Los Angeles voters will decide in November whether to strip the mayor of sole authority over police oversight and transfer that power to elected council members, alongside a separate proposal to allow noncitizen residents to vote in city elections.
The police governance proposal would transfer policymaking power over the LAPD from the five-member Board of Police Commissioners — whose seats are filled by mayoral appointment — directly to the City Council. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, the driving force behind both amendments, pointed to last year's federal immigration enforcement operations as a concrete example of why the change matters: elected council members, he argued, should have had the authority to suspend pretextual traffic stops on their own rather than waiting for the commission to move. Councilmember John Lee pushed back during a rules committee hearing, warning that placing law enforcement decisions inside a political body invites priorities to swing wildly with each new election cycle.
Approval of the noncitizen voting measure at the November ballot would not by itself extend voting rights. It would instead give the council a green light to draft a separate ordinance allowing noncitizen Angelenos to participate in citywide races and Los Angeles Unified School District board elections. Soto-Martínez cast the matter in terms of equity: residents who follow city rules, hold jobs, and raise families here deserve a voice in the decisions that govern them.
The same five members voted no on both measures — Lee, Bob Blumenfield, Monica Rodriguez, Adrin Nazarian, and Tim McOsker. Rodriguez outlined two specific concerns about noncitizen voting: she wants demonstrated proof that Los Angeles County, which administers city elections, can manage the added logistical complexity, and she cautioned that a noncitizen voter registry could become a targeting tool for federal authorities pursuing undocumented immigrants under current enforcement priorities.
The city's police union entered the debate Wednesday, arguing that legally required collective bargaining consultations were bypassed before the LAPD-related charter changes advanced, and urging the council to put those amendments on hold.
A number of Charter Reform Commission recommendations were left off the table entirely, including proposals to expand the council from 15 to 25 members and to adopt ranked-choice voting. McOsker said Wednesday evening that he would have preferred a comprehensive charter overhaul, while conceding that some worthwhile progress had been made.
City attorneys are also working at the council's direction on additional ballot measures addressing the establishment of a public works director position, a move to biennial budgeting cycles, a capital infrastructure program, and tougher consequences for ethics violations.
Before any measure can be formally placed on the ballot, at least one additional council vote is needed. The city attorney's office advised Tuesday that the charter amendments should be structured as separate, distinct ballot questions rather than consolidated into a single item.
Informational content only, not legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.