The secretly recorded conversation from October 2021 involving three members of the Los Angeles City Council and a labor leader is yet another scandal that will further damage public trust in the city’s government.
Los Angeles has had plenty of corruption problems involving councilmembers centered on kickbacks, obstruction and conspiracies. The current scandal is somewhat different in its exposure of ugly racism and the use of redistricting to disempower certain racial groups and others. Still, there is a commonality with the other scandals: They are all devastating to public trust and corrosive to the governing process.
Piecemeal, limited proposals are unlikely to change the governing structure that has made such misconduct possible. That’s why reforms must be made to empower more democracy in the city. One place to start is with reforming the redistricting process, on which the governing structure rests.
