California Faculty Association members picket at California State University Los Angeles on January 22, 2024.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Topline:
The California Faculty Association reached a tentative agreement with college leaders Monday night, but some instructors with the lowest pay and least job security say the agreement falls short.
What’s missing: A lot of details. Neither the union, nor CSU leadership, have released the full tentative agreement. While the summary includes raises for the lowest-paid faculty, union members say it does not guarantee the kind of sufficient wages nor long-term stability that research suggests would improve student outcomes.
For teachers: Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of CSU faculty do not have long-term job security — their their available work is often dependent on student enrollment. Lecturers say they have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, struggle to afford health care and housing and do not have a clear path to promotions or raises.
For students:Years of research shows when there’s an increase in part-time faculty, students have lower GPAs and are less likely to continue their studies and graduate when compared to peers taught by full-time, tenured educators.
What's next: California State University’s board of trustees and the union’s 29,000 professors, lecturers, coaches, librarians, and counselors must vote to approve the agreement.
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Lecturers Make Up The Majority Of CSU Faculty. Will They Take The University’s Deal?
The California Faculty Association reached a tentative agreement with college leaders Monday night. But some instructors with the lowest pay and least job security say the agreement falls short.
“We got something, but we're still, like, really, really drowning and struggling,” said Cal State San Bernardino lecturer Laura Quinn.
Neither the union, nor CSU leadership, have released details of the deal. While the summary includes raises for the lowest-paid faculty, it does not guarantee wages that faculty say would be sufficient nor stability that researchers say would improve student outcomes long term.
Read All Of Our CSU Strike Coverage
The California Faculty Association is a union that represents 29,000 coaches, counselors, lecturers, librarians, and professors. They've been negotiating with California State University since last spring, and have staged a series of strikes.
In a statement announcing the deal, CSU Chancellor Mildred García said the agreement "enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system's long-term financial sustainability."
LAist reached out to CSU to verify deal terms and ask about further comment; a spokesperson said there will be "more details later."
Just over half of faculty work part-time and more than half of CSU faculty do not have long-term job security— they may teach a class from one quarter to multiple years. Researchers say the shift from full-time, stable employment in higher education to low-paid, semester-by semester jobs has been underway for decades.
“There's nothing different in terms of the qualifications or the background of the people who are in these roles,” said USC professor Adrianna Kezar, who studies higher education employment. “It's just simply that the job market changed.”
College Teachers 101
Researchers and universities use many different terms to describe the people responsible for teaching, grading, and generally preparing students for the world. One of the primary distinctions is how long someone is hired to do the job.
We’re going to define them from most-solidly long term, to most unstable, though individual experiences vary.
Tenured professor: Historically the gold standard for higher education employment. Once an educator has attained tenure, they expect to work for an institution indefinitely and can only be fired for severe problems with performance or in the institution as a whole. Advocates maintain that tenure helps preserve educators' ability to teach controversial topics and pursue innovative research. “We don't want politicians, corporate interests, and so forth messing around with faculty trying to do their jobs,” said American Association of University Professors researcher Glenn Colby. An educator eligible for this distinction is classified as “tenure-track.”
Average CSU salary: $122,016*
Adjunct and contingent faculty: These terms both describe college teachers who may have similar qualifications and workloads as tenured professors, but are not guaranteed long term employment. In the California State University system, they’re often called lecturers. These instructors work full- and part-time for as little as one quarter and up to several consecutive years.
Average CSU salary: $71,255* for a full-time lecturer and $64,304* for a part-time lecturer
*This represents the average amount an instructor makes during the academic year as of fall 2022, according to CSU.
CSU lecturers can teach full time, but are contracted for just a few classes. Lecturers told LAist they have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, struggle to afford health care and housing, and do not have a clear path to promotions or raises.
“It takes away from my ability to be the best lecturer that I can be,” said Cal State L.A. lecturer Michelle Vanegas. “I can't focus all of my attention on my classes, on my students, on grading, on the things that I need to do, because I'm busy worrying about how am I going to make enough money.”
Where did all the good education jobs go?
Part-time and short-term instructors have always had a role in higher education. For example, the arrangement allows working professionals to bring their experience into the classroom and provides flexibility for parents who do not want or need to work full-time.
But in the last 40 years the proportion of faculty not eligible for the stability — and higher compensation — of a tenured position has increased to nearly 50% of U.S. college teaching positions.
