So you voted to overhaul L.A. County government. Now what?

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Rebecca Ellis updating you on L.A. local government news, with an assist from my colleagues David Zahniser and Dakota Smith.

This month, voters approved an overhaul of L.A. County government that they have rejected again and again and again over the years.

It wasn’t easy. The proposal, which will bring on an elected county chief executive and nearly double the size of the Board of Supervisors, divided both the electorate and the supervisors themselves, with two of the five calling it a bad idea.

The rollout may be equally contentious.

Supervisors Holly Mitchell, who was vehemently opposed to the measure, and Lindsey Horvath, who helped push it onto the ballot, unveiled competing visions this week for carrying out the overhaul.

Measure G dictates that a task force figure out the details, helping determine everything from the size of the chief executive’s staff to the contours of a new county ethics commission.

Horvath and Supervisor Hilda Solis plan to put forward a motion next week that would make the task force 13 members, with each supervisor recommending one applicant who would be confirmed by a majority vote.

Concerned that some supervisors could see their applicant rejected and their district unrepresented, Mitchell is pushing for a 15-member task force, with each supervisor directly selecting two people.

Mitchell said she came up with her own proposal because she felt the task force’s job was overwhelming. Too many components of Measure G were not spelled out, she said, and instead were left to the task force to determine.

Now that Measure G has passed, she wants a say in shaping the process of who hammers out the details.

“We kept asking questions,” said Mitchell. “We would often get the response, ‘That gets punted to the task force, that’s up to the task force.’”

Some of the biggest unanswered questions, in Mitchell’s eyes: how much it’s all going to cost, and where the money will come from. The county can’t increase taxes to pay for the reforms, meaning the task force will need to figure out where to carve from the county’s $45-billion budget.

For the task force Mitchell envisions, each supervisor would pick two people, one of whom would be a “labor representative” — likely a county employee represented by a union. Those 10 members would help pick the other five.

Task force members could only be removed “for cause,” which Mitchell’s office says is meant to ensure independence.

Under Horvath and Solis’ proposal, the five board-appointed members would choose another five members. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, SEIU Local 721 and the Coalition of County Unions would each nominate one member.

Candidates for the task force would have to submit an application, and the supervisors would pick five people from that pool. The board would look for applicants from academia, the county workforce, labor, government, business and community organizations.

Jason Grant, director of advocacy for the International City/County Management Assn., said it’s common for wonky implementation details to be figured out by a task force after a reform measure passes.

“There’s all kinds of questions that will start to come up,” said Grant, who has tracked similar measures across the country. “So you’re going to go from five to nine board members: Where are those board member offices? If we have a dais that sits five, now it’s going to sit nine. Do we have to do capital expenditures to rebuild where the county board meets?”

Make the task force too big, he said, and it starts to get unwieldy.

“You’ve got to keep the groups to a manageable enough size where you’re actually making decisions and not just deliberating everything and not able to get stuff put on paper,” he said.

The two proposals are not necessarily irreconcilable. Asked why all the supervisors didn’t work together on a motion, Mitchell noted that only two supervisors at a time can work on a motion, due to restrictions imposed by the Brown Act.

“She made a choice,” said Mitchell, referring to Horvath, the motion’s lead author. “I wasn’t her choice.”

In a statement, Horvath said Measure G would require “unprecedented collaboration, coordination, and commitment.”

“I am thrilled to see how Supervisor Mitchell and her team are joining the conversation about the Governance Reform Task Force — and I look forward to our entire board, as well as communities across LA County — being part of this important conversation,” she wrote.

David Green, head of SEIU Local 721, which will probably have members on the task force, whatever form it takes, said the county is speeding toward “uncharted territory.” One thing he’s watching out for, he said, is how much the board expansion is going to cost.

“It’s moving quickly,” said Green, who noted that he was “excited” about the new ethics body, slightly wary of the board expansion and “intrigued” by the elected executive position.

Mitchell says she has no intention of running for chief executive, a position so powerful that one former supervisor called it “political malpractice” not to at least think about throwing one’s hat in.

“I intended for the current seat I hold to be the last elected office I hold,” said Mitchell.

Horvath wouldn’t say if she was entertaining a bid for countywide executive, with the election set for 2028. For now, she is “committed to her reelection efforts” in 2026, she said in an interview.

