Mona Field is an emeritus professor of political science of Glendale Community College, past president of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles and a trustee emeritus of the Los Angeles Community College District. She was appointed to the Charter Reform Commission in 2024 by then-City Council President Paul Krekorian.
If you live in the city of Los Angeles, you may be among the many residents (myself included) who have a few complaints about city services.
In hopes of improving the way L.A. functions, city voters will have six options to amend the Los Angeles City Charter on the November ballot. The charter – L.A.’s constitution – determines almost everything about city departments and services. What’s on the ballot may not be everything reformers like me had hoped for, but it still deserves the close attention of voters.
The 2026 proposed charter amendments mostly range from the arcane, such as new limits on spending in LAUSD Board of Education elections (Measure SC), to the mundane, such as the composition of the airport commission (Measure PRT).
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Measure LA would allow the city to budget itself for two years at a time, rather than just one, and to create a capital infrastructure plan so that needed improvements (streets, water systems, etc.) can be implemented more rationally. Changes in planning for growth are covered in Measure PL, which would reduce the number of commissions that oversee decisions about land use. Measure EE includes higher penalties for ethics violations by candidates or elected officials, as well as more flexibility for the City Council regarding its meeting schedule.
Most of the charter measures bundle together a group of related amendments. Just one has a single focus, and it at least is less arcane and more directly about something Angelenos care about: Measure PRK would increase funding for parks and recreation programs over a 10-year period without raising taxes. The city’s park deficits are well known. Making park funding a charter priority should improve that situation, though it may come at the expense of other city programs.
The six measures include fewer than half of the 70 charter changes recommended by the Charter Reform Commission, of which I was a member. Established in 2024 in the wake of City Hall corruption scandals and racism revelations (remember the bigoted comments by several council members caught on tape?), the commission was tasked with systematically reviewing the charter to come up with potential improvements for city governance.
Sarah B. Hunter
Unfortunately, it’s questionable how serious City Hall was – and is – about making the most far-reaching changes. The first signal? The Charter Commission, which was supposed to start its deliberations in the fall of 2024, was delayed eight months due to a lack of appointments coming from the mayor’s office. It was hard not to be skeptical about the outcome from the get-go.
Still, with little time to work on getting reforms onto the 2026 ballot and with a very small staff, the commission managed to bumble through about 10 months of public hearing and hundreds of hours of public comment. These efforts produced a 301-page report and dozens of perhaps overly optimistic proposals.
Our recommendations included changes already understood to be supported by City Hall (the two-year budget cycle, for example) but also much more fundamental – and public-facing – ideas that reflected the priorities of the hundreds of community members who spoke to us during commission hearings.
We heard from advocates for ranked-choice voting, for enlarging the City Council, for providing better job opportunities for Black Angelenos, for added police reforms and much more.
To no one’s surprise, but to many people’s great dismay, the City Council either ignored outright or tabled those bigger-ticket issues for future consideration.
Mariel Garza
I count myself among the disappointed. That said, I believe the charter amendment measures on the 2026 ballot deserve careful attention and yes votes.
The measures may be bureaucratic – tinkering around the edges of real reform – but they will marginally improve some of the city’s inner workings, and Measure PRK could make a real difference for our parks and recreation programs.
Whatever the outcome in November, Angelenos must not let the opportunity for fundamental change fade away.
The City Council has promised to create an ad hoc committee for further study of many of the suggestions in the Charter Reform Commission’s report. Maybe by 2028, Angelenos will be able to enlarge the council, change police practices and alter the way we vote.
Vote this fall, then make sure your City Council member knows you’re watching – and waiting for more reforms.
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