LA City Council should drop the one-day work week

Work is for the little people who pay taxes — not for the members of the Los Angeles City Council.

The “city slackers” have voted 12-0 to place a measure on the November ballot that would alter LA’s charter to allow for fewer council meetings — as few as one meeting per week.

You’ve got to hand it to them: A one-day work week is certainly an innovation. Especially for elected officials earning a quarter of a million dollars per year.

Some countries, like Iceland, are experimenting with the four-day work week, shaving a day off the traditional five-day week. But next to the LA City Council, they are all amateurs in the slacking department.

One could even make the grander claim that the LA City Council has successfully inverted the Bible: In Genesis, it says that God worked for six days and rested on the seventh. The LA City Council wants to rest for six days and work on the seventh, instead.

Of course, the difference is that God actually created something.

With all of the problems facing the city — crumbling streets, homeless encampments, fire rebuilding and more — plus the urgent task of planning for the 2028 Olympics, one would think the members of the LA City Council could carve out a little more time than one day a week.

Oh, sure — they tell us that they are doing more work outside of meetings than inside.

Meeting with constituents, going to neighborhood block parties, things like that. 

Let’s ask them to fill out timesheets, then.

Working hard — or hardly working?

Perhaps the “constituent services” excuse might fly for a few members of the council. 

But one look at MacArthur Park on an ordinary weekday is all the evidence you need that the local councilmember is not exactly on top of things. 

Eunisses Hernandez is behind this policy. So is Katy Yaroslavsky, who apparently complained that she was already working too hard, even at home.

Well, no one forced you to run for city council — and there are plenty of people who would want to compete for that job.

Does it matter that some other cities have also reduced their council meetings? Only if you believe that fewer meetings mean less mischief.

Voters are already getting shockingly poor service from the city — just ask victims of the Palisades Fire.

Like non-citizen voting, the city council should withdraw this proposal.

And show up for work.

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