“Institutions are relying on contingent appointments more and more, in many ways, to balance the books,” said Glenn Colby, a senior researcher at the American Association of University Professors, which tracks higher education employment trends.
This financial constraint was the start of substantial changes. Today, the CSU system relies on lecturers more heavily than other institutions. Colby’s most recent analysis found close to 60% of CSU’s nearly 27,800 faculty were temporary appointments in fall 2022, compared with about 50% in fall 2009.
Debito Beamer lives in San Bernardino and commutes to teach in Long Beach and Los Angeles— sometimes in the same day. “I realized if I'm going to ever retire I have to build up my retirement funds,” Beamer said. “Since I can't get tenure, I have to take as many jobs as I can to earn as much money as I can for my retirement."
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USC’s Kezar co-wrote The Gig Academy, which details this shift in higher education employment.
She’s said the way universities compensate employees on short-term contracts is an outlier compared to part-time workers in other sectors.
“In other professions, contingent [workers] get paid more because of the job insecurity that they experience and the lack of benefits,” Kezar said. “We got the worst of all conditions. So instead of higher pay, we got lower pay, and no benefits, and no job security.”
CSU faculty hardships
Leyenda Jacobson was a young mother who experienced housing insecurity and homelessness when she started taking community college classes. She went on to earn a sociology bachelor and master’s degree at Cal State San Marcos.
“I heard and believed in the promise that a college education could make a better future,” Jacobson said. “So I stuck with it.”
When her mother’s cancer diagnosis derailed her plan to pursue a PhD, Leyenda turned to teaching in 2011. Today, one of her primary jobs is to help students develop foundational research skills.
“I think what happens in the classroom is what I live for in terms of my career,” Jacobson said. “Unfortunately, you can't pay bills with the magic that happens in the classroom.”
Jacobson said she brought home $52,000 last year before taxes. She commutes 150 miles every day; she teaches at Cal State Long Beach from her home in San Diego County and racked up $10,000 in credit card debt covering gas and other expenses.
I think what happens in the classroom is what I live for in terms of my career. Unfortunately you can't pay bills with the magic that happens in the classroom.
— Leyenda Jacobson, Cal State San Marcos and Long Beach lecturer
Laura Quinn is in her ninth year as a lecturer at Cal State San Bernardino and teaches in both the English and College of Arts and Letters departments.
This base salary of around $55,000 has not been enough for Quinn to care for her 12-year-old son and afford a 1-bedroom apartment — among other things, like saving for his college education and paying off student debt.
For the past six years, she has taken on additional work as a lecturer at the University of Redlands. This past fall she taught eight classes across both campuses.
“My schedule was so packed,” Quinn said. “When you're so exhausted, you're not hungry anymore and you just, like, want to go to bed. And then rinse and repeat.”
She said last semester she lost 15 pounds.
Quinn offers to meet with the nearly 300 students she teaches a semester on nights and weekends and shares her personal number so they can reach out for help. “Whenever they are available, I will make sure that I'm there for them,” Quinn said.
Kezar said the research points to a lack of resources, not a lack of qualifications or skills, that hinder faculty like CSU’s lecturers.
“The way they teach it isn't connected to the rest of the learning that the student's gonna have,” Kezar said.
For example, Kezar said, fewer opportunities to interact with their teachers is associated with worse student outcomes. CSU lecturers are paid for the hours they spend teaching, not for meeting with students outside of class.
Debito Beamer commutes from his home in San Bernardino to Cal State campuses in Long Beach and Los Angeles and is teaching at a third online.
The political science lecturer tells students, “I can't see you outside of office hours. Here's an hour and a half that I'm waiting here in my office. I'm not on campus these other days, so you're just going to have to catch me at that time, or make a Zoom appointment with me. But I've got classes and class prep and all of that. Here's the window for those.”
“All of those things impact my ability to teach at a relaxed pace,” Beamer added. “By the time it's week 10 or 11, I'm already burned out and we have 15 weeks to a semester.”
Lecturers also sometimes lack time to prepare and plan for their classes each semester.
Beamer said after the pandemic Cal State Long Beach asked him if he would teach a class 48 hours before it began.
“I had to learn my students’ [names], create attendance sheets, create a syllabus, choose my textbooks, and create my first lecture— in 48 hours I was meeting my students,” he said.
