Editorial: Tired of City Hall scandals? This is the moment to reform Los Angeles city government
How do you fix the problems in Los Angeles City Hall? You’d likely have to take back the city’s elected government.
When Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Council President Paul Koretz recently announced their proposal to put an elected chief executive in place, I was curious to learn what the proposal would say about the governance role of city officials.
When news broke that the mayor had asked Councilmembers Jose Huizar, Gil Cedillo, Curren Price and Kevin James to lead an independent commission to explore the city’s financial and political troubles, I was curious to learn what the proposal would say about the governance role of city officials.
I was happy to learn that Koretz and Councilmember Jose Huizar, the mayor’s chief of staff, were proposing that City Manager-Elect Mohammed Valli’s office — which has been run by Garcetti’s chief of staff, Mike Feuer — be abolished and that a third-party, newly appointed city manager would replace Valli.
It’s hard to imagine that Feuer would be able to transform a political mess such as City Hall into the functional machine that Garcetti and Koretz seek, but that’s the vision they’re pursuing and I am happy to see them going down the path of reform.
Now, I’m not a fan of Koretz or Garcetti. But I’m a fan of accountability and transparency. I’m a fan of letting people know what is going on in city government. I’m a fan of reform. I’m a fan of the concept of an independent commission to look into the city’s finances and politics. And I’m a fan of a city manager-elect, who we’ve seen for a little while now, to step forward and accept the challenge that Garcetti and Koretz have placed on their shoulders.
Valli is already on-board. He said that he accepted the Mayor’s challenge and wanted to move forward with the