County Passes Toughened Ethics Law : Government: Fines are imposed for lobbyists who do not report activities, and rules are widened to include special interest groups.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a landmark ethics law--a comprehensive lobbyist-registration ordinance that will require special interest groups and others to disclose how they attempt to influence Los Angeles County government officials.

Proposed by Supervisor Gloria Molina and passed on a 3-2 vote, the ordinance will require lobbyists and the firms that hire them to submit quarterly reports on all money spent on lobbying activities, including campaign contributions.

Companies and special interest groups that spend more than $5,000 on public relations campaigns to influence county officials will have to report their expenses, even if they do not hire a lobbyist. The law also will prohibit lobbyists from giving presents with a value of more than $50 to public officials.

“They’ve gone from one of the weakest laws to the strongest local law in the state,” said Bob Stern of the California Commission on Campaign Financing, a nonprofit group. “It means we’re going to get complete disclosure of lobbying activities.”

Molina proposed the law in response to a report in The Times this month that showed many lobbyists were ignoring key provisions of the existing registration ordinance.

Approved by the board last July, the lobbyist-registration ordinance contained no fines, no enforcement provisions, and applied only to lobbyists and lobbying firms. Special interest groups and companies that hired lobbyists did not have to register.

The Times found that only 13 lobbyists or lobbying firms had disclosed any earnings by the Feb. 22 reporting deadline. In all, the lobbyists reported quarterly earnings of $190,969. By contrast, about 300 lobbyists reported $1.6 million in quarterly earnings to the city of Los Angeles.

Some lobbyists complied with the county law only after being contacted by a reporter. Others said they did not comply because the law was not enforced and the penalty was innocuous--violators were prevented from speaking at public meetings until they registered.

Officials collected the lobbyists’ documents, but they had no way of knowing if they had fully and accurately complied with reporting requirements.

Government watchdog groups called the former ordinance “a weak law, weakly enforced.”

“The Los Angeles County law is being ignored by the people it was designed to regulate,” Cecilia Gallardo, field director of California Common Cause, told the board before the vote Tuesday. “It is powerless and ineffective.”

The new ordinance includes a $2,000 fine for each violation. Lobbyists who register late will be fined $10 a day. Firms that fail to comply with the law could have county contracts denied or canceled.

Molina called the law an important first step in ethics reform. “The county is going to have to jump into the 20th Century,” she said. “It is critical that we as elected officials know who the lobbyists are and who is paying for their services.”

Predictably, lobbyists were not pleased to hear they would have to comply with a much stricter registration ordinance.

“It’s a pain,” said Steve Afriat, one of a handful of highly paid lobbyists who complied with the reporting provisions of the 1992 ordinance. “I have to pay someone to fill out a whole bunch of forms.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Afriat continued. “But if that’s what the elected officials think the public wants, we have an obligation to obey the law.”

Still, Afriat said the ordinance will create an “unfair burden” for small firms with business before the county. “That kind of ordinance might turn innocent people into lawbreakers,” he said.

Supervisors Deane Dana and Mike Antonovich opposed the ordinance. Dana argued that enforcing the new law would create another layer of costly bureaucracy, something the county cannot afford in the current fiscal climate.

“I do not think it is necessary in L.A. County,” Dana said. “Whether it’s one, two, three or 20 people (enforcing the law), it’s too many given the current crisis.”

It was not clear if any employees would be hired to enforce the law.

Antonovich, author of the 1992 lobbying ordinance, proposed strengthening the law but balked at Molina’s sweeping reforms. He proposed prohibiting lobbyists from contacting county officials until the lobbyists had registered.

In other business Tuesday, supervisors ordered a feasibility study for a plan to televise the board’s weekly meetings. The board is considering allocating $600,000 of cable TV franchise fees for the project.

Supervisors also heard reports on the county budget from department heads. All county agencies are facing drastic service reductions as the board copes with a projected $1.16-billion budget deficit.

Sheriff Sherman Block said he may have to lay off hundreds of employees and close nine stations. Welfare officials said they may have to eliminate more than 1,300 jobs, a move that could throw welfare offices into chaos.