Among the many items cluttering the ballots of Los Angeles County voters this November is a county charter amendment which few will read in full and even fewer will understand.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Measure E, reproduced here for your perusal: \u201cPROPOSED COUNTY CHARTER AMENDMENT. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ETHICS COMMISSION AND COMMUNITY INVESTMENT BUDGET ALLOCATION CHARTER AMENDMENT. Shall the measure amending the Los Angeles County Charter to provide greater independence and structure for the County of Los Angeles Ethics Commission, Office of Ethics Compliance, and Ethics Compliance Officer, including appointment processes, qualifications, term, duties and responsibilities, and to continue uninterrupted the County\u2019s commitment to community investment and alternatives to incarceration, as specified in the charter amendment ordinance, be adopted?\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether you made it all the way through that or not, the question before voters presents a package of changes to the county charter \u2014 think of it as the county\u2019s constitution \u2014 involving two distinct buckets of issues: one pertaining to the county\u2019s ethics bureaucracy, and another about continuing the funding of \u201ccommunity investment and alternatives to incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n
That latter bit is actually an attempt by the county government to correct a problem caused by the county government rushing the overhaul of the county charter back in 2024 with Measure G.<\/p>\n
As described by Steve Scauzillo, when Measure G was put on the ballot two years ago to replace the county charter with a new one, \u201cwhat voters did not know was that the measure mistakenly blotted out Measure J<\/a>, approved by voters in 2020,\u201d which \u201crequires L.A. County to allocate 10% of its general fund each year for alternatives to incarceration, such as mental health and substance abuse treatment placements.\u201d<\/p>\n