Ethics Panel Chief, Mayor’s Aide to Meet : Government: Outgoing panel president fears his Riordan-appointed replacement may dilute commission’s role.

Amid concerns about the future direction of the city’s Ethics Commission, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s top adviser is expected to meet today with its outgoing president, Dennis Curtis, to discuss the mayor’s appointment of Curtis’ replacement.

Curtis requested the meeting with William Wardlaw, who, although not on the city payroll, is considered Riordan’s closest confidant. Wardlaw said he intends to submit a list of several prospective appointees to Riordan, who is expected to announce his choice in early July.

Curtis, along with several commissioners and commission staff members, is concerned that Riordan may seek to dilute the five-member commission’s activist approach on conflict-of-interest questions with the appointment.

“I think it’s a defining appointment, and I’m very hopeful that the mayor will appoint a person who’s independent and doesn’t have any connections to people who are in power in city government,” Curtis said. “The commission has to remain independent in order to do its job.”

Commissioner Edwin Guthman said: “I think this appointment is about honesty and integrity in city government. . . . It will be telling whether this Administration should be known as ‘Riordan and the people’ or ‘Riordan Inc.,’ ” an apparent reference to perceptions that the mayor, long a highly successful venture capitalist, may be dominated by business.

A source within the Riordan Administration signaled dissatisfaction with the commission’s operation. The source expressed concern that the state Fair Political Practices Commission had broken off relations with the Los Angeles body, asserting that Benjamin Bycel, the panel’s executive director since its inception in 1991, was too quick to divulge sensitive information from joint investigations to the press.

The source said the mayor also believes that conflict-of-interest strictures advanced by Bycel have “created a chilling effect on private contributions” to municipal government and have resulted in “inappropriate questioning” of some of these contributions.

Speaking Wednesday for Riordan, Assistant Deputy Mayor Steve Sugerman said:

“The mayor believes there’s an important role in city government for the ethics laws and the commission to oversee them. He supported the initial effort to create the commission.

“As would any commissioner he appoints, the new ethics commission president needs to be an intelligent person who cares about the city, believes in the democratic process, and understands the important role of ethics laws in the city.”

Wardlaw, in a separate interview this week, said that the commission “is not one of the hot buttons for Riordan” and that the mayor seldom pays much attention to it.

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With a full-time staff of 16 and an annual budget of $1.1 million, the commission has made a powerful impression on city government, uncovering wide-ranging laundering of campaign funds in local elections, fining one firm a record-breaking $895,000 for arranging secret contributions and advising a wide variety of officials, including the mayor, on how to avoid conflicts of interest.

The commission also wrote a strong law regulating lobbying activities and successfully fought for its adoption by the City Council and approval by the mayor. And it has smoothly implemented the city’s new public financing law at election times.

Contributing to the uncertain climate is that Bycel has begun to talk about seeking another job and leaving the commission at some point. “Anybody in mid-career or midlife would always be interested in a job option that seemed attractive,” Bycel said Wednesday.

Some fear that a new executive director and president could signal a decline in commission influence similar to that which some observers believe has befallen the FPPC under the last two governors, Republicans George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.

According to the law under which the five-member commission operates, the president cannot be reappointed to a second five-year term. Riordan’s appointment is subject to City Council confirmation.

It is clear that Bycel--hired by the commission--has had strong support from at least three of the five members--Curtis, Guthman and Teresa Drury. Curtis, a USC law professor, was appointed by former Mayor Tom Bradley, Guthman by City Controller Rick Tuttle and Drury by Councilman John Ferraro. Eve Fisher, another commissioner, was appointed by City Atty. James Hahn. In addition to appointing the president, the mayor gets to make one other appointment.

His only appointee thus far is Ann Petrone, who has received mixed reviews from her colleagues. One said she has advocated a less aggressive approach, “taking the position we shouldn’t be nit-picking or getting in the way of progress.” Another said it was too early to judge Petrone because no critical decisions have been made in the six months since she was seated.

Petrone said she has been in a learning mode. “I was appointed by the mayor because I’m open-minded and ready to learn and listen,” she said. She added that the commission must avoid “red tape” in dealing with city government.