) because they hold tremendous power over the welfare of the county’s 10 million voters. The proposal has been repeatedly rejected.
But this time, the proposal, along with other restructuring measures, won support from a slim majority of voters in the Nov. 5 election.
Passage of this bill would inaugurate a number of changes, many of which will take years to come to fruition.
By 2026, the county plans to create an independent ethics commission tasked with disciplining county employees found guilty of misconduct and cracking down on the “revolving door” from government positions to lobbying.
By 2028, voters will elect a county executive, who will serve in a similar role to the mayor, overseeing department heads, drafting budgets and vetoing board policies. Become. The county currently has a chief executive appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
All nine supervisors will then be elected by 2032 through a redistricting process. Supporters of Policy G argue that the larger commission would be more representative of a county that is nearly half Latino and about 15 percent Asian. There has never been an Asian American supervisor.
“With Measure G, we are ensuring we have a county government that truly reflects and serves all of us,” Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, which advocates for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, said in a statement. We are moving toward that goal.”
Opponents of the bill argued that the government’s review was too hasty and had too many details to figure out after the vote, including how much it would cost in total. The bill says counties can’t raise taxes to pay for reforms, including the salaries of new politicians and their staff, forcing counties to find somewhere to tighten.
County Supervisors Katherine Berger and Holly Mitchell, who opposed the measure, did not immediately comment.
“This means we have to pay Peter and steal from Paul,” said Arcadia Mayor Michael Cao, who opposed the measure. “What social service programs should have their funding cut?”
The county auditor’s office estimates the measure’s one-time cost at about $8 million, but the final price tag is expected to be significantly higher.
County attorneys estimated last month that the ethics reforms detailed in the bill could cost $21 million a year, mostly due to staff salaries. The Measure G campaign countered that the estimates were exaggerated.
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