Mayor Karen Bass has vetoed a proposed ballot measure to amend the Los Angeles Police Department’s disciplinary procedures, a step that could have resulted in the measure being removed from the Nov. 5 ballot.
In his veto letter to the City Council, Bass said the proposal would allow the police chief to fire officers accused of serious misconduct but “risks creating bureaucratic chaos within the LAPD.”
Bass said the proposal would also reshuffle the composition of the department’s three-person disciplinary panel but provided “vague direction” and “gaps in guidance.”
“I look forward to working with each of you to conduct a thorough, comprehensive review with officials, departments and other stakeholders to ensure fairness for all,” she wrote. “The current system remains in place until the collaborative review is completed and can submitted to voters.”
Bass issued the veto during the council’s summer recess, when meetings were canceled for three weeks. City Clerk Holly Walcott said the deadline to change the ballot proposal language has passed.
“If the council does not override the veto or take any action, the measure will be removed from the vote,” Wolcott said in an email.
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for July 30.
By issuing the veto, Bass effectively sided with LAPD brass, who warned last month that the proposal would create a two-tier disciplinary system, with some violations leading to the chief’s firing and others. are referred to a disciplinary panel called the “Board”.
Members of the mayor-appointed Board of Police Commissioners also criticized the ballot proposal, saying they felt excluded from deliberations. At least one commissioner expressed concern about the proposal to establish a binding arbitration process to resolve cases in which officers appeal their firings.
City Councilman Hugo Soto Martinez expressed similar concerns, arguing that binding arbitration would lead to more lenient outcomes for officers accused of serious misconduct. Soto-Martinez, who voted against the proposal last month, also believed the crimes that would lead to the police chief’s firing were too narrow.
An aide to Soto-Martinez said Tuesday that his boss supported the veto.
Councilman Tim McOsk, who spearheaded the ballot initiative, said he was “deeply disappointed” with the mayor’s actions, which he believed threatened the most significant overhaul of the LAPD’s disciplinary system in more than two decades.
McOske said if the council failed to override the veto, the next opportunity for major reform would not come until the 2026 election.
“This veto will return us to the status quo for at least two years,” he said in an interview.
McOske said he is still considering his options for responding to the mayor’s veto. During last month’s council deliberations, four council members — Soto-Martinez, Nicia Rahman, Eunice Hernandez and Curran Price — supported a A proposal seeking further changes to the ballot measure.
Soto-Martinez criticized the police chief’s decision to fire officers for certain violations, saying it would create “ambiguity” in the disciplinary system.
The proposal was defeated by a vote of 9 to 4. If the bill passes, the ballot measure for this year’s election would be effectively repealed because the deadline for making sweeping changes has passed.
The proposal Bass vetoed was billed as a way to undo some of the changes brought about by Charter Amendment C, a ballot measure approved by voters in 2017 that paved the way for an all-civilian disciplinary panel for the Los Angeles Police Department. the way.
The ballot proposal would redesign the system to ensure each panel has two civilian members and a commander.
Representatives of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 8,800 rank-and-file officers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, the union issued a statement saying the ballot proposal struck the “appropriate balance” on disciplinary issues and ensured officers fired by the chief had an appeals process through binding arbitration.