State of play

— SEEKING COMMON GROUND: President-elect Donald Trump has talked tough about his strategies for removing homeless encampments. But for now, Mayor Karen Bass is still hoping to find common ground with him. Bass, a former state Assembly speaker and member of Congress, pointed out in an interview that she has had “very significant Republican relationships” during her political career.

— UNSPENT MONEY: Nearly half of the mayor’s $1.3-billion homelessness budget went unspent during the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to an analysis from City Controller Kenneth Mejia. In his report, Mejia blamed lack of staff, obsolete technology and many other factors. One budget analyst questioned the accuracy of some of Mejia’s figures. Meanwhile, a Bass aide said the funds will still go toward tackling the homelessness crisis.

— SHELTER WOES: The number of dogs euthanized in animal shelters run by the city of L.A. has skyrocketed this year. From January to September, 1,224 dogs were euthanized at the six city shelters, a 72% increase compared with the same period a year ago, according to a Times analysis.

— SANCTUARY STATUS: The council pushed ahead this week with a “sanctuary city” law prohibiting city agencies from taking part in federal immigration enforcement. The proposal is designed to send a message of support to L.A.’s sizable immigrant population. However, the law would not necessarily prevent the federal government from carrying out the deportations that have been promised by President-elect Donald Trump.

— SCENES FROM A MALL: The Los Angeles Mall, the city-owned stretch of semi-underground storefronts across from City Hall, is in bad shape.

— COUNTY SHAKEUP: L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath called for the creation of a new county department on homelessness, just as an audit found lax accounting practices at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county entity. “The audit findings underscore the urgent need for greater accountability in our homeless services system,” Horvath said in a statement.

— MAKING THEIR CASE: Lawyers for former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas appeared before a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals on Thursday, looking to overturn his conviction on corruption charges. Ridley-Thomas and his supporters have approached his legal defense as though it were a political movement, The Times’ Matt Hamilton writes.

— POWER PAYOUT: L.A.’s Department of Water and Power will pay nearly $60 million to 1,200 people who lived, worked or attended school near the Valley Generating Station during a long-standing methane gas leak, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys.

— COMINGS & GOINGS: The council on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of Tiena Johnson Hall, executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency, to serve as general manager of the city’s housing department. A couple days later, the council gave a send-off to Ann Sewill, who has been running the housing department since 2020, and to Doug Guthrie, who was in charge of the Los Angeles City Housing Authority.

— ALSO HEADING OUT: After two years, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s chief of staff, Ivette Serna, is leaving her post. Chelsea Lucktenberg, Hernandez’s spokesperson, said her boss is “extremely grateful” to Serna, who is heading off to grad school to study cultural heritage.

GETTING COLD FEET

Council members did something Wednesday that they almost never do, at least not in public. They said “No” to organized labor — or at least, “Not yet.”

Faced with a room full of unionized hospitality workers, the council delayed a vote on the plan to hike the minimum wage for hotel employees, gradually taking it from the current $20.32 per hour to $30 in July 2028, right before the Olympic Games.

Several council members sounded nervous about the effect of the higher wage on the city’s tourism industry — and the potential for hotels to scale back operations or drop expansion plans.

“We don’t want to have the best-paid unemployed workforce in the country,” said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez.

Councilmember Traci Park also warned of job cuts, noting that the higher wage could result in the installation of computer kiosks — the kind that now greet customers at McDonald’s — inside the lobbies of L.A. hotels, in lieu of front desk staff.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, a former organizer with the hotel workers union and a supporter of the higher wage, blamed the hotel industry for sowing doubts at City Hall. He accused L.A. hotels of engaging in delay tactics by refusing to provide critical information to the city consulting firm charged with analyzing the proposal.

“It’s the most exploitative, the most abusive — one of the most abusive industries — that I personally have worked at,” he said.

The next wage vote is set for Dec. 11, when two new council members, Ysabel Jurado and Adrin Nazarian, will be seated, replacing departing Councilmembers Kevin de León and Paul Krekorian.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program to combat homelessness traveled to North Hollywood, an area represented by Councilmember Paul Krekorian. Outreach workers went to Strathern Street between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and the 170 Freeway, according to the mayor’s team.
  
• On the docket for next week: The county Board of Supervisors is set to discuss Horvath’s proposal to strip the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority of some of its duties, shifting them into a new county department on homelessness.
  
• Gentle programming note: With Thanksgiving week upon us, our newsletter will go dark next week. See you all on Dec. 7!