For Use of the Los Angeles City Charter Assembly on Council Size
Supporting documents. Please use these versions for reading in other languages (button to change languages on top right.
• FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM LA CITY CHARTER ASSEMBLY, May 8, 2026, 4:48pm
• NEW: How Charter Commission Decided on 25. Full Video, extending 1 hour and 4 minutes, of Debate and Vote on February 26, 2026.
• NEW: Measures of City of LA Government and Performance. There are open data portals, measures for planning and homelessness, and many resources for data at the controller's office. But there is no clear measure of city council's performance.
• NEW: City Council President—Everything You Wanted to Know How council presidents are elected by the council members themselves, how they manage committee assignments, relationship with mayor.
• NEW: 1999 Text and Results for Council Expansion. There were two separate measures--one for 21 members, one for 25 members, and both lost with more than 60 percent of voters opposed.
• NEW: Jim Newton on Political and Policy Tradeoffs of Council Expansion. Journalist column arguing for putting council size to the voters, because of the complex mix of policy and politics involved.
• NEW: All Public Comments Received by the Commission. The comments extended to 430,000 words. For comparison, Don Quixote, by Cervantes, is 430,000.
• NEW: Details of Los Angeles City Corruption Cases. Four council members indicted, three had careers ended by tape.
• NEW: Day 2 March 1) Presentations and Slides. and the Fair Rep Slides (with Maps)
• NEW: Day 1 (Feb. 28) Presentations and Slides
• Charter Commission Memo on Council Expansion. The official commission guidance on council expansion--a short memo, showing how they thought about it.
• Rewrite LA Info for Assembly Participants Basics on city councils, this assembly, and questions around council size, done by Liz and Joe of the Rewrite LA team for the charter assembly
• Stephen Erickson Answers to Assembly Question From 030126. Erickson answered questions from assembly in the chat, but couldn't spek because of technical problems.
• VIDEO: LA Forward on City Council and Expansion An important coalition and advocacy entity offers its explanation of the stakes of council expansion. Gets in to questions of repsresenttion and race.
• National Civic League Comparative Analysis on LA City Council and Size. America's leading expert on city charters puts the LA council and its size in the U.S. context. Offers some questions for framing discussion.
• National Civic League: Save Our Cities. Make Urban Political Systems More Democratic. Longer piece for NCL by Stephen Erickson, making the case for much smaller districts and more representtion
• Pacific Research Institute: US Cities Can Learn From Stockholm. Stockholm's larger more democratic governing body.
• LA City Clerk on Council Size historically . Formatting is an issue with this document from the city govenrment's own clerk.
• Pat Brown Institute on Council Expansion. Cal State LA insetitute breaks down council expansion
• Global Cities Comparison Testimony. Stephen Erickson testimony to the assembly on why successful global cities often have 100 or more people in their city councils or city parliaments. The idea is that having more regular people than professional pols is better for services and preventing corruption.
• Fair Rep on La City Council and Districts. Important advocacy group lays out options on council size and districts.
• Single Member vs. At-Large Districts A primer on differnt kinds of districts.
• Graves Memo on Ethnic and Racial Voting Blocs. A geographer explains which ethnic groups in LA might gain representation from a larger council
• Rose Institute on Revolution in City Councils Conservative-learning institute talks about the move away from at-large local districts to single-member districts in California ciites, under legal and votting rights pressures.
• 2023 Report from City's Chief Legislative Analyst to City Clerk on Council Expansion. This document is based on a suervey of city depratments, who tried to anticipate what might change for city government with more council members and/or more council districts.
• Collective Analysis of 3 Council Expansion Models. 3 ways to expand and organize the LA city council
• CalRCV Memos and Email to Commission on RCV and District Size. Advocacy document on the relationship between council districts and RAnked Choice Voting
• Olympic Cities Comparison on City Council/Parliament Size Very short memo showing that almost all other Olympic cities have more local councilmembers than Los Angeles.
• California Common Cause on District Numbers and Growth A look at the justice, legal and voting rights issues around council districts.
• On District Drawing, Voting Rights Act, Race and Underrepresented Groups. An explanation of the California and federal votings right act, and how they relate to local council districts.
• ZenCity Online Poll February 2026 on Charter Reform, for Charter Commission. Most recent polling available on charter proposals, including one slide on council expanion. Slide is immediately below this text.
• Video from LA Forward (immediately below0
On the Paris City Council, which authorized a permanent civic assembly of everyday Parisians to collaborate with elected officials. This is done by Democracy Next, a Europe-based advocacy for citizens assemblies. This responds to assembly questions about picking city council members by lottery. This is the written Democracy Next report on Paris's 200-member permanent assembly of sortition-selected people
