Deliberation Comes to the Pacific Palisades

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 use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to direct property tax revenues back into the neighborhood. The projected revenue stream over 45 years is approximately $500 million, with the potential to leverage additional billions from government agencies, private investment, and philanthropy.

Early in this process, the PRC posed a critical governance question: if this funding is secured, how should the community be involved in its dispersal and oversight?

PDLA's Role

A PRC leadership member attended the LA Charter Reform Assembly and subsequently asked Public Democracy LA to provide process consultation and moderation for the PRC's "Recovery Lab" event — two full-day Saturday sessions in April 2026. PDLA provided four trained, content-agnostic moderators for the small-group deliberations and advised the PRC on incorporating sortition into their participant selection process.

Participant Selection

The PRC used sortition to select 30 participants from a larger pool of community members who had signed up for the event. Selection was stratified to match key demographics of the pre-fire Palisades community:

• Share of residents whose homes were unaffected, damaged, or destroyed

• Share of residents with or without children at home

• Share of single-family homeowners versus renters

• Geographic distribution across the neighborhood

The Two-Day Process

Saturday 1 — What should a Disaster Recovery District fund?

Participants heard from elected officials and researchers on how a DRD and TIF work, then reviewed nine proposed categories of potential spending. Small groups deliberated and prioritized those categories, followed by a plenary session to identify areas of consensus.

Saturday 2 — How should any Palisades DRD remain accountable to the community?

Participants heard from a journalist, a RAND researcher, an LA City Council member, and community representatives on revenue projections, political feasibility, and funding sources. A presenter outlined community involvement models: the existing Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC), a citizen advisory board, surveys and polling, and citizen assemblies. PDLA's Alex Holt provided supplementary context on civic assemblies, noting the recently completed LA Charter Reform Assembly as a local example. Small groups then deliberated on preferred community involvement structures, followed by a plenary consensus-building session.

Outcome

After deliberation, all four tables converged on a proposal centered on citizen assemblies. The group recommended the creation of a community-elected citizen advisory board whose primary function would be to convene citizen assemblies on topics related to DRD spending and governance. Those assemblies would hear expert testimony and issue recommendations to the DRD board. Critically, participants specified that if the DRD board declines to act on an assembly recommendation, it must respond in writing explaining its reasons.

Status

The PRC has not yet formally appealed to the LA City Council to establish a Disaster Recovery District. Whether the community governance structure recommended by Recovery Lab participants is ultimately adopted remains to be determined. PDLA will continue to support civic assembly work in the Palisades and across Los Angeles as this process develops.