The Committee System

So how do the legislative branches of government work? Committees are crucial in almost all of them. Councils divide up their jurisdiction into multiple issue areas and assign a committee to each one (such as Housing, Planning and Land Use, or Economic Development). Each committee has a chair who’s responsible for setting the official agenda of each meeting plus several members who are interested in that issue, for one reason or another. For example, if you’re working on housing issues in the City of LA, that means you’re going to need to get Gil Cedillo, Chair of the Council’s Housing Committee to take what you’re saying seriously. 

Chairs have the power to prevent legislation and even proposals to study legislation from coming up for discussion. And they can play a critical role in whether motions pass the committee once they come up for a vote since committee members generally try to avoid getting on the bad side of the Chair.

There are an incredible number of checkpoints and chokepoints for slowing down and killing legislation before it ever comes up for a final vote. At every step of this process, there are different ways to contact and press elected officials. You’ll need to make sure committee chairs put your policy priority on the agenda, rally the votes to pass it through committee, get the full council to put it on their agenda, and then muster the votes to pass it there.

It’s a reminder that you’ll need to keep sharing your voice and putting the pressure at every step of the process. Even better is the ability to pull powerful people and institutions behind your cause. And best is building your own electoral power so effectively that politicians fall in line when you put forward a policy priority.  That leads us to the question of how to do all that. For the answer, keep reading the LA’s 101 Guide “How to Participate” section.