New Head of Ethics Panel Named

Nearly six months after the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission ousted its founding director, commissioners on Thursday tapped the watchdog agency’s longtime second-in-command as its new chief, choosing a path of continuity rather than change.

In selecting Rebecca Avila as executive director, commission President Raquelle de la Rocha said, the agency found a leader with “practical wisdom, solid judgment and a commitment to maintaining integrity in the city’s political process.” Choosing the insider from among 100 candidates nationwide also promised to quell criticism that de la Rocha was trying to curtail the commission’s aggressive enforcement tactics by firing Benjamin Bycel.

“It was clear from my discussions with the commissioners that they’re committed to the tradition of strong enforcement that we’ve established over the past five years,” Avila said in an interview. “They’re eager to keep the promise of honest government.”

Bycel, whose abrupt dismissal in October sparked outrage at City Hall, praised the commission’s choice wholeheartedly.

“Rebecca Avila is a terrific public servant,” said the former law professor, who spent five years running one of the nation’s toughest anti-corruption agencies. “She has the knowledge, courage and conviction to be independent and to do what’s right. She was instrumental in making the Ethics Commission what it is today.”

Commissioner Ed Guthman, who opposed Bycel’s firing and has often tangled with de la Rocha, said Avila’s unanimous appointment symbolizes a new era of unity at the agency.

“Just because you disagree over one thing doesn’t mean you disagree on everything. You have differences, you resolve them, go on and do the job you’re assigned to do and do it the best you can,” said Guthman, one of the agency’s original commissioners. “I don’t think we ever got off track. There was a period of uncertainty when we didn’t know who the executive director was going to be. Now that’s been settled.”

Born in Whittier, the 34-year-old Avila received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Santa Barbara. She lives in Echo Park.

Avila said she “got bit by the [ethics] bug” while a student intern at Common Cause, where she worked from 1983 to 1990, first as a press aide and then as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. She was the third person Bycel hired after Los Angeles voters launched the Ethics Commission in 1990.

“She’s been in the political reform movement for a very long time, and she spends a lot of time thinking about these issues,” de la Rocha said of Avila. “We all had very high opinions of her going into the [search] process. The process was good in that it reinforced our confidence in her, because we looked at other individuals and, as well-qualified as they were, it made us appreciate her even more.”

Avila, who has been serving as acting director since Bycel’s departure, said her goals in the $88,000-a-year post will be to continue aggressive enforcement of ethics rules while stepping up an education campaign to prevent people from breaking them inadvertently.

A key project will be streamlining the agency’s computer database of campaign contributions to make the information more accessible to the public, Avila said. But the top priority, she added, is retaining independence from City Hall.

“We have to be ever mindful that our first allegiance is to the public. We have to be on guard against becoming part of the landscape, business as usual,” she said. “The hardest challenge is not losing the perspective of a regular citizen.”

With a staff of 16 and an annual budget of about $1.1 million, the Ethics Commission enforces local laws relating to campaign finance and lobbying, conducting secret investigations and levying fines against violators. With the state Fair Political Practices Commission, it ordered one of the largest fines for political money laundering in the nation’s history, demanding more than $800,000 from Evergreen America Corp., a shipping company with ties to former City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder. Snyder and others still face criminal charges in the case.

Under Bycel’s direction, the Ethics Commission butted heads with the mayor’s office, the district attorney and, perhaps most severely, the FPPC. On Thursday, de la Rocha and others attributed those struggles to personality problems, and expressed confidence that the relationships can be mended.

City Council members Mike Feuer and John Ferraro, who sit on the Rules and Elections Commission that oversees the Ethics Commission, roundly praised Avila for her knowledge of the corruption laws, ability to build consensus, and administrative skills.

But Feuer said Avila’s promotion does not erase his concern over de la Rocha’s sudden firing of Bycel last fall.

“That whole chapter was very poorly mishandled,” said Feuer, who has tried to prevent a repeat of that controversy by promoting a more formal system for evaluating and dismissing the executive director. “The actions surrounding Bycel’s firing sent a very chilling message that cannot be undone no matter who’s hired.”