Feuer Targets Mayor’s Influence on Ethics Panel : City Hall: In wake of Bycel’s dismissal, the councilman proposes to reduce Riordan’s power to fill seats on commission.

Calling for a more independent ethics panel, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer Wednesday proposed stripping the mayor of the power to appoint two of the five members on the city’s Ethics Commission, including the president.

The proposal comes days after the commission, headed by Raquelle de la Rocha, a new appointee of Mayor Richard Riordan, fired longtime director Benjamin Bycel, the hard-nosed founder of the city’s anti-corruption unit.

Feuer, a rookie councilman who had worked closely with Bycel on ethics reform, said the proposal was not an act of retribution against Riordan or De la Rocha but an attempt to reduce the influence that “any one elected official has over the commission.”

However, Feuer clearly proposed the change in reaction to Bycel’s dismissal.

“The recent firing by the commission of its executive director, Ben Bycel, despite his strong record in aggressively enforcing our ethics laws, exposed a serious loophole that must be addressed,” Feuer said in a prepared statement.

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Through a spokeswoman, Riordan said he opposes Feuer’s proposal, saying that he believes the Ethics Commission is independent and rejecting the suggestion that he has too much influence over it.

“I think the board is independent now and we don’t need this measure,” Riordan said.

Riordan spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez also rejected the speculation among many City Hall insiders that the mayor influenced the commission on the decision to fire Bycel.

“The commission acted independently,” Rodriguez said.

Feuer’s motion was endorsed by City Council President John Ferraro. It is scheduled to be discussed Nov. 8 at a meeting of the council’s Rules and Elections Committee.

Because the commission was created by a charter amendment adopted by voters in 1990, any change in the way panel members are appointed requires another public vote. The next citywide vote is planned for March.

Currently, Riordan appoints the president and one member. The three remaining positions are appointed by the president of the City Council, the city attorney and the city controller. The council confirms all five members.

Feuer’s proposal would allow the mayor to appoint only one member. Under the proposal, the second member normally reserved for the mayor would be chosen by the council’s president pro tempore or the head of an independent organization such as the League of Women Voters or the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. The president would be elected by a vote of the full commission.

In a second motion, Feuer proposed that the commission provide an annual performance review of its director and establish a termination process that offers the director an opportunity to reply to the reason given for his or her termination.

In an interview Wednesday, Bycel said he had heard of Feuer’s proposals but he declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate.

Since taking the job in 1991, Bycel has locked horns with the mayor’s office, the city attorney and several former and current council members. But it was the friction between Bycel and the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s ethics watchdog, that appears to have led to his downfall.

De la Rocha, a former member of the FPPC, declined to discuss what led to Bycel’s sacking, citing privacy laws. However, in past interviews she has voiced concerns that problems were “festering” between Bycel and other agencies, including the FPPC.

Over a year ago, FPPC leaders accused Bycel of prematurely leaking information to reporters about a three-year city and state probe into political fund-raising in Southern California--a charge Bycel denied.

De la Rocha said Wednesday that she opposes Feuer’s proposal to eliminate the mayor’s power to appoint the commission’s president, saying it would reduce the president’s ability to see through major policy changes.

Currently, the commission president is appointed to a five-year term. But under Feuer’s proposal, the commission would elect its president each year, which De la Rocha said is not enough time to see through a policy plan.

She also rejected suggestions that Riordan played a role in the decision to fire Bycel. “It’s a mistake to use my appointment as an example of an abuse of power,” De la Rocha said.

Commissioner Edwin Guthman, one of two Bycel supporters on the board, declined to say whether he supports Feuer’s proposed changes but said he urged the City Council to investigate the circumstances that led to Bycel’s firing.

“Because the dismissal of Ben Bycel was obviously contrived and one of the coldest and most ruthless things I’ve ever seen in my public life, I hope the council will examine closely what happened,” Guthman said.