CHARTER PANEL CALLS FOR BIGGER COUNCIL.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

A charter reform panel Tuesday recommended expanding the Los Angeles City Council because it said the current 15 council districts are too large and do not give individual communities enough say in their government.

The subcommittee of the elected Charter Reform Commission delayed a vote on the preferred size of the City Council to allow for more public input and study, but a majority of the panelists have said in interviews that they would support a panel of 17 to 21 members.

Commissioner Bennett Kayser, the chairman of the Committee on a More Responsive Government, said the panel has heard in several public hearings that the existing council districts of about 250,000 residents each have too many people to allow for adequate representation.

``That's something we've heard brought up again and again,'' Kayser said. ``People want better representation.

Commissioner Paula Boland of Granada Hills said a 19-member City Council would reduce each district to less than 200,000 residents and allow each district to represent whole identified areas rather than divide the communities.

``That's a good number and a good board to work with,'' she said.

Commissioner Janice Hahn said she was unsure four additional council members would counteract the current problems, but she voted for the plan, saying it had public support.

``I think that's what the people want,'' she said of an expanded council.

The recommendation by the four commissioners present will now go to the full elected Charter Reform Commission, which will consider Monday whether to put the expansion of the council on the ballot next year for voter approval.

The committee also could not agree on whether there should be one or more at-large districts, although a majority of the members present Tuesday night voiced opposition to the idea.

Boland said San Fernando Valley residents would be concerned that downtown business interests would dominate an at-large election, depriving the region of representation.

``You'll find that 90 percent of the people in the San Fernando Valley will kill a charter with at-large seats,'' Boland predicted.

A commission report on the issue said the size of the council is ``one of the most crucial issues'' that the panel will face in determining how to rewrite the City Charter.

The 15-member commission was elected last year to write a new blueprint of city government to replace the current 72-year-old charter, which has been criticized as antiquated and unwieldy.