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Every local official in California wears two hats, and the most important skill in the job is knowing which one you have on.

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On some items you are a legislator: you make policy for everyone.

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On others you are something closer to a judge: you apply rules that already exist to one applicant's request.

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The law treats those two roles very differently, and most of the trouble good officials get into comes from mixing them up.

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Legislative work is the general plan, a zoning ordinance, a budget, a fee schedule, a new policy.

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Here you are free to have opinions, to campaign on them, to meet with anyone, and to vote your values.

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Courts give legislative decisions wide deference.

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They ask only whether the decision was arbitrary or entirely lacking in support.

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Quasi-judicial work is a use permit, a variance, a design review, an appeal, a permit revocation.

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Here a specific party has rights.

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You owe them a fair hearing before a reasonably impartial decision-maker, a decision based on the evidence in the record, and written findings that connect the evidence to the result.

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Talk about the project privately, prejudge it publicly, or decide it on facts the parties never saw, and a court can throw the decision out.

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The four seats this series covers lean different ways.

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A planning commissioner spends most of the time in the judge's chair, deciding permits and recommending plans.

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A city council member or mayor is mostly a legislator, but becomes a judge again on every appeal.

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A school board trustee is mostly a legislator too, setting budgets and policy, but acts as a judge in student expulsions.

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And an advocate holds no seat at all, but shapes what everyone else decides.

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In Torrance, those seats look like this.

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The City Council has seven members: six elected by district and a mayor elected citywide, each serving four-year terms with a two-term limit.

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The Planning Commission has seven members appointed by the council.

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The Torrance Unified School District board has five trustees, each elected from a trustee area.

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Above all of them sit Los Angeles County, a set of regional agencies, and the state.

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Before every agenda item, ask three questions.

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First, which hat am I wearing: legislative or quasi-judicial?

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Second, who actually holds the final decision: this body, a higher body on appeal, or the state?

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Third, what does the record need to contain for this decision to survive a challenge?

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Those three questions will carry you through most of what follows.

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State law in this area changes every legislative session, so treat everything in this series as a starting point, and confirm current rules with your city attorney or district counsel before relying on them.

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For more, see the opening section of the Local Official's Handbook.