Transforming LA Government to Work for Everyone

Community safety

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Ineffective governmentis the keydomino that must fall to realizeeffective community safety across root-cause life sectors.In 2023, OUR LA’s citywide survey asked Angelenos' take onhow LA City Council represents them, and on two reform measures—an Independent Redistricting Commission and expanding the number of city council members.Feedback from the 1,769 respondents, and 600 residents who attended public convenings, informed the policy recommendations wedeveloped into successful Measures DD and LL.Now City of LA structures, systems, and processes that bring about and perpetuate racial and economic disparities, corruption, and underrepresentation of low-income and BIPOC communities are poised to be truly restructured, while LA County is pushed to transform in fundamental ways.Unheard voices must step into the decision-making power that allows residents to draw boundaries based onpublic input during redistricting and in City Council expansion.

Weeks after the racially/ethnically derogatory, dismissive, and damaging sentiments expressed on tape in the 2022 LA City Council leaked audio recording scandal, Catalyst California and 11 grassroots organizational partners formed Organize. Unite. Reform LA (OUR LA) seized the moment of intercommunity shock and outrage to engage those and other vilified residents.OUR LA is a multiracial, multi-generational, multi-issue, and intersectional coalition of community-based organizations and racial justice advocates committed to community voice, multiracial solidarity, power-building, racial equity, structural reform, and transparency.
Over the last three years, we’ve gathered hundreds of individuals from LA's low-income, immigrant, and communities of color through convenings and a popular, multi-site education series to understand their collective experience with local government and identify community-driven solutions to improving governance—formation of an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) and expanding the number of city council members—particularly to account for entire populations persistently overlooked or drowned out in the power dynamics of civic engagement due to where they live, how they are counted, and their lack of access to decisionmakers. For example, Pacific Islander and Indigenous communities too small or spread out to garner significant voice in their respective districts, and others unaccustomed to influencing their local budgets for critical services.

The County will be informed by trackable, commonsense reforms addressing government representation and accountability: redistricting about representation not reelection, an expanded City Council allowing more communities to elect candidates of choice, campaign financing that allows low-income Angelenos to compete for office, and landuse rules unexploited by elected officials for personal gain. Current structures that enable corruption and pits those in need against each other, will yield to community members across LA stepping into the decision-making power throughout the redistricting process that occurs every decade. Racial and economic equity will operate through infusing documented, local and regional input in mandated development of LA County’s Governance Reform Task Force’s Community Engagement Plan. Demographically, LA’s government will be proportionately comprised of residents who are ignored or insufficiently represented today and police will not be the largest budget expense.