Los Angeles County leaders are scrambling to restore a sweeping racial justice initiative that voters accidentally repealed, a mistake that could threaten hundreds of millions of dollars devoted to reducing the number of people in jail.<\/p>\n
County supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to ask their lawyers<\/a> to find a way to bring back the ballot measure known as Measure J, which required the county to put a significant portion of its budget toward anti-incarceration services.<\/p>\n Voters learned last week<\/a> that they had unwittingly repealed the landmark criminal justice reform<\/a>, passed in 2020 in the heat of the Black Lives Matter movement, when they voted for a completely unrelated measure to overhaul the county government last November.<\/p>\n Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who spearheaded the county overhaul \u2014 known as Measure G \u2014 along with Supervisor Janice Hahn, called it a \u201ccolossal fiasco.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis situation that has unfolded is enraging and unacceptable at every level. What has transpired is sloppy,\u201d Horvath said Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s a bureaucratic disaster with real consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n The county says it\u2019s looking at multiple options to try to get Measure J permanently back in the charter \u2014 which dictates how the county is governed \u2014 including a change in state law, a court judgment or a ballot measure for 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot and we won\u2019t let this mistake invalidate the will of the voters,\u201d Hahn said.<\/p>\n County lawyers say the mistake stems from a recently discovered \u201cadministrative error.\u201d<\/p>\n Last November, voters approved Measure G<\/a>, which expands the five-person Board of Supervisors to nine members and brings on an elected chief executive, among other overhauls.<\/p>\n What no one seemed to realize \u2014 including the county lawyers who write the ballot measures \u2014 is that one measure would wipe out the other.<\/p>\n Measure G rewrote a chunk of the charter with no mention of anti-incarceration funding, effectively wiping out the county\u2019s promise to put hundreds of millions toward services that keep people out of jail and support them when they leave. <\/p>\n The repeal will take effect in 2028, giving the county three years to fix it.<\/p>\n \u201cI do agree that there\u2019s all kinds of reasons to be outraged, but the sky is not falling. Even if you think the sky is falling, it won\u2019t fall until December 2028,\u201d said Rob Quan, who leads a transparency-focused good-government advocacy group. \u201cWe\u2019ve got multiple opportunities to fix this.\u201d<\/p>\n The mistake was first spotted last month by former Duarte City Councilmember John Fasana, who sits on a task force in charge of implementing the county government overhaul. The county confirmed the mistake to The Times last week, a day after Fasana publicly raised the issue to his unsuspecting fellow task force members.<\/p>\n The measure\u2019s critics say the mistake adds credence to their arguments that the county overhaul was put together too hastily.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to be that if one has to go back on the ballot, it ought to be [Measure] G,\u201d said Fasana, noting it passed by a narrower margin.<\/p>\n Otherwise, he says, the county has set an unnerving precedent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like setting a blueprint to steal an election,\u201d said Fasana, who opposed both the anti-incarceration funding and the government overhaul measures. \u201cYou\u2019ve got this way to basically nullify something that was passed by voters.\u201d<\/p>\n Some worry that putting either measure back on the ballot runs the risk of voters rejecting it this time around.<\/p>\n Measure G faced significant opposition<\/a> \u2014 including from two sitting supervisors \u2014 who argued an elected chief executive would be too powerful and the measure left too much of this new government ill-defined. It narrowly passed with just over 51% of the vote.<\/p>\n The anti-incarceration measure also faced heavy opposition in 2020, particularly from the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which spent more than $3.5 million on advertising on TV and social media. The measure passed with 57% of the vote.<\/p>\n A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled it unconstitutional<\/a> after a group of labor unions \u2014 including the sheriff\u2019s deputies union \u2014 argued it hampered politicians\u2019 ability to manage taxpayer money as they see fit. An appellate court later reversed<\/a> the decision.<\/p>\n Measure J requires that 10% of locally generated, unrestricted L.A. County money be spent on social services such as housing, mental health treatment and other jail diversion programs. That\u2019s equivalent to roughly $288 million this fiscal year. The county is prohibited from spending the money on the carceral system \u2014 prisons, jails or law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n