Your guide to Measure LA on the 2022 California midterm ballot
Measure LA on the 2020 California gubernatorial ballot would have given Los Angeles the right to vote with a “d” after its name: Measure L.
Measure L passed in 2016, but the City Council did not approve the measure until the last minute in December — well over the month in which it was intended to be submitted. While the measure went into effect that January, the City Council had to rewrite the language and then reintroduce it after some tweaks were made during the last few weeks of the municipal year.
The measure is far from perfect, since it would allow a vote on the City Council as well as the mayor. The measure also does not do anything about the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. It simply declares that the City Council can have a vote when it “properly and in good faith” decides whether or not to make its vote on the mayor.
Measure L passed at the time, but it was changed in December
The measure is a far cry from what some would consider “proper and in good faith”. For one thing, it would not require a change in the City Code by the City Council to allow a vote, though it would allow modifications to the code that would allow the City Council to vote in a new year even if it wanted to abstain. In other words, it would allow the City Council to “approve” the mayor, which would be allowed under state law but not required.
And there’s the problem. The measure is on the November ballot, which means the City Council would have to approve it before it could take effect. Even worse, the Council would have to vote with the mayor on something that is now on the ballot, making it more likely the Council would have little to no chance of getting anything done.
There is an obvious solution to this: Measure H, which would require a three-quarters supermajority vote of the City Council to make a change to the City Code. (A majority vote would be needed to change the official name of the City, not just the ballot signature collection requirement.) A change to the City Code that would require at least three-quarter votes of City Council to change the