Let the Voters Decide

The Los Angeles City Council should not take it upon itself to decide who should succeed 1st District Councilman Howard Finn, who died last week.

That is a choice that should be left to the voters of the northeast San Fernando Valley. They elected the patient, hard-working planning specialist in 1981, and reelected him last year on the strength of the way he responded to their needs. The City Council should call a special election as soon as possible so that the voters themselves can say who they want to fill the remaining three years of his term.

That will not be easy for them. Among his legacies is landmark legislation requiring businesses to identify hazardous materials stored in thousands of buildings--critically important to the public and especially to firefighters confronted with toxic smoke of unknown origin. Another is a law making it difficult to open new liquor stores--a welcome change for residents of the Pacoima section of his district.

The city Charter requires a 90-day notice before a special elections, so the council should waste no time in calling an election that could not be held before late November, even if it were scheduled today.

Special elections can be expensive, and there is always a question about how many voters will turn out in an election held out of season. But they have been called in all six of the recent cases in which vacancies have occurred on the council.

As to expense, you can’t put a price tag on democracy. As to a successor to Finn, who served his district well, the voters are entitled to express their own views on who will take his place.