This post was updated Nov. 1 at 11:20 p.m.
Los Angeles voters will decide on a City Council charter amendment that aims to improve oversight of government officials’ conduct and decrease the number of City Council meetings.
If passed, Measure EE would prevent the city’s ethics commissioners from running for any city-elected office or LA Unified School District Board of Education seat for five years after the end of their term, raise fines for campaign finance violations and decrease the required number of weekly City Council meetings from three to one.
It would also increase the number of signatures required for a referendum petition to be presented to the City Council.
The LA City Ethics Commission, established in 1990, enforces city and state campaign finance, contracting, land development, government ethics and lobbying laws, according to the commission’s website. The commission consists of five members who are appointed by city officials and serve staggered five-year terms.
Under the current city charter, the maximum fine per campaign finance violation is $5,000 or three times the amount of the violation. Measure EE would raise the maximum fine to $15,000, adjusted annually for inflation, or three times the amount of the violation.
Aryeh Cohen, the current ethics commission president, said it is important to define the structure and rules of the ethics commission as it becomes more cemented within city politics. Voters approved a guaranteed annual budget for the ethics commission in November 2024.
“It’s important that there is an ethics commission,” Cohen said. “It’s a nice oasis, citywide.”
The measure would expand the power of the Police Department Inspector General and the Fire Department Independent Assessor to conduct investigations into their respective departments. The respective board of commissioners for each agency currently has the power to shut down investigations, but it would be barred from doing so under Measure EE.
There is no record of LAPD or LAFD boards of commissioners shutting down past investigations, said Rob Quan, an organizer with LA City Council watchdog group Unrig LA.
“Measure EE is an important step toward strengthening accountability and restoring public trust in City Hall by increasing oversight for our police and fire departments, holding candidates accountable for campaign finance violations, and helping prevent conflicts of interest,” LA City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said in an emailed statement.
The City Council currently holds three meetings each week, where committees recommend actions to the council, and people can participate in public comment.
Proponents of the measure – including Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Westwood – say it will free up time to engage with constituents in the official argument in favor of the measure.
However, opponents both on and off the council – including Quan and District 7 Councilmember Monica Rodriguez – say decreasing the frequency of council meetings, and by extension public comment sessions, will make councilmembers less accessible to their constituents. The measure would reduce public comment opportunities, according to the official argument against the measure signed by Rodriguez.
Quan said people were previously allowed to drop into councilmembers’ offices at any time, but they are now required to make an appointment and sign in with a valid ID through LAPD.
“They used to make a good faith effort to hear from everybody who came down to City Hall, and they no longer do that,” he said. “They sometimes take as little as a half-hour public comment, usually around an hour.”
Rodriguez said reducing city council meetings could place more pressure on committees to deliberate and determine policies. She added that the committee structure leaves more opportunities for corruption, citing the case of José Huizar, a former chair of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee who was convicted for racketeering in 2023.
Measure EE would reduce councilmembers’ working hours without reducing pay, Rodriguez said.
Under the current City Council charter, referendum petitions – which allow citizens to block an ordinance and require that it be placed on the ballot for voters to approve – require signatures equal to 10% of the total vote count in the last mayoral election. Measure EE would raise that requirement to 15%.
The change aims to eliminate differences between signature requirements for referendum petitions and initiative petitions – a way for citizens to propose new ordinances or amendments to the City Council charter. However, initiative petition filers have 180 days to collect signatures, while referendum petitions must be submitted within 30 days of the ordinance’s publication.
Quan said he believes the change would make it difficult for constituents to directly challenge laws passed by the council and bring them to voters.
Rodriguez said she feels that changes to the ethics commission and minimum fines were added to the measure to sell voters on less favorable changes like the decrease in City Council meetings.
“It’s a ruse of reform – and it was intentionally put in there, in my opinion, to help sell this other poison pill,” she said.
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