IN THE PRESS: LA City Council Commission Moves Closer to Reforms

By City News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles City committee continued to contemplate proposals for expanding the Council to better represent Angelenos, as well as reforming the city's Ethics Commission and redistricting process, with final recommendations slated for adoption in mid-September.
The council's Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform met Thursday afternoon in the Council Chamber to hear presentations from academics and community groups on their recommendations for city governance. The committee convened for its first meeting after hosting four listening sessions in South L.A., West L.A., downtown L.A. and the San Fernando Valley.
Council President Paul Krekorian, who created the committee, said the purpose of the endeavor was to "deliver a number of different reforms around city government" with the two most compelling issues being "creating an independent redistricting commission and giving thorough consideration of reducing the size of council districts in order to make council members more responsive to the voters who elected them."
He said the three presentations -- from the Los Angeles Governance Reform Project, a group of academic experts; the Our LA Coalition, composed of organizations representing underrepresented communities; and Common Cause, a political reform organization -- represent the "breadth of historic advocacy around this issue."
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