As much as lecturers try to meet their students’ needs, when they’re responsible for many students, they can lose some efficacy. Leda Ramos is a lecturer in Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at Cal State LA. She teaches an average of 200 students a semester.
“I do my best, but anybody who has studied any kind of pedagogy knows that the higher number of students means that you have less ability to reach each student.” Ramos said. “We do our best.”
What’s next for CSU faculty?
The union’s 29,000 professors, lecturers, coaches, librarians, and counselors must vote to approve the tentative agreement before any raises or other benefits can go into effect.
What's in the deal?
California Faculty Association and California State University's tentative agreement includes:
A 5% general salary increase for all faculty retroactive to July 1, 2023.
A 5% general salary Increase for all faculty on July 1 in 2024, if the state doesn't reduce base funding to CSU.
A higher salary floor for the lowest-paid faculty, who will also receive a 2.65% “service salary increase” (which affects about a third of union members).
Online and in interviews with LAist, some part-time faculty were disheartened by the deal.
“I'm afraid to look my students in the eye because many of them have been rooting for us,” said Cal State San Marcos and Long Beach lecturer Leyenda Jacobson. “It's our job to show them that people power can work.”
Jacobson said among the biggest omissions are mental health support for students and substantial increases for lecturers and a path to more stable employment.
"We were going for something so much bigger," said Quinn, the lecturer in San Bernardino. "I don't understand‚ is this caving in early? Like, why not strike for a second day? Why not, like, keep the pressure on?"
Universities have not rushed to offer indefinite appointments to legions of part-time and temporary faculty, even as those faculty members’ circumstances become more pronounced.
But researchers like Kezar say there are other ways to improve the working conditions for lecturers, like longer term contracts.
“What the biggest difference becomes [is] just the longevity of the appointment,” Kezar said. “Instead of a guarantee for, you know, essentially a lifetime, 30 or 40 years, at least you're getting now five or seven years, which, it's still pretty good.”
The practice is fairly new, but one study from Northwestern University found that well-supported faculty on long-term contracts were tied to student outcomes in line with — and in some cases, better — than tenured faculty.
“Nobody gets into this profession because they want to like make a lot of money," said Cal State L.A. lecturer Michelle Vanegas. But, if you hire people to do this job who don't love it with their whole heart, you're not going to get a good outcome."
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Brian Feinzimer
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Colleges nationwide laid off faculty during the pandemic, but American Association of University Professors’s Colby said CSU has rehired more faculty when compared to other systems.
“I believe that the multi-year contracts have insulated those faculty members from the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic more than other institutions,” Colby said.
However, the American Association of University Professors maintains that anything short of tenure is a threat to educators and students.
“If these faculty members are faced with the possibility of not being rehired when their contract ends, they might be less likely to explore controversial topics [in] either researching or teaching," Colby said.
By Mallika Seshadri and Vani Sanganeria | EdSource
Published October 15, 2026 2:30 PM
California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline.
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Julie Leopo
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EdSource
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Topline:
California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday.
Why now: The California Department of Education’s dashboard tracks student success across several measures, including chronic absenteeism, suspensions, English learner progress, graduation rates and college and career readiness. This is the first year the dashboard has been released alongside the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment scores in English language arts, math and, now, science, giving educators and families a broader view of student outcomes.
The backstory: The 2025-26 data comes amid a significant, ongoing decline in California student enrollment. Since the 2016-17 academic year, the state has lost 496,975 students — an 8% enrollment decrease.
California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday.
But progress remained uneven. Chronic absenteeism is still higher than before the pandemic, suspension rates have fallen only minimally and substantial disparities persist among student groups.
“At a time when California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps, these results provide important evidence that our sustained investments are making a difference,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement.
The California Department of Education’s dashboard tracks student success across several measures, including chronic absenteeism, suspensions, English learner progress, graduation rates and college and career readiness.
This is the first year the dashboard has been released alongside the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment scores in English language arts, math and, now, science, giving educators and families a broader view of student outcomes.
“That’s a smart thing to do,” said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA. “I think that way we kind of get as holistic of a picture as we can from multiple standpoints.”
The 2025-26 data comes amid a significant, ongoing decline in California student enrollment. Since the 2016-17 academic year, the state has lost 496,975 students — an 8% enrollment decrease.
Over the past decade, the state has also seen significant changes in the student population, with more students identifying as Asian, two or more races and not reported. There has also been an increase in students with disabilities and in homeless youths.
