Friday, May 30, 2025

Task Force Charged with Overseeing LA County Governance Changes to Hold First Meeting

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A task force created to oversee sweeping changes to Los Angeles County’s governance structure will hold its inaugural meeting Friday.

The county Governance Reform Task Force was created with voters’ passage in November of Measure G, which called for a series of changes in the way county government operates. Most notably, the measure called for an expansion of the five-member Board of Supervisors to nine members starting in 2032.

Measure G will also make the county CEO an elected position by 2028, and adds the positions of county Legislative Analyst and a director of Budget and Management.

The measure also formalized the establishment of an Ethics Commission – – which the county already began to create prior to the November election — and the hiring of a compliance officer by 2026, along with the creation of a Charter Review Commission to meet every 10 years and consider additional potential governmental changes.

The entire process will be overseen by the Governance Reform Task Force, which includes 13 members.

Each of the five county supervisors appointed one member to the task force, and those appointed members in turn selected an additional five members from a pool of applicants, with those at-large selections representing the business sector, municipal government, community organizations and a person with experience in public sector ethics.

The remaining three members of the task force were nominated by labor groups — one by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, one by the Service Employees International Union Local 721 and one by the Coalition of County Unions.

The appointees by the Board of Supervisors are:

• former West Covina Mayor Brian Calderón Tabatabai, by Supervisor Hilda Solis;
• Derek Steele, executive director of the Inglewood-based nonprofit Social Justice Learning Institute, by Supervisor Holly Mitchell;
• political science professor Sara Sadhwani, who served on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2021, by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath;
• Marcel Rodarte, executive director of the California Contract Cities Association, by Supervisor Janice Hahn; and
• former Duarte Mayor John Fasana by Board Chair Kathryn Barger.

The labor union representatives are SEIU 721 President and Executive Director David Green; Derek Hsieh, chair of the Coalition of County Unions and executive board vice president of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor’s Budget and Finance Committee; and Long Beach Harbor Commissioner Steve Neal, a former Long Beach City Council member.

The five community members selected at-large are Gabriela Gironas, Julia Mockeridge, David Phelps, Rosa Soto and Nancy Yap.

The agenda for the inaugural meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday includes an overview of Measure G by the task force Interim Director Shadi Kardan.

The meeting, expected to be attended by several members of the county Board of Supervisors, will also include an opportunity for general public comment.