Local News in Brief : Controls on Officials’ Outside Pay Urged

The political watchdog group Common Cause on Monday called on Los Angeles city officials to tighten restrictions on the kinds of outside income that public officials should be allowed to accept.

“Recent disclosures about income received by Mayor Tom Bradley have again raised the question,” wrote Common Cause Executive Director Walter Zelman in a letter sent Monday to all elected city officials.

Two weeks ago, Bradley disclosed that he was returning $18,000 he had earned as an adviser to Far East National Bank after learning that the bank had accepted millions of dollars in deposits from the city during the prior five years.

“At Common Cause we have always advocated that public officials--including elected and some nonelected officials--ought to accept no income from any source if such acceptance might produce even the appearance of conflict of interest,” Zelman said.