Asian American leaders champion plan to expand LA County Board of Supervisors

Some of L.A. County’s best-known Asian American leaders came out in strong support of a plan to expand the Board of Supervisors — and to get it before voters this fall.

Increasing the number of seats from five to nine will create potential for better representation and more diversity on the board, according to the group that includes Congress members Judy Chu and Ted Lieu, municipal leaders and heads of community organizations.

15% of the county population

With a population of about 1.5 million, Asian Americans have grown to represent 15% of the county. None have served on the board since it was created in 1912.

“And that is injustice,” said Chu, a Monterey Park Democrat. “For far too long, the [Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander] community has been marginalized."

Chu and others evoked some of the most discriminatory acts targeting Asians in the U.S, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the government-authorized incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Lieu added that county government would work better if supervisors could represent half of the current 2 million constituents they each have now.

“That's why we need to have this reform — to simply deal with the additional population in LA County since 1912, ” Lieu said.

Where the plan stands

The plan, which currently has the support of the majority of the board, also calls for turning the county executive into an elected position and creating an ethics commission.

A proposed ordinance needs to be approved in the coming weeks before it can go on the November ballot. A vote on a draft ordinance is scheduled for July 23, followed — if it is passed —by a second vote on July 30.

Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Kathryn Barger have expressed concern about the plan being rushed through and say more study is needed.

Supervisor Janice Hahn contends the idea has been deliberated many times over, noting her late father, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, had wanted to expand the board in 1972.

Hahn said the Asian American community has been short-changed by massive districts and that increasing the number of seats could lead to a district with an Asian American majority.

“We want to make sure that more voices are in our boardroom when we are deciding how to tackle the biggest challenges we face as a county,” Hahn said. “The AAPI community deserves a seat at that table.”

Hahn and fellow supervisors Hilda Solis and Lindsey Horvath joined the Asian American leaders at a news conference at the Hall of Administration on Thursday.

Alhambra council member Jeff Maloney, who leads the Asian Pacific Islander caucus for the League of California Cities, said AAPI communities have been "yearning for adequate representation at all levels of government."

“Expansion of the board of supervisors will provide our community with a real chance at self representation at the county level to ensure that our voices are heard,” Maloney said. 

Other lending their support to the expansion plan include leaders for the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment and the AAPI Equity Alliance, as well as council members from Monterey Park and Artesia. 

No cost has been attached to an expansion yet. Horvath, chair of the board, said the proposed ordinance requires that no new taxes are raised.

“We believe that currently our $46-billion budget has enough resources in it to reallocate resources to make this change possible,” Horvath said.