Chronic absenteeism continued to decline in California during the 2025-26 school year, falling 1.1% from the previous year to 18.3% among students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. The rate reached 30% during the pandemic-era spike in 2021-22. Students who are chronically absent have missed at least 18 instructional days, or 10% or more of the school year.
“The fact that we’re seeing drops, but not huge drops, is not too different from what you’re seeing across the country,” said Hedy Chang, CEO and president of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works with school districts to reduce absenteeism.
The persistence of a high percentage of students chronically absent “points to the need for us to even deepen our work to reduce chronic absence to be even more strategic,” she added.
Downey Unified School District is among the districts that lowered its TK-8 chronic absenteeism rate from 19.2% last year to 18.4% in 2025-26. Its TK-12 rate also declined, from 20.4% to 19.9%.
Roger Brossmer, Downey Unified’s superintendent, attributes the progress to new schedules tailored to students’ needs. The district plans to “double down,” on its efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, which remains higher than the state average, with a special focus on English learners.
Brossmer said Downey’s strong improvement in test scores – among the highest in the state – has reinforced his belief in the connection between student achievement and attendance.
“If they weren’t progressing, the number one thing they had in common was they weren’t coming to school,” Brossmer said. “And so we’ve shifted from a punitive model to more of a ‘we miss you, we need you here’ model.”
Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska native, African American and Hispanic or Latino students continued to experience chronic absenteeism at higher rates than the statewide average. The same was true for foster youths, homeless youths, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners.
Migrant students had a lower rate of chronic absenteeism than the state average, however.
Chang said that migrant student rates may be lower because students are leaving the state, or being detained, before they reach the 30-day attendance requirement to be counted toward chronic absenteeism data.
“It is possible that migrant youth are moving too far. You’d have to look at mobility issues at the same time,” Chang said.
Suspensions decrease minimally
California’s suspension rate measures the number of students who were suspended for at least one day. It fell by 0.1 percentage points between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, to 2.8%.
That is part of a several-year trend of falling suspension rates since 2022-23, when the rate was 3.6%.
“It’s encouraging that suspensions are going down, but the racial disparities are still pretty noticeable and pretty significant,” Howard said.
African American students had the highest suspension rates among racial and ethnic groups, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students. Hispanic or Latino students were close to the statewide rate.
Foster youths had a much higher suspension rate of 13%, while homeless youths, students with disabilities, migrant youths, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners also exceeded the statewide rate.
Howard said the state should provide more comprehensive data that includes both in-school and out-of-school suspensions.
“I’ve seen in other states (cases) where their out-of-school suspension rates have gone down, which is what they lead with,” Howard said. “But then, when you do a deeper dive looking at the in-school suspension rates, they have gone up.”
Graduation rates: the highest in a decade
California’s graduation rate reached 87.9% in 2025-26, the highest in a decade, according to the dashboard.
Graduation rates among Filipino, Asian and students identifying as two or more races exceeded the statewide average. Migrant students also graduated at a higher rate than the state average.
It’s likely that graduation rates are even higher in the state. The California average was skewed downward by two schools — Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy.
Going deeper
Highlands Community Charter, an adult school, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month after an audit found it owed the state $180 million for funds it was not eligible to receive.
The school’s enrollment plummeted from 11,713 in 2024-25 to 487 in 2025-26. Its four-year graduation rate was 6.6%, according to Dataquest.
Statewide, Highlands lowered the graduation rate among Asian students by 2.8 percentage points and among white students by 4.7 percentage points.
The California Innovative Career Academy, one of the Highlands Community Charter schools, had a four-year graduation rate of 8.3%. Its enrollment fell from 1,729 students in 2024-25 to 800 in 2025-26.
College readiness also improved. Nearly 55% of graduates met the basic minimum requirements for the CSU and UC systems, a 0.9 percentage point increase from the previous year.
Meanwhile, 17.1% earned the State Seal of Biliteracy, a special designation on a student’s diploma showing a high rate of proficiency in a second language. And 33.8% received the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, which shows mastery in at least six subject areas, marking a 0.8 and a 1.5 percentage point increase, respectively.
Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said graduation rates and college readiness are moving in the right direction, but more students need to meet standards in English language and math.
