Panel Seeks to Ban Commissioner Lobbying

The Ethics Commission on Thursday approved in concept a plan to prohibit city commissioners from being paid to lobby other Los Angeles officials, part of a series of reforms considered in the wake of recent investigations of conflict of interest and other wrongdoing by a Riordan administration appointee.

“Its purpose is, fundamentally, the restoration of public trust in government . . . and the honor of City Hall,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the measure’s sponsor, testified before the ethics panel. “We’re trying to, as best as possible, remove the potential for manipulating the ethics ordinance.”

Although it voted to support the ban on people serving simultaneously as paid lobbyists and commissioners, the Ethics Commission delayed action for two weeks on a separate proposal that would ban commissioners from soliciting campaign contributions for local officials.

“I understand the problem. I think there is a problem,” Commissioner Eve Fisher said. “However, I don’t think this is the cure. Savvy people that want to be corrupt in their seat are going to be savvy enough to get around this.”

The wave of reform efforts comes less than a month after the abrupt resignation of Scott Z. Adler, a lawyer/land developer/lobbyist who served as president of the Building and Safety Commission.

Adler, whose firm earned $325,000 lobbying city officials in one year and gave nearly $22,000 in political contributions over five years, is the subject of two separate criminal investigations; one for impersonating a police officer and soliciting a 17-year-old prostitute, the second for conflict of interest. Charges have not been filed in either case.

Building and Safety Department officials confirmed Thursday that in addition to police investigations of Adler, they are investigating how a developer he once represented began construction of a Hollywood mini-mall when the project did not comply with zoning codes. Work was stopped on the shopping center at 1705 N. Western Ave. earlier this year, and the city attorney disqualified the entire Building and Safety Commission from dealing with the project because of Adler’s connection to the developer, Charles Co.

“We’re looking at what was done and who did it and where the problems are,” Walt Krukow of Building and Safety said Thursday, declining to comment further on the investigation.

Seven of Riordan’s nearly 300 appointees are registered lobbyists.

Political donations, however, are far more common: Records show that between June 1992 and January 1996 commissioners donated more than $270,000 to candidates or officeholders.

The Ethics Commission does not collect data on whether citizen appointees solicit campaign contributions through fund-raisers or other activities. Some on the City Council would like to prohibit all campaign contributions by commissioners and lobbyists, but Ethics Commission President Raquelle de la Rocha raised concerns Thursday that such a blanket ban might violate the U.S. Constitution.

A City Council panel voted Wednesday to prohibit commissioners from soliciting campaign contributions or from being paid lobbyists, and to ban fund-raising or direct contributions by paid lobbyists to elected officials. The city attorney is now drafting laws to reflect those proposals, which will then return to the council for approval.