What’s the difference between LA County and LA City and other municipal governments?
The most important thing to know in local government is the difference between the County and City governments.
The County of Los Angeles
The County government covers all 10 million Angelenos and the 88 different municipal governments which range in size from a few hundred (Vernon) to four million (City of Los Angeles). Even if you mostly deal with your local city’s officials and departments (for City of Los Angeles, Long Beach, West Hollywood, Culver City, Whittier, Compton, etc), it’s crucial to remember that the County Supervisors still have a HUGE influence on your life.
They’re the ones making decisions about every aspect of our local public and mental health systems, social services and safety net programs, felony prosecution, local jails, child protective services and foster care, services for people who are living without shelter, property tax assessment, sales taxes, the operation of the Metro regional transportation agency, oversight of all public school districts, and even the policing, firefighting, parks, and libraries of approximately half the cities and all of the “unincorporated” areas of LA County. County government is where the money’s at. Its $36.1 billion budget is bigger than those of all but 15 states. Compare that to LA City, which has a budget of just over $10 billion for a population nearly half the size.
All 88 cities within LA County, no matter how big or small, have power over housing and building, planning, zoning, and development. They manage how streets, parking, sidewalks, streetlights, and even local transportation departments function. The big ones have their own police, fire, parks, and library departments.
The City of Los Angeles
The City of LA is in a category of its own. It’s the second biggest municipality in the country, with a population of more than 4 million. It operates massive police and fire departments, libraries, public works, parks, sanitation disposal, street services and more in addition to housing and planning departments. The City also has control over all water and electricity provision within its borders through its publicly owned utility, the LA Department of Water and Power (with its own budget of $6.1 billion), the Port of LA (through which $297 billion in cargo passed in 2018), and LAX airport (serving 88 million people annually).
To grossly overgeneralize, the County is responsible for social services to people while the cities are responsible for shaping the physical landscape. But really the answer to whether something is the City’s responsibility or the County’s is usually “it depends.” Often the answer is different depending on which city you’re in and whether they’ve contracted out certain functions to the County. Or the answer is both — especially when it comes to matters like transportation where there are municipal and county agencies working in tandem. Or homelessness, where cities deal with shelter and housing issues while the County is mostly responsible for services and there’s a joint LA City-LA County agency agency — LAHSA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) — which has all the challenges you might expect from an entity which has to answer to multiple political overseers.
It will pay off for you to learn the ins-and-outs of which level or agency of government does what. But ignorance is no crime. Be unafraid to ask questions. Consult experienced advocates to get their insights. Sometimes when you ask a City official to do something, they’ll tell you honestly that it’s the responsibility of the County or State. And other times they’ll claim the same to divert your attention from the power that they actually have and evade responsibility.
Either way, follow the trail. People in one level of government have informal sway over other levels. And bodies of government can even pass resolutions calling on other bodies to take action. The more time you invest in advocating for your values and interests, the more you’ll learn about how government works, how power works, and how you can be effective. You just need to take the plunge!
Start learning about LA County Government by reading onwards..