Backers of Ethics Package Lose Fight on Ballot Letter

Supporters of the Los Angeles City Council’s ethics-and-pay-raise package failed Thursday in a behind-the-scenes attempt to gain control of the writing of the opposition argument that is to be placed on the June ballot along with the proposal.

The maneuver prompted a bitter complaint from Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a foe of the package, who said its proponents were trying to sabotage the opposition “with rank, gutter political maneuvering.”

Yaroslavsky told reporters that a council member who opposed the package ought to write the opposition argument. Instead, backers of the package had enlisted Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, who voted for it, to nominate himself to write the opposition language, Yaroslavsky said.

The maneuver was abandoned Thursday when Council President John Ferraro selected Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, an opponent of the package, to draw up the opposition statement.

According to a source involved in the matter, it was Ferraro who had asked Lindsay’s staff to write a letter requesting that Lindsay be appointed for the task.

Bob Gay, Lindsay’s chief deputy, confirmed Thursday that he had been asked by another council member to write the letter. Gay declined to say who made the request.

Lindsay, 89, has suffered a stroke, is in poor health and is not up to the task, Yaroslavsky said. Had Lindsay gotten the assignment, the outcome would have been a weak opposition argument controlled by supporters of the package.

The measure approved Wednesday would establish public financing of political campaigns, ban outside jobs and honorariums for elected officials, restrict gifts they may receive and bar them from lobbying for one year after they leave office.

The ballot statements, 300- to 500-word explanations, are “pivotal” and will be the opponents’ “only vehicle to communicate with the voters,” said Yaroslavsky, who voted against the package Wednesday along with Councilman Ernani Bernardi. Galanter did not vote.

Yaroslavsky called the tactic “unethical” and said backers of the package attempted it “out of fear that a coherent argument would be written against this Charter amendment.”

“People who are duly qualified and have opposed the measure out of conviction and not out of manipulation should have the opportunity to write that argument,” Yaroslavsky said.

“Mr. Lindsay in all likelihood would not have been capable of writing an argument in the time allotted.”

Ferraro denied any role in the matter and said all he knew was that he had received a letter signed by Lindsay requesting that he be permitted to write the opposition statement.

Yaroslavsky said: “It’s a sad situation and it’s having an impact on public policy. . . . Gil has been physically incapacitated since his stroke. He is not the same Gil he was before.”

In an interview Thursday, Lindsay said he did not want to write the opposition statement. When asked about the letter that Ferraro had received from him, Lindsay responded, “I guess I changed my mind.”

Told of Yaroslavsky’s comments about his health, Lindsay said: “How would he know what my capabilities are? I’ve been doing pretty well all these years.” Lindsay has served on the council for 27 years.