Los Angeles Charter Reform Mini-Assembly on Bill of Rights and Charter Preamble

On January 11, thirty-six residents gathered at the Democracy Center, in Little Tokyo, for seven hours to develop recommendations for a city bill of rights and a potential preamble to the city charter. This preamble would codify city values and help guide the resolution of ambiguities in the legal interpretation of the charter.

As in the previous mini-assembly, participants were selected by lottery from hundreds of applicants to reflect Los Angeles’s demographic diversity. They spent the day hearing from experts, asking questions, debating trade-offs, and ultimately voting on recommendations to be sent directly to the Charter Reform Commission.

Recommendations Passed with Two-Thirds Majorities

After deliberating together, participants developed and voted on six draft recommendations. Four passed decisively. Summarized below:

1. Bill of Rights: At least once every 10 years, a civic assembly comprised 

   of 100+ representative Angelenos shall draft charter revisions to be voted on by the people.

2. Bill of Rights to include: A basic standard of living, safe and secure housing, reliable transportation, mobility, healthcare, childcare, and education

3. Charter to include a preamble: Right to protection, justice, and the right to the democratic process. Protections include: economic, cultural, bodily autonomy and safety, food access, housing, health. Justice includes: right to counsel, environmental justice, racial justice

4. Preamble to include: Language indicating City of Los Angeles exists to serve its residents. Public good to be placed above private interests, transparency and integrity in all its actions, requiring public officials and law enforcement are accountable to the will of the people.

Expert testimony and evidence used:

Testimony on options and current practices on city bill of rights documents, the role of charter preambles in legal interpretations of city charters, and the history of these topics in the previous charter for Los Angeles was presented by the experts below:

• Christi Hogin served as city attorney for several Southern California cities, including Artesia, Lomita, Malibu, and Palos Verdes Estates. She also served as assistant city attorney for West Hollywood and as interim city attorney in Pomona and Manhattan Beach..

• Dr. Eric Schockman is Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Relations at Woodbury University (soon to merge into the University of Redlands) and a professor in the Master of Public Administration program at CSU Northridge.

• Nestor M. Davidson serves as the Emma Bloomberg Professor of Real Estate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and as an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Law School.

• Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs.

• Nithya Raman is an urban planner, a graduate of Harvard and MIT, a working mother, an immigrant to the United States, and a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4.

• Joe Mathews is a Southern California journalist and Renovating Democracy Fellow at the Berggruen Institute. He serves as California columnist at Zócalo Public Square and as founder and publisher of Democracy Local.

• Raymond Mendoza, chair of the Charter Reform Commission.

Additionally, a broad variety of examples were presented from other city charters so participants would see how other cities dealt with this.

A Compressed Timeline, Real Results

The assembly used an expedited deliberation process developed by Alex Levi and Max Clark of PDLA in conjunction with RewriteLA. Ideally, this work would unfold over multiple sessions—and that remains the goal for future full-scale civic assemblies.

Even within a single day, however, participants demonstrated that everyday Angelenos, when given sufficient time and information, can grapple with complex policy questions and produce thoughtful, concrete recommendations. Participants’ comfort level and sophistication in developing ideas improved markedly over the course of the deliberation, though additional time would have been needed to resolve all inconsistencies within and between recommendations. A full-scale assembly would allow for four days of deliberation, and even stronger outcomes are therefore expected.

These recommendations will now go before the Charter Reform Commission, where Chair Mendoza has committed to bringing them to a vote. This is democracy by lot in action: a diverse group of residents, chosen by lottery, shaping the rules that govern their city.