Supervisors Reject Plan to Study Expansion of Board

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday turned back an effort to create a public commission to study ways of improving county governance and build public support for a ballot measure to expand the board from five to nine seats.

Supervisors Gloria Molina and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke proposed the commission, saying that it was needed to build consensus for expansion.

“If we want to succeed--and there’s a sincerity of trying to succeed with the voters of Los Angeles County--I think we need to put forward a rationale,” Molina said.

The commission plan--modeled in part after the city of Los Angeles’ charter reform commissions--was backed by groups such as Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union.

But other expansion advocates said the commission would derail their ongoing campaign, eating up three or four crucial months before the November 2000 election.

“It would stall the process,” said Alan Clayton of the County Assn. of Chicano Employees.

Ultimately, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky sided with Supervisors Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich, who both oppose board expansion, to kill the commission plan.

“The only thing I see coming out of any additional process is that it’ll confuse the issue, it’ll divide supporters against one another,” Yaroslavsky said. “Most of our time should be spent--if we are sincere about it--to develop a campaign.”

Advocates say that an expanded board will be more representative and responsive to the county’s nearly 10 million residents. Each supervisor now represents more constituents than many governors.

The issue of expanding the board has been raised recently because of pressure from Sacramento lawmakers--many of whom will soon be termed out of office and needing new jobs--pushing supervisors to place the issue on the ballot.