On September 26, Public Democracy Los Angeles joined Neighborhood Council leaders and residents from across the city at the Los Angeles Congress of Neighborhoods, held at City Hall. This year’s theme, “From Challenge to Change,” fit our work well. Civic assemblies are designed for the hardest public questions: the ones that stall in public comment, split communities, and outlast election cycles. Hunter Futo, Max Clark, Derek Galey, and Alex Kuntzman led our workshop, “Tacklin

The delegates from the three civic assemblies on Charter Reform submitted an open letter to City Council last week in advance of their final vote on which recommendations in the final report will appear on voters’ ballots. They urged Councilmembers to make civic assemblies a permanent part of Los Angeles governance, giving everyday residents an opportunity to weigh in on key issues that affect the city. The letter was also published on City Watch LA and Democracy Local. It re

As a result of many months of advocacy by PDLA, Culver City City Council authorized a civic assembly on how to involve the public in the budgeting process. We are proud that our work with Culver City helped make it a reality. The assembly, held last week, from May 14-16, was moderated by by Center for New Democratic Processes. The process started with sortition: solicitation post cards for participation were sent to a large number of Culver City residents, and a random selec

PDLA is grateful to team lead Max Clark, whose Substack article, "The Miracle in the Ashes of Los Angeles Last Saturday", formed the basis for this post. Background The Pacific Palisades fire of January 2025 was one of the most destructive in Los Angeles history. In its aftermath, the Palisades Recovery Coalition (PRC) began pursuing the establishment of a Disaster Recovery District (DRD) — a designation that, if approved by the LA City Council, would allow the community to u

Over the past four months, everyday Angelenos have done something unprecedented: shaped the language of the city's foundational governing document through civic assemblies organized by Rewrite LA, Healthy Democracy, and Public Democracy LA. It started last December, when 36 lottery-selected residents spent seven hours deliberating on land use and development — one of the city's most contentious policy areas — and delivered 10 recommendations to the Charter Reform Commission.

In a historic moment for participatory democracy, the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission voted unanimously to approve a new Charter Preamble generated by its residents. The preamble language was developed directly from recommendations generated by 36 Angelenos at a January mini-assembly organized by Public Democracy Los Angeles. The delegates—randomly selected by public lottery to reflect the demographic diversity of Los Angeles—gathered at the Japanese American National M