How does local government operate within the most populated city in California? This was exactly my question when I first moved to Los Angeles in 2019 to attend UCLA. Los Angeles is an extremely unique city as even though it’s not one of the top ten largest cities in the United States, it has one of the highest population densities with over 8,400 people per square mile. Additionally, the city houses several ethnic enclaves from recognizable regions like Chinatown to lesser known areas like Historic Filipinotown and Olvera Street. But how does local government regulate all the diverse people within the city?
This past Friday I attended Intern Day, an event hosted by the L.A. Mayor’s office where all the interns for the various departments throughout the city come together to meet and are given a rundown of both the history of L.A. and its local governmental system. According to our director for the event, Madelyn Taras, the legislative deputy for L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles houses over four million residents, with L.A. county holding over 9.8 million. This sheer size of the city allows government at the local level to operate very differently when compared to smaller cities. Madelyn compared L.A. local government to that of California state legislature where, instead of assemblymembers and senators, the city councilmembers reserve legislative power and the mayor, instead of the governor, either signs or vetoes the pieces of legislation. Though there are many complex differences between government at a local level in L.A. and the California state legislature, this comparison makes evident how different local government in L.A. is from other city governments.
I’m originally from a significantly smaller city that’s composed of just over 26,000 people. Our mayor is not put on the ballot for the city residents to vote for and does not spend years crafting and building a campaign to run on, but is instead selected to serve a one-year by and from among the five city councilmembers. Though the councilmembers still retain a similar role as those of L.A. in that they deliberate and enact ordinances, the mayor’s role is far less distinct from their fellow councilmembers as their main role is to preside with the vice mayor over the council. So when I found out that the L.A. mayor has executive powers this was a shock to me. These executive powers include the mayor’s capacity to issue orders in the event of an emergency, which we saw in his order issued in April 2020 that extended paid sick leave benefits to L.A. workers whose employers were too large to be covered by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFRCA).
Having our director at Intern Day break down this governmental system made it seem a lot more fathomable how one mayor and merely fifteen councilmembers could legislate over a city of over four million. Additionally, with about thirty interns from various departments within the city attending Intern Day, Madelyn reminded us that the council and mayor aren’t alone in their efforts, as their aided by several departments and smaller governmental bodies such as the neighborhood councils and boards that assist in both educating the elected officials about the hundreds of issues the city deals with and bringing in the city’s residents’ opinions on the issues that affect them.