In 2020, Los Angeles County voters passed Measure J – an effort to shift the county away from carceral infrastructure by moving no less than 10 percent of its locally generated unrestricted revenue to investments in communities and programs that addressed the disproportionate impact of racial injustice. Early investments of these funds have gone towards programs including job training, business development, housing services, and youth development.
Thanks to a clerical error, County voters accidentally rescinded Measure J in last fall’s election while approving Measure G – a ballot initiative to reform the county government.
At this week’s meeting of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the Board moved quickly to begin the work of restoring Measure J. For more on Measure J, read Streetsblog’s endorsement of the ballot measure.
“In 2020 the voters spoke loud and clear: they approved Measure J because they believed we needed to focus on care-first investments in our communities. Since then, this Board has done exactly that by establishing the Care-First Community Investment policy,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn in a statement.
“Now as we move to implement Measure G,” the statement continued, “it’s critical that we codify Measure J first to safeguard those community investments. One technical error should not invalidate the clear will of the voters.”
After a ballot measure is passed, the Board of Supervisors has to codify the intent of the measure by voting to make changes to the municipal code. However, the Board failed to do that with 2020’s Measure J. So when voters approved Measure G the following year they technically changed the law back to what it was before Measure J was passed even though there was no intent to change any of J’s language with G.
There is no short-term impact on the county budget with the current confusion over Measure J. The budget passed for this fiscal year met the standards required by J. And with a majority of the current crop of supervisors supporting the measure’s goals, there is every reason to believe next year’s budget will as well, regardless of whether or not Measure J is technically law.
The motion passed by the supervisors asked county staff and counsel to look at several legal venues to change the county code so it conforms to the voters will expressed in 2020. These possible solutions include:
- Explore and report back confidentially on potential legal actions, including the possibility of declaratory relief
- Evaluate whether state law can be changed to correct the administrative error without requiring a new ballot measure
- Review how this error occurred and develop policies to ensure the County Charter is accurately and promptly updated in the future
- Draft an ordinance to ensure the continued implementation of Measure J
- Prepare a proposed Charter Amendment to permanently incorporate Measure J into the County’s new governance structure with a plan to place it on the 2026 ballot
- The Executive Officer of the Board, in consultation with County Counsel, will update the publicly available County Charter to include Measure J as passed by the voters of Los Angeles County on November 3, 2020.
“Measures J and G were both passed by voters after a powerful groundswell of community advocacy—and their will must be honored. Even if Measure G had never happened, the harm from the bureaucratic failure to properly include Measure J in the County Charter is unacceptable and must be addressed without delay,” said Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath.
