Metropolitan Coordination in Los Angeles

Abstract

R ECENT developments in Los Angeles County have led to the creation of an administrative position unique to local government, that of county-city coordinator. It is supposed to serve as the focal point for negotiations necessary to the establishment, coordination, and operation of the multifold administrative services rendered by the county to its cities. The person in this strategic position will be chief contact for the county with its municipal clients. The county has long been a kind of metropolitan government under special provisions of its home-rule charter. For the past thirty years, most of the 5o-odd cities in the county have obtained various services such as assessment of property, collection of taxes, and public health regulation from the county by special contract or by complete transfer of function to the county. The densely populated unincorporated regions receive many urban services either from the county government or from county-directed single-function taxing districts. Such districts as those for structural fire protection also encompass incorporated cities, and the districts for control of floods and air pollution are metropolitan countywide. Within the past year, a large number of urban unincorporated areas have been trying to incorporate. At the last count, there were 32 such efforts, and some had succeeded. Added to the 54 existing cities, the new rash of incorporations might well make the metropolitan area almost solid municipal territory, with city boundaries forming a crazy-quilt pattern. Practically all the new cities plan to obtain most of their municipal services from the county government or from a county special district. Even some of the established cities are pondering whether to relinquish municipal performance and secure county services of one type or another. Unlike the traditional county, Los Angeles is in a peculiarly good position to take on further heavy administrative burdens. In structure and methods it is more comparable to a modern large city than to the usual county. Elective officials, in addition to the five-member Board of Supervisors, include only three department heads-sheriff, district attorney, and assessor. A chief administrative officer assists the board, and the county has a well-developed civil service. The county may well be entering an era in which it will be the major administrative unit in the metropolitan area, while policies with respect to standards and kinds of local services will be set by city councils for the county de-