By Valerie Davis
Kim Davila, Sebastian Fernandez, and Navid Goodarzi—all MPP 2026—spent the past seven months analyzing governance reform in Los Angeles County for their Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE).
With deep personal ties to Los Angeles, the three students drew on their professional experience and Harvard Kennedy School training to shape their second-year Master in Public Policy (MPP) capstone project—and to help influence the future of county governance. After taking a closer look at the government of LA County—the largest county in the United States—they realized their PAE was an opportunity to be a part of something historic.
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Born in Mexico and raised in East Los Angeles, Kim Davila MPP 2026 spent last summer as a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies fellow at the Inner-City Law Center in Los Angeles. She worked closely with the United to House LA coalition on Measure ULA, a tax on properties valued over $5 million to fund housing initiatives and increase affordability. Her role immersed her in Los Angeles County politics and sparked ideas for her PAE.
Davila's classmates, Sebastian Fernandez MPP 2026 and Navid Goodarzi MPP 2026, also shared her passion for housing affordability and, together, they decided to form a PAE team.
In the summer and early fall of their second year, the group spoke with housing advocates and state and local officials across Los Angeles to identify a PAE client. After meeting with community leaders, they connected with Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College and member of the Measure G task force.
Sadhwani introduced them to the LA County Governance Reform Task Force, charged with implementing Measure G, a voter-approved charter reform creating an elected executive role in Los Angeles County—what Fernandez describes as the “second most powerful person in California.”
“While meeting with folks we had hoped could be our client, we learned about the passing of Measure G, which affects governance issues and representation of unincorporated communities,” Davila says. “I grew up in unincorporated LA, where the supervisor was the only form of my local government and no one questioned it.”
The students explained the PAE and how their research could support Measure G implementation. Sadhwani agreed to serve as their client, seeing an opportunity for the task force to better understand how other counties have implemented a newly elected role.
Working bicoastally with the task force, the team drafted their problem statement:
“Facing a significant political restructuring in 2028, how can the LA County Governance Reform Task Force recommend implementing the new County Executive to mitigate frictions around the power transition in the short term while promoting fiscal efficiency, balanced powers, and executive accountability in the long term?”
With this guiding question, they mapped out who they would interview, what information they needed from their client, and ways to support the task force. Fernandez developed interview templates for county officials; Goodarzi and Davila analyzed counties across the United States.
“Most of our work in the fall involved analyzing how decision-making and responsibilities differ across six selected counties with elected county executives, and reaching out to county staff across the United States who could speak to their county structure,” Davila says.
By January, the team had completed 17 interviews across six case-study counties: Wayne County, MI; King County, WA; Milwaukee County, WI; Miami-Dade County, FL; Cook County, IL; and Allegheny County, PA. They selected these counties because they are the six largest in the country—after LA County—with elected chief executives.
“Most of our work in the fall involved conducting analyses of how powers differed across counties and reaching out to people across the United States who could tell us more about their own county structure.”
To their surprise, they developed a deep understanding of how county governments function and were excited to bring their findings back to the task force.
“We got into the granular day-to-day of how these counties operate and were able to sort our interview findings into key themes to bring to the task force,” Goodarzi says. “For example, we learned about emergency management, budget collaboration, budget cycle, performance evaluation, and balance of power within counties. It was amazing hearing how they all differed.”
Davila, Fernandez, and Goodarzi distilled their research into a report submitted both to HKS and the Measure G task force. As they continued speaking with stakeholders in California, they recognized the importance of presenting their findings to board members in Los Angeles.
The week after their PAE seminar presentation—where MPP students share preliminary work with the MPP Program team and faculty members for feedback—the group traveled to California to meet with the task force at a public meeting. The group was able to present their findings in person through grants provided by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government.
“The timing worked out because we had some practice from HKS for what felt like the highest stakes moment at the Measure G meeting,” Goodarzi reflects.
At the meeting, they presented key findings to the task force, led an in-depth Q&A, and offered concrete recommendations with public officials. One recommendation addressed the run-up to the 2028 election, urging the task force to maintain neutrality and transparency by involving internal executive candidates equally and impartially in implementing the new position. They also recommended creating a dedicated “Department of Unincorporated Area Services” to strengthen executive accountability across LA County.
“We are issuing recommendations that could actually come to fruition in 2028,” Goodarzi says. “It will be interesting to see—even years from now—how much of the work we did was able to inform some of the most significant government reform in the largest county of the United States.”
Originally from Los Angeles, Goodarzi plans to return to his hometown after graduation and pursue work in public administration and political advocacy, particularly at the local level, where he wants to continue connecting people to the institutions meant to serve them.
Fernandez plans to pursue a career in local government and sees the project as valuable hands-on experience in California politics. His passion for the PAE grew out of his advocacy for Latino communities, housing affordability, and communities vulnerable to natural disasters—all daily pressing issues in Los Angeles.
As for Davila, she is eager to return home to Los Angeles to work at the local or county level and help make the region more equitable for all its communities.
“There are so many amazing community-based organizations and firms that do community engagement work. I think this project has really shown how much work needs to be done, and how many opportunities there are for that work,” Davila says.
Photos courtesy of Kim Davila, Sebastian Fernandez, and Navid Goodarzi
