Villaraigosa Taken Down A Peg

LA Times:

A state appeals court today soundly renounced a law designed to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District. The ruling is the second -- and perhaps final -- blow to what was once the centerpiece of Villaraigosa's education-reform plan.

Today's unanimous decision, by a three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, found the law, Assembly Bill 1381, unconstitutional -- and it was not a close call, in the view of the justices. In its one-paragraph conclusion, the justices gave particular importance to the revised Los Angeles City Charter that was approved during the term of then-Mayor Richard Riordan. That charter revision reaffirmed the election of school-board members with authority to govern the school district, in the view of the court.

There's almost no way that the State Supreme Court would choose to take a case when the appeals court voiced this strong a takedown. The next step for Antonio is to have his candidates win the two outstanding school board runoffs next month. After that, if he can't hammer out a deal there, he may have to go to the ballot if he wants to get this done. This is really a crushing defeat for the mayor, who staked a lot of political capital on this issue.

The decision below...

"The citizens of Los Angeles have the constitutional right to decide whether their school board is to be appointed or elected," the justices wrote. "If the citizens of Los Angeles choose to amend their charter to allow the mayor to appoint the members of the board, such amendment would indisputably be proper. What is not permissible is for the Legislature to ignore that constitutional right and to bypass the will of the citizens of Los Angeles and effectively transfer many of powers of the board to the mayor, based on its belief, hope, or assumption that he could do a better job."