Agency finds hundreds of ethics violations among politicians and administrators, issues few fines

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The state’s ethics watchdog agency last year found hundreds of California politicians and bureaucrats had violated campaign finance and conflict of interest laws – and then let most of them off with a slap on the wrist.

In its 2009 annual report, the state Fair Political Practices Commission reveals that it closed 721 cases with findings that ethics rules were violated –- more than double the year before. Only one out of every six violators was fined by the commission, a much lower number than the year before. The rest got ‘warning letters.’

Commission staff defended the flood of warning letters, saying the recipients in most cases were guilty of minor violations, such as blowing deadlines for campaign reports. Among those who received a letter, for example, was Fullerton City Councilman Shawn Nelson, a candidate for Orange County Board of Supervisors who failed to file his statement of economic interest on time but eventually did file the report.

Executive director Roman Porter noted that even a warning letter can sting, now that the commission posts all of them on its website for voters to see.

He said the commission, which has limited resources, was attempting to clear a huge backlog of cases. Issuing fines requires a costly and time-consuming prosecution process, he said, that the commission reserves for ‘more egregious violations.’’

‘We had to look at the efficiencies of staff,’’ Porter said.

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento