Two years after the leaked audio scandal rocked Los Angeles City Hall, voters finally had their say in this election. And speak they did.
Voters overwhelmingly backed charter changes designed to curb elected officials’ political power by creating an independent redistricting commission and empowering the city’s Ethics Commission. Advocates had long pushed for these reforms, but until the 2022 scandal, they had been blocked by the city’s political leadership. The measures were passing with nearly 75% support as of Friday afternoon.
Voters in Council District 14, meanwhile, ousted Councilmember Kevin de León, who refused to resign after being caught on tape making deplorable, racially divisive comments. Tenants rights attorney and first-time candidate Ysabel Jurado had a double-digit lead over the veteran politician at last count.
This was an important election for Los Angeles, even if it was overshadowed by the presidential race. City voters laid the groundwork for fairer, more representative elections by passing Charter Amendment DD, enacting independent redistricting. That means the city’s politicians can no longer draw their own district boundaries and effectively choose their own voters.
The leaked recording revealed De León, two other council members and a labor leader plotting to manipulate redistricting to retain their power and diminish that of their perceived enemies. That was allowed under the city’s old redistricting system.
Reform is long overdue. Independent redistricting commissions increase public participation, reduce gerrymandering and draw districts that represent communities, not individual politicians’ interests.
Voters also sent a message that they will hold elected leaders accountable. De León was an active participant in the vile conversation that touched off the scandal. He disparaged a colleague’s Black son as a prop carried like a Louis Vuitton handbag, suggested Black people have too much political power and made other demeaning remarks about activists and constituents.
When the recording was exposed, residents and fellow elected leaders urged De León to step down in recognition of how much his words hurt Los Angeles. Instead, he dug in his heels, hoping voters would forgive and forget. They did not.
After a series of recent corruption scandals that have so far sent two local elected officials to prison, voters backed Charter Amendment ER to strengthen the Ethics Commission. The commission will now have a guaranteed minimum budget so that elected officials can’t defund ethics enforcement. Another change will make it harder for the City Council to kill ethics reforms they don’t like — which the council has done, for example, when asked to tighten the city’s law regulating lobbyists, which is difficult to enforce.
Community organizers and good government groups deserve much of the credit for getting these measures across the finish line. They kept the pressure on City Hall to support systemic change in the months and years after the scandal. Credit also goes to elected leaders, including former Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Nithya Raman, who seized the moment to advance worthwhile reforms.
Of course, there is a lot more to do. The council ended up weakening the ethics reform proposal that it put before voters. The new Charter Reform Commission and advocates should press for more substantive changes that ensure the Ethics Commission can be the watchdog that residents expect.
Advocates also pushed city leaders to put a proposal on the ballot to expand the City Council from 15 members to between 21 and 31 members. L.A.’s council districts are the nation’s largest by population. The city of 4 million needs a larger council to better represent residents and their diverse needs. But the council punted that decision to the Charter Reform Commission, which will propose additional charter changes for the 2026 ballot.
The commission is still being formed. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Krekorian made their appointments to it in September, and an executive director was picked a month ago. Mayor Karen Bass has to make her appointments before the next round of commissioner selections can move forward.
Voters’ supermajority support for the charter reforms demonstrates that Angelenos back big changes to fix City Hall. The 2026 election should give them that opportunity.