“A certain percentage of students are being pushed through without gaining the knowledge and skills that signify they’ve achieved a truly meaningful high school education and are prepared for their next step, whether that’s college or career,” Flint said.
EdSource is an independent nonprofit organization that provides analysis on key education issues facing California and the nation. LAist republishes articles from EdSource with permission.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani sits in the dugout during the ninth inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026.
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Ashley Landis
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AP Photo
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Topline:
The star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers, so used to winning year after year, find themselves in unfamiliar territory lately — on the brink of playoff elimination. The Dodgers are facing a 3-0 deficit against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series after losing 6-2 on Wednesday and now need to win four games in a row to advance.
Why it matters: The two-time defending World Series champions are aiming to become the first National League team to win a third straight title and the first club to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000.
The backstory: Offense has been sparse in the postseason. The Dodgers are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position overall and 1 for 14 against the Brewers. Los Angeles cranked out 204 homers in the regular season — seventh in MLB — but have none so far in the NLCS.
Did you know: The only team in major league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven postseason series was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who got a gutsy stolen base from Dodgers' Manager Dave Roberts, then a utility player for Boston, to spark their comeback against the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series.
What's next: Game 4 is tonight at 5 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. Tyler Glasnow will start for the Dodgers.
The star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers, so used to winning year after year, find themselves in unfamiliar territory lately — on the brink of playoff elimination.
The two-time defending World Series champions are aiming to become the first National League team to win a third straight title and the first club to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000.
But that seems increasingly unlikely.
The Dodgers are facing a 3-0 deficit against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series after losing 6-2 on Wednesday. They’ll need to win four games in a row to advance, starting Thursday in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.
“It looks like we’re going to have to make a little more history along the way if we want to accomplish that,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We still have the pitching staff to be able to do it. We just have to get some hits.”
Offense has been sparse in the postseason. The Dodgers are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position overall and 1 for 14 against the Brewers. Los Angeles cranked out 204 homers in the regular season — seventh in MLB — but have none so far in the NLCS.
“It’s just this whole series they’ve outslugged us, outhit us,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve got to get a lead and find a way to tack on.”
The Dodgers scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 2-1 lead in Game 3 before pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández came up with runners on second and third and one out. But he struck out swinging, and Tommy Edman took a called third strike to end the inning.
“That was the game right there,” Hernández said. “We need to put the ball in play. I struck out and gave Tommy a way harder job with two outs. I have had two of the biggest at-bats in the series for our team and I haven’t been able to come through. I just need to do my job.”
Tyler Glasnow is scheduled to pitch Thursday for the Dodgers, who are 44-42 in postseason elimination games. If they can find a way to win, they would host Game 5 on Friday.
“We’ve never been in this big of a hole,” Hernández said, “but we’ve had our backs against the wall plenty of times before, and we’ve come out of it. We’re just trying to do it one more time.”
Except none of the Dodgers’ hitters are doing much of anything. Kyle Tucker, who struggled mightily in the regular season, has been a bright spot. He’s batting .304 after going 1 for 3 on Wednesday.
But the top of the lineup — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández — was a combined 1 for 11 in Game 3, when the Dodgers totaled five hits.
The deepest slumps involve four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and catcher Will Smith. Ohtani was 1 for 2, raising his average to .182 a year after being MVP of the NLCS sweep against the Brewers. Smith was 1 for 4 with a two-run double, but his average is far south of the Mendoza Line at .074.
In Game 2, the Dodgers mustered just three hits in a 7-4 loss.
The only team in major league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven postseason series was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who got a gutsy stolen base from Roberts to spark their comeback against the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series.
Roberts was asked if he might reminisce with his Dodgers players about that before Thursday’s game.
“I don’t think so. I think they’ve seen the documentary. They know it can happen,” he said.
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Fire began this afternoon and is threatening homes
Lucas Brady Woods
covers the weather and disasters, among other climate and science topics.
Published October 15, 2026 2:25 PM
The Peak Fire began around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. It's seen here from an Alert California camera on Pine Mountain.
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Alert California
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UC San Diego
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Topline:
Evacuation orders and warnings have been issued for a brush fire north of San Gabriel Canyon Road in Azusa. The Peak Fire has burned about 22 acres since igniting on Thursday afternoon. Authorities warn that structures northeast of the fire are threatened.
What we know so far: Firefighters from L.A. County and the Angeles National Forest were among the first to respond.
