LOS ANGELES : Council OKs Streamlined Financial Disclosure Law

The City Council approved a streamlined financial disclosure law Tuesday, calling the ethics ordinance “the toughest in the nation,” despite lessened reporting requirements for many City Hall employees.

The rules maintain exhaustive disclosure requirements for elected officials, ethics commissioners and the director of the Ethics Commission. Other city employees, though, will have to report less about their personal finances--usually only dealings with companies or individuals that might do business with their city departments.

In amending the law, officials said they were trying to balance the public’s vote for a 1990 ethics reform package against city employees’ complaints that their privacy was being invaded.