L.A. Council agrees to put noncitizen voting, police oversight measures on Nov. 3 ballot

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The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday moved forward with a wide-ranging package of potential revisions to the city’s constitution, including taking a first step toward giving noncitizens the right to vote in city elections.The noncitizen voting measure was part of a package of proposed City Charter changes that would be placed before voters on the Nov.3 ballot.

The package also includes a measure that would allow the council to set policy at the Los Angeles Police Department.The proposal to allow noncitizens to vote was proposed by Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez and approved on a 10-5 vote.“I believe it’s a simple principle that should guide us: If you live in the city, contribute to the city, raise your family in the city and are impacted by the decisions made in the city, you deserve to have a voice in the city,” Soto-Martínez said.At the same time, the council majority sidelined other measures that had been recommended by the Charter Reform Commission, including expansion of the City Council from 15 seats to 25 and a move to ranked-choice voting, where voters list candidates in order of preference.“I would have liked to have seen a more comprehensive charter review.

But we are where we are,” said Councilmember Tim McOsker in an interview Wednesday evening.Still, McOsker said that important measures moved forward.Under the council action Wednesday, the city’s lawyers will draft ballot measures dealing with a host of other topics — establishing of a director of Public Works, switching to a two-year budget cycle (instead of every year), establishing a capital infrastructure plan to guide the city’s infrastructure planning, increasing the monetary penalty for ethics violations and other changes.The council will still need to cast another vote for the measures to appear on the ballot.Yet to be decided is how the proposals will be packaged on the ballot.

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