Research Guides: Public Policy: County and City

How a Bill Becomes a Law, City Style

These two guides describe the legislative process for Los Angeles City.

Municipal Codes

The following resources provide access to municipal codes from the 50 States. Access to municipal codes is always free.

California Local Codes and Charters
From the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Library.
Municode.com
Municipal Codes Web Library from Lexis Nexis
Freely available for selected municipalities in California, Iowa, Virginia, and Washington.

Los Angeles City Council

The LA City Clerk is responsible for collecting and archiving the city council minutes, motions, ordinances, etc. The following resources will assist you with your research on city legislation.

Short training video by Ron Galpern and Shannon Hoppes that teaches you how to use the Council File Management System and how to write Community Impact Statements

Council File Management System and Community Impact Statement Training from Empower LA on Vimeo.

City Council Rules
Procedural Rules for the council's business.
LA City Clerk Connect Council File Management System
Search the city council files back to 1979. Full text of reports, if they have been digitized, are included with the files. The City Archives (Office of the City Clerk Records Management Center) stores the handwritten and typed Council Files dating from 1850 to 1979 and can be accessed through a written request to the City Clerk.
LA City Clerk Connect Contract Search
On-line access to all contracts that are submitted to the City Clerk's office including contract summary information, action history as well as scanned contracts.
City Council and Committee Meeting Calendar
Online calendar for council and committee meetings, back to 2007 only. You can subscribe to council and committee meeting agendas.
Ordinance Search
The Ordinance Search is an index to all City of Los Angeles Ordinances adopted since 1979. If you cannot find an ordinance, try searching the Los Angeles Municipal Code.
Los Angeles City Charter, Rules, and Codes

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

Meetings of the Board
Access to agendas, meeting transcripts, county board rules, codes, etc.
Search for Records of the Board
Access to online records begins in 1985. All records enacted by the Board prior to 1985 require archival assistance for their retrieval. For record request prior to 1985 call (213) 974-1424. There is no charge for records provided in electronic format. The County's Auditor-Controller has set a rate of $.75 per search request, $.03 per page, and $1 per certification including mailing as a reasonable County fee for providing these services.
How to Search for Records of the Board
County Codes