Villaraigosa Appoints USC Law Professor to City’s Ethics Commission

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Robert M. Saltzman, an associate dean at USC Law School, to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Monday, tapping a respected educator who teaches courses on ethics and also has practical political experience.

Saltzman is to replace Ethics Commissioner Dale Bonner, who was appointed by former Mayor James K. Hahn.

The nominee is an adjunct professor of law at USC, where he specializes in legislation and the political process, legal and professional ethics, and laws that govern higher education.

He also teaches a legal profession class that uses movies to illustrate legal issues. He shows clips from “Legally Blonde” to teach about protecting a client’s confidential information and “My Cousin Vinny” in a class about avoiding conflicts of interest, according to his university website.

During the 1980s, Saltzman served as special counsel to the director of health services of Los Angeles County and as senior deputy to then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman.

In 1987, he took a job as director of AIDS programs for Los Angeles County.

As a result, Saltzman would bring both academic and government experience to the unpaid position.

“It’s helpful to have experience in both because policy issues naturally arise involving ethics, but also it’s important that ethics rules be practical, not so complicated they can’t be followed,” he said.

Saltzman said he favors the direction that the Ethics Commission has moved in during the last year, of not imposing fines on campaigns that make bookkeeping mistakes that involve small amounts of money.

“We ought to be able to distinguish between serious violations, where you want a fine, and inadvertent accounting errors,” he said.

The nominee, whose appointment must be ratified by the City Council, said he supported full public financing of campaigns but had not made up his mind about whether it would work in Los Angeles.

“The cost issue is significant,” he said, but added, “It’s well worth thinking about because the current system has issues.”

Half a dozen ethics-reform advocates contacted Monday said they knew nothing about Saltzman, so they could not comment on his appointment.

Villaraigosa also announced the appointment of labor leader Sean Harrigan, past president of the California Public Employee Retirement System, to the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Commission.

“Their experience and judgment will undoubtedly serve our city well as we work to restore public trust and ensure greater fiscal accountability,” Villaraigosa said in a statement about the two nominees.