The Beverly Hills City Council on Sept. 17 voted 4-1 to oppose measure G, an upcoming ballot measure in the November general election to expand the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the number of County Supervisors by five to a total of nine, establish an independent County Ethics Commission and create an office of an elected County Executive and new positions including the Director of Budget and Management and County Legislative Analyst.
The measure was co-authored by Board Chair Lindsey Horvath, 3rd District, and Supervisor Janice Hahn, 4th District, and approved by a 3-2 vote on July 30 with Supervisors Kathryn Barger, 5th District, and Holly Mitchell, 2nd District, dissenting, according to a staff report.
While the council agreed that the board should be changed, they disagreed with the details of the proposed ballot measure.
“I too would agree that expanding the five-member board from five to nine is probably a good idea … [but] I don’t believe creating bureaucracies automatically increase effectiveness, accountability and transparency, quite the opposite,” Councilmember Craig Corman said. “I don’t know if we really need an executive. It strikes me as sort of just another other office for someone to run for.”
Mayor Lester Friedman said the measure doesn’t make clear what the County Executive would do, and he worried that the measure would create unnecessary expenses that would be passed on to taxpayers.
Councilmember John Mirisch, the only councilmember who voted to support the measure, said that while many people see the ballot measure as increasing the number of county politicians, he sees it as improving representation for county residents.
“Each supervisor represents 2 million people. There are states that don’t have 2 million people … Each supervisor represents twice as many people as our congressman (Rep. Ted Lieu),” Mirisch said. “So I think it is desperately important for us to expand that representation.”
