Ethics Bills
The eight-bill ethics package jointly proposed by the Fair Political Practices Commission and Ted Lempert, the young Democratic assemblyman from San Mateo (Part I, Feb. 23), is a welcome reform plan that Southern Californians should endorse. The FPPC figures on gifts and honorariums collected by the Legislature are overwhelming--$3.2 million worth of gifts and honorariums for 120 legislators in just three years--and only underscore the importance of the ethics bills Lempert and the FPPC are trying to enact.
It is not surprising that the California Legislature, awash in all this special-interest money, has such a hard time addressing the state’s pressing concerns. What is amazing is that we’ve had to wait this long for someone like Lempert to raise the banner of reform. Is the answer young blood?
NANCY L. PERLOFF
Los Angeles
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