Yaroslavsky, Braude Will Pay Fine to Ethics Panel

City Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Marvin Braude have agreed to pay a $3,000 fine to the state Fair Political Practices Commission for violating campaign spending laws during their successful 1988 battle against coastal oil drilling, Yaroslavsky said Tuesday.

The FPPC will decide next week whether to accept the negotiated settlement.

“It’s a fair settlement,” Yaroslavsky said. The fine will be paid by Citizens for a Livable Los Angeles, a committee Yaroslavsky and Braude set up in 1988.

Citizens for a Livable Los Angeles successfully sponsored a ballot initiative that blocked Occidental Petroleum Corp. from drilling oil wells along Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades.

Yaroslavsky said an inexperienced campaign treasurer failed to list in public reports all of the television stations the campaign paid to run its political commercials. State law requires itemization of campaign expenditures.

“I think we satisfied the FPPC this was just the lack of knowledge by our treasurer,” Yaroslavsky said. He said campaign reports were amended to list all of the television stations.

The FPPC also will formally act next Wednesday on another settlement, involving City Councilman Mike Woo, leader of city efforts to enact an ethics reform package. Woo said last week that he has agreed to a $2,000 fine for illegally voting to award a contract to a political contributor.

Woo said he unintentionally violated the law.

He had voted to give business to consulting firms and other major contributors, in apparent violation of state regulations. The FPPC still has under consideration similar actions by Mayor Tom Bradley, who returned nearly $17,000 in political contributions in 1988 after The Times questioned the legality of the donations.

Bradley and Woo had personally participated in decisions to award Los Angeles County Transportation Commission business to some of their large contributors.