Are men biting dogs? Are pigs flying? Has hell frozen over?
Fair questions, all. Because politicians in the most populous local jurisdiction in America are seeking to reduce their own power.
Even in times as strange as our own, Measure G seems impossible.
An amendment to the Los Angeles County charter on this November’s ballot, Measure G proposes to add four new supervisorial seats to the county board and establish an elected county executive. Both additions would dilute the power of the existing five elected supervisors, who now serve as both legislators and executives of the 10-million-person county.
Nevertheless, three of those five supervisors put Measure G on the ballot. That this extraordinary act happened in politically incestuous Los Angeles—still Chinatown, Jake—makes even a cynical columnist wonder if we are entering an era of actual, honest-to-goodness structural change.
To be sure, structural change in California is a cousin of Bigfoot—often discussed, but rarely seen. But Measure G improbably brings to Southern California the idea of making our elected legislative bodies bigger, more representative, and closer to the people.