Lindsey Horvath has our endorsement in the June primary for a second term on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the Third District, which goes from the Ventura County line to Santa Monica and Hollywood and into much of the San Fernando Valley.
While we differ with the progressive Democrat on some county issues, and view with a gimlet eye her many endorsements from public employee and other labor unions, there simply isn’t any question that she serves her district and the entire county with high energy, verve and a deep knowledge of how government works from her time as a West Hollywood City Council member and mayor. The fact that at Notre Dame University she was vice president of the College Republicans, and that she has worked not only in government but as an advertising executive, shows she has been open to a breadth of views and experiences.
After her election to the supervisors in 2022, she told our editorial board, she “made history as the youngest-ever chair of the board. As the first millennial and currently the only renter serving on L.A. County’s all-women Board of Supervisors, I am bringing a much-needed perspective to solve the region’s most pressing challenges.”
“After taking this seat,” she continued, “I led the county’s response to homelessness by authoring the emergency declaration on my first day in office. Under this leadership, L.A. County saw the first decrease in homelessness in nearly a decade. As we continue to champion structural reform, I recently passed a motion to centralize the county’s entire homeless services system and create the county’s first ever catch-all homelessness department, the Department of Homelessness Services and Housing.”
In 2024, Horvath helped author and bring to the ballot Measure G, the voter-approved county governance reform initiative that will expand the Board of Supervisors from five seats to nine by 2030 and create an independent ethics commission. We supported in concept the expansion of the board, very simply because the citizens of the largest county in the nation need more local representation, and two million people are too many for any one elected to adequately represent.
We worry, however, about its establishment of an elected county executive (a countywide mayor, as it were) to replace the current appointed CEO who acts as a nonpolitical city manager-type. Horvath and others point out the sprawling county manages to elect a district attorney and a sheriff to oversee key departments. The proof of the bureaucratic pudding will be in the eating.
In addition to overhauling the county’s efforts on homelessness, Horvath cites two other points as among her top objectives if re-elected: “Leading a fire recovery effort — the largest disaster response in L.A. County history — that supports residents and workers, protects impacted communities and helps small businesses rebuild stronger and more resilient,” and, “Delivering accountable, transparent and responsive county government that advances rights, protects public safety and improves the lives of our most vulnerable and marginalized residents.”
Horvath knows what a bureaucratic quagmire she’s up against, and while we expect to differ with her on many specific policy fronts, we encourage her to continue her work to streamline ineffective processes and push for accountability in government.
With a county budget precarious at its bottom line, the more so because of bad vetting of abuse claims that cost billions, we ask that Horvath keep this campaign promise: “I am focused on outcomes. Every dollar must be connected to outcomes that improve our communities.”