Read on ... for more on evacuations and weather conditions.
This is a developing story. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:
Evacuation orders and warnings have been issued near a brush fire north of San Gabriel Canyon Road in Azusa. The Peak Fire has burned about 22 acres since igniting on Thursday afternoon. Authorities warn that structures are threatened to the northeast of the fire.
Southern California is under a red flag warning because of heat, low humidity and Santa Ana winds. Those conditions will continue through Saturday, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
The basics
Acreage: 22 acres as of Thursday afternoon
Containment: 0%
Structures destroyed: None reported, but several are threatened.
Deaths: None
Injuries: None
Evacuation map and orders
Evacuation orders have been issued by the Azusa Police Department for the following areas:
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published October 15, 2026 1:49 PM
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline:
The newly created L.A. County Ethics Commission meets for the first time on Friday. Job one: decide how to fill the remaining commission seats and map out watchdog duties.
Why it matters: Studies suggest the public has low trust in public agencies but thinks highly of ethics commissions as a way to promote good governance.
Why now: The creation of the ethics commission is the first of several groundbreaking reforms to L.A. County governance approved by voters in 2024 through Measure G.
Read on… to find out how you can participate and hear about the work of the L.A. County Ethics Commission.
The Los Angeles County Ethics Commission meeting on Friday is a milestone in a couple of ways.
It’s the first time the largest county in the nation has had an independent watchdog commission to oversee campaign financing, lobbying, conflicts of interest and governmental ethics. The city of L.A. has had one since 1991.
It’s also the first in a bundle of county reforms approved by voters through Measure G in 2024, which include expanding the Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, creating an elected county executive role and a legislative analyst position.
Ethics commissions aren't that sexy.
— Rob Quan, Unrig LA
“Ethics commissions aren't that sexy,” said Rob Quan, an organizer with Unrig LA, a watchdog group focused on money and politics.
But, he says, they’re crucial for making the relationship between money and elective offices transparent, which is often the root of political corruption.
“It's really important to have these kinds of resources to be able to make connections, follow money, and hold people accountable,” he said.
The commission will oversee matters within L.A. County government, which includes more than 115,000 positions and operates on a $54 billion budget.
It's really important ... to be able to make connections, follow money, and hold people accountable.
— Rob Quan, Unrig LA
Many things are still to be decided including how it will carry out its work, how much staffing it will have, and the size of its budget.
But Quan says having the first meeting is an important basic step, to establish “a centralized place where people can turn to, whether that's with a whistleblower [complaint] or just trying to get stuff changed,” he said.
Make your voice heard
The L.A. County Ethics Commission meets on Friday October 16 at noon.
Attend virtually: bit.ly/Ethics-101626 Attend in person: Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, Room 374A, 500 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles
A diverse makeup
The Friday meeting underlines the extent to which the commission is in its infancy, as not all seven members of the commission have been appointed.
So far three have been chosen, one each by the chair of the county Board of Supervisors, by the county assessor and by the Governance Reform Task Force, the body that’s guiding the implementation of Measure G. Members will serve staggered five-year terms. They include:
Wilma Franco, head of community development group Southeast Los Angeles Collaborative (SELA)
Amanda Susskind, former Anti-Defamation League Regional Director
Michael Woo, former L.A. City Councilmember
The remaining four seats are still to be filled. They’ll be picked by those commissioners from a pool of members of the public who applied to be on the commission in July. That application window is now closed.
It’s an important change, a nod to taking influence away from elected officials, who are often in the position of appointing people to oversee their own ethical compliance. For example, elected officials pick all five members of the city of L.A.’s Ethics Commission.
Despite all these steps taken to create the new ethics oversight agency, some people have concerns.
“I am doubtful that the ethics commission is going to have a lot of power," said Henrik Minassians, a professor in the department of urban studies and planning at California State University, Northridge. "The reason is because [of] the funding sources, and there are serious constraints with that.”
Both those issues may be helped by the Nov. 3 election. Measure E on the L.A. County ballot would guarantee $14.3 million in annual funding for the commission, adjusted for inflation, and give the commission the power to compel officials to testify through subpoenas and issue fines of up to $15,000 per violation.
A study out last month from the Rose Institute of State and Local Government said the reforms in Measure G are a “high-stakes experiment” whose success is far from guaranteed. But others say the reforms may bring a model of representative government that’s only been talked about so far.
