Op-Ed: How to reform L.A. City Hall to avoid future corruption and scandal
Los Angeles City Hall is plagued with a lot of problems. It is a terrible city for the people who live there because they do not have any representation in city government. The Los Angeles City Council often acts without input from the residents and community the City of Los Angeles is supposed to serve.
The residents lack representation and accountability, and the City Council is often unwilling to address problems that affect them. But it does not have to be this way.
If the City Council is not holding the City of Los Angeles to account, why should we expect City officials to hold them to account?
The most important thing we can do to reform City Hall to make our city a better place to live and work is to hold the City Council accountable.
Unfortunately, the City Council’s problems are not simply cosmetic. The most obvious problem is the appearance that the City Council has little interest in seeing that corruption and wrongdoing don’t happen at City Hall. The City Council takes itself very seriously as a representative body for the citizens of Los Angeles. But it is clear from reports that its members take themselves too seriously. They do not spend their time as the citizen legislators whom the citizens expect of them. Their time is spent debating issues on City Council agendas, and the people of Los Angeles, and the constituents they represent, are usually excluded.
The City Council also appears to have little interest in making sure that the people who have the most responsibility for fixing the problems at City Hall are also the people who would fix these problems.
How can we reform City Hall to make it a better place to live?
The best way to reform City Hall to make it a better place to live is to make sure that the people who have the most responsibility for fixing the problems at City Hall are also responsible to fix these problems.
Why not hold City Council members to this responsibility?
If we want to reform City Hall to make it a better place to live, you can start by holding the members of City Council who most directly affect the daily lives of the residents of Los Angeles to these same basic standards. And if they don’t live