After almost a year of hearings, Los Angeles' council members will decide whether they agree to expand the council from 15 to 25 members.
Currently, each City Council member represents about 260,000 people, a structure established almost 100 years ago in the L.A. City Charter, or the city’s founding documents.
KNX News’ Craig Fiegener listened to opinions on the importance of the proposed change.
“Los Angeles has the worst representation of any major city in America,” said one person. “Each council has way too many residents; expanding the council will allow Angelenos to have better access to their representatives and allow more issues to be adequately addressed. “
This proposal is among numerous proposed changes to the L.A. City Charter that council members will decide whether to move forward with next week.
If they do move forward with a change, then it will appear on the November ballot and be voted on by the public.
The last time this happened was in 1999, when voters gave future mayors the power to appoint the heads of L.A.’s 44 departments, including the leaders of the L.A. Police Department, L.A. Department of Water and Power and the city fire department.
If the current council members do not like any of the proposed changes, they can void them, and charter reform will not happen.
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