Skip to main content

Should L.A. Have Its Own Health Department? Voters Likely to Decide

Support Provided By
L.A. County is currently charged with restaurant and food truck inspections. If voters approve the measure, that duty will go to the city.
L.A. County is currently charged with restaurant and food truck inspections. If voters approve the measure, that duty will go to the city. | Photo: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

A ballot measure cleared to appear in the next election will ask Angelenos if the city should create its own public health department, a service currently contracted out to the county. The group behind it is argues that the county agency is too big and inefficient.

"Part of our reason for spearheading this ballot initiative was to open up a frank public conversation about the shortcomings of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: a calcified institution layered with too much bureaucracy that gives short shrift to city residents," said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in a statement.

County officials have opposed the measure, stating that the establishment of a new public health department would create redundant services and that the measure is based on the false premises that a viable public health department could be created through fees and grants alone.

"The financial cost to the city would exceed $50 million annually, excluding start-up costs," noted Jonathan E. Fielding, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

In a symbolic move last month, the Los Angeles City Council also voted to oppose the initiative, saying the county -- with about 10 million residents and 88 incorporated cities -- was the logical entity to handle public health.

With 69,480 voter signatures submitted, proponents of the ballot initiative got enough to qualify for an election. Just 41,138 were needed to qualify to be placed on a ballot. That means the measure will now come before the city council, which has the option of either adopting the measure outright as submitted or allowing it to proceed to a formal citywide vote in the June 2014 election.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.