LAGUNA NIGUEL : Panel Proposes Gift Limits for Officials

A special committee is proposing that strict limits be placed on the gifts city officials are allowed to receive.

In a report to the City Council on Monday, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Receipt and Reporting of Gifts recommended that city officials be prohibited from taking gifts valued at more than $50 from people doing business with the city.

City officials would also be required to report within 10 working days any gifts of $25 or more, the committee recommended.

The proposed rules would pertain to City Council members, most city employees and members of the Planning Commission and other permanent commissions, committees and boards.

“The concern is that if city officials are receiving gifts from people doing business with the city, the city officials will either be biased in favor of those people, or there is the appearance that such bias may exist,” City Atty. Terry Dixon said in a report to the council.

Council members on Monday said they needed more time to review the recommendations and postponed consideration to their meeting Tuesday.

All of the committee’s recommendations would tighten reporting requirements currently mandated by the Political Reform Act and the city’s conflict of interest code.

The current rules set no limits on the size of gifts that city officials can receive, except for elected officials, who cannot take more than $1,000 from a single source in the same calendar year.

Currently, officials are prohibited from participating in matters in which a person who has given them $250 or more in gifts has a financial interest. The current rules give officials until the end of a year to report all gifts of $50 or more.

Under the committee’s proposed gifts policy, any city official violating the restrictions would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Anyone violating the reporting requirements would be guilty of minor infractions in the first two offenses, and a misdemeanor for all other subsequent offenses.

City employees who violate the provisions would also be subject to discipline and possible firing, and elected and appointed officials would be subject to removal from office.

The committee’s review of economic-interest statements filed by city officials “found no indication that there was a pattern of gifts being made to city officials by people doing business with the city,” Dixon said.

Even with the findings, the committee determined that stringent measures would be in the city’s best interest to “demonstrate the city’s commitment that city officers and employees will not be influenced,” he said.