Los Angeles County government was established more than 120 years ago, with five co-equal supervisors to both make the laws and carry them out. That was long before it became the largest local government in the country, including a collection of gigantic bureaucracies with no single authority to coordinate management. Efforts to establish a county mayor have gone nowhere, but four years ago the board established an appointed county executive to oversee all the departments. William Fujioka was hired and given administrative powers. Yesterday, the supervisors voted three-to-two to take back control of two troubled departments. We talk with supervisors on both sides
Will LA County Government Ever Make Sense?
Credits
Guests:
- Jim Newton - editor at Blueprint, public policy and communications professor at UCLA - @newton_jim
- Zev Yaroslavsky - former member of LA City Council, former LA County supervisor, now director of the LA Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs - @ZevYaroslavsky
- Mark Ridley-Thomas - LA County Supervisor representing District 2, which includes parts of Downtown, Koreatown, Crenshaw, Baldwin Hills and Culver City - @mridleythomas