The devastating Los Angeles fires have led to calls for resignations and recalls, most prominently against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. There has been significant criticism of alleged budget cuts against the Fire Department, as well as Bass' travel and some more clearly cultural war-focused attacks on the departmental leadership (which may itself backfire, as there does not appear to be complaints about the department).
Los Angeles is a charter city and has its own recall laws that were not changed by the 2022 state revision. To get a recall on the ballot in Los Angeles, voters would have to collect the signatures of 15% of registered voters, which at the moment is 324,681 (this will definitely change) in 120 days. Petitioners can hand in the signatures and then, if found insufficient, hand in another batch in a 10 day period. It may be that the second batch has to be handed in within this 120 day time frame, which is somewhat odd and I'm wondering if something is off with either my reading or the writing of the code here.
A big factor here -- the clerk cannot use random sampling (67)-- each signature must be individually checked. The random sampling choice can save money and time, but it also can be used to delay matters, as happened in the Alameda County District Attorney recall.
The law provides for a one-day, two-step recall, like the Governor, where the replacement race will appear on the same ballot as the recall vote and the targeted official cannot run to replace themselves.
If it were successful, the 324K may be the most signatures handed in for any race outside of the Governors/Lieutenant Governor races in California in 2003 and 2021 and Wisconsin in 2012.
Los Angeles had one of the big recall attempts in 2022 against the District Attorney, but let's first look at the city's history and especially the four noteworthy mayoral recalls.
Los Angeles can be considered the capital city of recalls. It has long been viewed as the first place to adopt a recall law in the U.S. (but maybe not?!?) in 1903, and led to the recall's rapid promotion by the progressive movement. The first recall in US history (perhaps any history?) was against Los Angeles Councilmember James Davenport in 1904.
Los Angeles Mayors' themselves have a deep history with the recall -- though history is the operative word. Two Mayors have been kicked out with the recall (though one of them resigned) and another survived a recall. A fourth had an enormous number of signatures handed in, but too many were tossed out to get on the ballot.
Mayor Arthur (A.C.) Harper in 1909 was (as far as I know) the first big city mayor to face a real recall. This was over significant corruption allegations and was backed by the Municipal League. Harper resigned two weeks before the recall vote -- not an uncommon occurrence -- and really suggests that he would have easily lost the vote.
Mayor John Clinton Porter faced a recall vote on May 3rd, 1932 that he easily triumphed in, 144,750-196,517. Note that Porter would also have won the replacement race, where he was allowed to run under the rules at the time. The recall seemed to be over approval of a power plant and other claims of mismanagement and corruption, though there were some claims that it was because he was a "dry" pro-prohibition candidate (California's Senator -- and almost Democratic nominee in 1924 -- William McAdoo was one of the leaders of the Dry forces, so California has an interesting history with prohibition). One of the contemporary articles notes that Porter behaved with "singular stupidity" so that's fun.
On September 16, 1938, Mayor Frank Shaw was ousted in a recall vote, 232,686-122,196 (this seems to have been a snap election recall, not a yes/no + replacement). Shaw was accused of significant corruption and in some ways he could be seen as the model of the L.A. Confidential time (though that book/movie are set in the 50s). Shaw was blown out -- losing 65-35%. Note that a number of sources claim that Shaw is the first mayor (or the first mayor of a major city) to be ousted in a recall. This is incorrect -- even ignoring Harper. Seattle's Hiram Gill was kicked out in a 1911 recall and Riverside had Mayor Edward Dighton removed in 1929 (with Libel as the big issue)..
Shaw's successor, Fletcher Bowron in 1950, also faced a real recall threat (seemingly over complaints about police corruption, which took place after the indictment of the former Police chief), with 78,928 valid signatures (out of a total of 129,662 collected) handed in against him. However, they needed 89,497, so they came up short -- there's a lawsuit over whether the signatures should have been thrown out. Bowron lost his next election.
There have been plenty of recalls threatened in recent years, including against Bass' predecessor Eric Garcetti, though to my knowledge, none have been serious enough to hand in signatures.
City Council and other officials:
In terms of other officials, there have been many attempts, but from what I can tell, the last time there was an actual vote was 1984, against Councilman Arthur Snyder. He survived, but resigned the next year in a custody battle.
In 2022, a recall attempt against Los Angeles Councilmember Mike Bonin failed, with more than 13,000 signatures tossed out. Petitioners handed in 39,188 signatures and needed 27,317. They got 25,965.
This recall attempt was supposedly over the homeless issues, though petitioners were previously talking about his support for the shutdowns to prevent further damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Two other councilmembers faced recall attempts, though both failed to get the signatures.
Apparently, the last Los Angeles Councilmember to be removed was Meade McClanahan in 1946.
The last school board member to be removed was Howard Miller in 1979 over busing issues.
Currently, Los Angeles City Council member Katy Young Yaroslavsky is facing recall threats, though I don't know if any petitions have been taken out.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon recall effort in 2022 saw an enormous number of signatures handed in (the County is 2 1/2 times the size of LA the city). However, the recall failed, with 195,783 of the 715,833 signatures handed in being deemed invalid (27.3%). They handed in 520,050 valids and needed 566,857. Note that parts of LA County are much more conservative than the City and that the signature requirement percentage is much less (10% rather than 15%).
One other factor to note is that Bass did not win her election in 2022 by an overwhelming margin (43-36 in the first round, 55-45 in the run-off), but she appeared to have a better performance in her original election than the recent high-profile recall ousters, such as the Oakland Mayor, and Alameda and San Francisco District Attorneys. It's not clear whether that fact matters, but worth considering.
