Vote No on County Measure A

Our position: NO

Measure A takes the biggest cost in the county budget, public safety pay, away from the officials you elect and hands it to a panel of arbitrators nobody elects. Once an arbitrator decides, the Board of Supervisors cannot say no, and neither can the voters.

We support strong law enforcement, 100 percent. Our deputies and firefighters deserve fair pay. What we do not support is ballooning costs and more red tape, and Measure A brings both, permanently.

What Measure A does

• It amends the Los Angeles County Charter so that contract disputes with 14 public safety bargaining units, about 17,000 county workers, go to a three-member arbitration panel.
• Each side submits a last offer on each issue, and the panel must pick one side’s offer. There is no middle ground.
• The decision is final. The text says no other action by the Board of Supervisors or by the electorate “to confirm or approve the decision” is permitted.
• It removes the mediation and fact-finding step that applies today.
• It has no end date and no override for a budget emergency. If it is challenged in court, the county must defend it or pay the supporters’ attorneys.

The county’s own warning was ignored

In February 2026 the county’s chief executive warned the Board that arbitration awards could “balloon our unfunded pension liabilities” and “damage the County’s credit ratings.” He asked for safeguards: an end date, an override in a fiscal emergency, court review of awards, and a later start. None of them made it into the measure. The ballot title was also rewritten from “Requiring Binding Arbitration” to the softer “Reiterating Good Faith Negotiation Obligations and Establishing Impartial Binding Arbitration.”

Overtime is already out of control

The county’s own figures show where the money is going:

Sheriff’s Department overtime	Spent
2022–23	$397.4 million
2023–24	$458.3 million
2024–25	$548.0 million
2025–26 (budget: $250.2 million)	$553.2 million

Last year the department spent $303 million more on overtime than it budgeted. Measure A would let an arbitrator, not your elected representatives, write the pay and work rules behind those numbers.

Other cities learned the hard way

• Vallejo went bankrupt in 2008 and repealed binding arbitration in 2010.
• Stockton went bankrupt in 2012.
• Palo Alto repealed it in 2011.
• San Luis Obispo voters repealed it with 73 percent in 2011, and a state labor board put it back in 2014. Once it is in, it is very hard to get out.

Who is paying for the Yes campaign

The unions that would gain from arbitration have put millions of dollars into the Yes campaign. No argument against Measure A was filed for the ballot, so voters will not read the other side in their official pamphlet. That is why we are writing this.

Bottom line

Spending decisions belong to people the voters can remove from office. Measure A gives the county’s largest cost to a panel the voters cannot touch, with none of the protections the county itself asked for. Vote No on Measure A.