Council to Consider New Lobbying Rules for Ex-City Officials

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday agreed to consider strict conflict-of-interest laws that would prohibit former government officials from lobbying their old agencies for two years after they leave City Hall.

The council assigned its Rules Committee to study legislation that would significantly toughen current statutes so that city officials could no longer return immediately after resigning their positions to lobby former colleagues. The council action was prompted by a series of articles in The Times about how former aides to Mayor Tom Bradley, led by former Deputy Mayor Tom Houston, made numerous appearances before Bradley to represent clients.

The chairman of the Rules Committee, Councilman Marvin Braude, said he will give lobbying reforms the highest priority.

“I just feel it is very, very important,” Braude said. “It is a problem for our whole country, not just for Los Angeles and not just for California. . . . I was very uncomfortable when I saw (Councilman-turned-lobbyist) Art Snyder walking the halls of the City Council right after he resigned from office. I didn’t like that at all.”

The council also voted 11-0 Wednesday to direct the city controller’s office to investigate whether Houston devoted nearly all of his working hours during his last six months at City Hall to search for a job in private industry. Houston resigned in June of last year to join the Los Angeles law firm of Lewis, D’Amato, Brisbois & Bisgaard.

Houston told The Times that he was not involved in a proposal by Applied Recovery Technologies Inc. to ship the city’s sewage sludge to Guatemala while he worked in the mayor’s office because he spent virtually all of his time job hunting between January and June of last year. Houston later was hired by Applied Recovery Technologies and twice appeared on behalf of the firm in Bradley’s office.

In a letter to Council President John Ferraro, Houston wrote last week that he did not devote numerous hours to looking for work. “I do not remember making any such statement, nor would it be at all correct,” Houston wrote. He said he put in evening and weekend hours last year to make up for time spent away from the mayor’s office while he conducted a total of eight or 10 interviews.

Administrative Deputy Controller Barbara Friedman said that a team of financial auditors will be assigned to “scope out” whether Houston collected half his $85,301 salary last year while reportedly engaging in mostly personal business.

Last week, Ferraro called for lobbying reforms and the Houston investigation after The Times disclosed that Bradley had met with several former aides and advisers who earn substantial fees in private industry as lawyers, lobbyists and private consultants. Ferraro said on Wednesday that he was upset about comments in the Times articles indicating that former aides were capitalizing on their City Hall connections.

“That’s a blatant abuse of friendship and power,” Ferraro said. “I don’t like the perception it gave (of) everybody in public office.”

None of the appearances before the mayor by former aides violated any laws because Los Angeles does not have a statute as stringent as the federal Ethics in Government Act, which prohibits ex-government officials from lobbying their former colleagues on any issue for a period of one year.

The city law currently bars lobbying by ex-officials for one year, but only on matters in which they “exercised any responsibility” as a government aide.

Braude said he is “open-minded” about Ferraro’s proposal to apply the federal ban to former Los Angeles city officials and extend the limit to two years.