Elections Supervisors are elected to four-year terms by a vote of Los Angeles County citizens who reside in the supervisorial district. Supervisors must reside and be voters in the district they represent. If a supervisor fills a vacancy, the unexpired term counts towards the
term limit if there are more than two years (half the term) left to serve. The provisions of the measure were not retroactive, meaning that the term limit clock for supervisors who were serving at the time the measure passed would start with the next election. At the time term limits were imposed,
Don Knabe,
Mike Antonovich, and
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s terms were scheduled to end in 2016 (Brathwaite Burke chose to retire in 2008), while
Gloria Molina and
Zev Yaroslavsky served their terms until 2014.
County Chair or Mayor The chair or “mayor” of the Board of Supervisors serves a term of one year, meaning that a supervisor who is elected for a term on the board will get a chance to serve at least one term as chair/mayor. Upon expiration of the term, the duties of the chair/mayor are rotated among the board members by order of seniority. Along with their general responsibilities as a member of the board of supervisors, the chair/mayor has several unique duties to fulfill, including presiding over board meetings and controlling the agenda of the board.
Michael D. Antonovich, during his tenure as a supervisor, called himself "mayor", a practice that was not continued by subsequent supervisors.
CEO Until recently, the
chief executive officer was the appointed individual heading the county but had little power as supervisors retained the right to fire and hire department heads and often directly admonished department heads in public. Based on an ordinance authored by Supervisors Knabe and Yaroslavsky that took effect in April 2007, the CEO directly oversees departments on behalf of the supervisors, although the
Los Angeles County Fire Department,
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Assessor, District Attorney, Auditor-Controller, and Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors continue to be under the direct purview of the Board of Supervisors. The change was made in response to several candidates either dropping out or declining to accept the position to replace former Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen. Antonovich was the lone supervisor to oppose the change, stating that such a move would lead to a more autocratic form of government and disenfranchise the 1.3 million who live in unincorporated areas. However, this was rescinded in 2015 and the CEO has returned to a facilitation and coordination role between departments. Departments continue to submit recommendations and agenda items to the Board to be adopted and ratified, and the Board directly manages relations with the department heads instead of going through the CEO, as would be the case in a
council-manager system prevalent in most of the county's cities. In 2016, the CEO further recommended, and the Board approved, transferring positions considered "transactional" and focusing the CEO on "strategic" initiatives and long-term, structural issues. As noted above, the November 2024 approval of Measure G means that by 2028, the county must hold a direct election for the first time for a
county executive. • Audit Committee • Business License Committee • City Selection Committee • Civilian Oversight Commission • Civil Service Commission • Commission for Children and Families • Commission for Women • Commission on HIV • Commission on Human Relations • Commission on Insurance • Countywide Criminal Justice Coordination Committee • Economy and Efficiency Commission • Employee Relations Commission • Fish and Wildlife Commission • Historical Landmarks and Records Commission • Information Systems Advisory Body • Los Angeles County Redistricting Commission • Local Government Services Commission • Los Angeles County Capital Asset Leasing Corporation •
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission • Los Angeles Regional Crime Laboratory Facility Authority • LGBTQ+ Commission • Prevention and Promotion Systems Governing Committee • Probation Oversight Commission • Quality and Productivity Commission • Redevelopment Oversight Board • San Fernando Valley Council of Governments • Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections • Tobacco and Securitization • West Carson Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District Public Financing Authority • Youth Climate Commission • Youth Commission
Board meetings The Board meets every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., Pacific Time, at the Board Hearing Room (381B) at the
Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in
Downtown Los Angeles. On Tuesdays following a Monday holiday, Board meetings begin after lunch, at 1:00 p.m. Board meetings are conducted in accordance with
Robert's Rules of Order, the
Brown Act (California’s
sunshine law), and the Rules of the Board. The Chief Executive Officer, the County Counsel and the Executive Officer, or their deputies, attend each Board meeting. The regular agendas for the first, second, third and fifth Tuesdays of the month are essentially a consent calendar, that is, all items are automatically approved without discussion, unless a Supervisor or member of the public requests discussion of a specific item. The fourth Tuesday of the month is reserved for the purpose of conducting legally required public hearings, Board of Supervisors motions and department items continued from a previous meeting, have time constraints, or are critical in nature. Since Board meetings are considered
Brown Act bodies, a Board agenda is published 72 hours before the Board meeting is convened. At the start of a meeting, after an invocation and the
Pledge of Allegiance, all items that do not have "holds" placed on them by a Supervisor or a member of the public, or are mandatory public hearings, are approved on a consent calendar. Following that, presentations of various dignitaries (e.g., local
consulate officials, awards to County employees and the general public, and pets for adoption) are made. Then, items that were not approved are called in numerical order unless a supervisor wishes to take items out of order. Members of the public are allotted three minutes to make public comment on all the agenda items that they intend to discuss. An additional three minutes are provided during general public comment on any topic within the board's jurisdiction. Individuals must submit comment cards before the start of the meeting and wait until their item is called. On popular topics with multiple speakers, comments may be restricted to as little as one minute each, and the board has the discretion to figuratively
muzzle anyone who is addressing the board in a disruptive manner. Weekly Board meetings are broadcast live online and televised on local public television (
KLCS Channel 58). Transcripts and statements of proceedings are published online. However, because some Board decisions have major implications, speakers and protesters on behalf of many causes regularly attend the meetings. The county is sued frequently by various public interest law firms and organizations on behalf of people who disagree with the Board's decisions. ==Criticism and controversy==