As California and Los Angeles voters head to the polls to pick their next leaders in the coming months, they may hear a lot of promises from candidates, and it’s not uncommon for mayoral or gubernatorial hopefuls to make big promises.
Being a mayor of Los Angeles means one could have a tremendous amount of power in the second largest city in the U.S., but it’s not easy to move the city and its governance. In fact, the actual political power may lie in his or her ability to persuade, forcing the LA City Council or the bureaucracy to move in a certain direction.
Looking at the history of Los Angeles mayorship, former Mayor Richard Riordan was able to take charge after the 1994 earthquake.
“Richard Riordan was able to do things that were not in the charter,” Loyola Marymount University political science professor Fernando Guerra said. “(It) led to the quickest rebuilding of a freeway that we had ever seen.”
Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, now running for California governor, was also able to reform the education space via the bully pulpit and through negotiations even though he did not formally have power, according to Guerra.
Los Angeles mayors have to deal with the legislative branch of the city, the city council, civil service regulations and those imposed on the city charter limit.
“There are something like 30 general managers with basically the cabinet of the mayor — none of which she can fire or he can fire,” Guerra explained.
While the president of the United States appoints every single secretary and head of a department, LA mayors have to live with the previous appointments sometimes made by the previous mayor, sometimes made by mayors three or four administrations ago.
Because the liming aspect of being LA mayor, candidates like Republican Spencer Pratt may campaign for a chance, especially on issues on homelessness. But in reality, achieving the change could be challenging.
“We’ve empowered employees within that bureaucracy to be autonomous, oftentimes by our elected officials, and in part, we did that because we didn’t trust elected officials,” Guerra said. “But now we, in some extended, empowered faceless, unelected bureaucrats to be almost as powerful as some elected officials.
Similar to the presidency, LA mayors can issue executives orders, but they could be overruled with 2/3 of the votes of the city council.