Ethics Panel Considers Political Donations

A ban on political contributions from businesses to city officials who award them contracts would not be effective, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission was told Thursday.

Instead, businesses might be required to disclose political contributions when they bid for city work, Rebecca Avila, the executive director, told commission members. Avila said a ban would be ineffective because it would not stop employees of city contractors from giving to elected officials.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission agreed Thursday to consider requiring greater disclosure of contractors giving contributions to elected city officials while seeking city work.

“We’ll move in that direction,” Commission President Richard Walch said.

The commission released a study recently that found between July 1, 1992, and June 30, 1997, the top 25 city contractors contributed $154,471 to city politicians, and contractors’ employees gave another $75,939.

The panel asked Avila, commission executive director, to draft possible new disclosure rules after Avila recommended that the commission not ban contractor contributions during the bidding period, as has been proposed by Councilman Mike Feuer.

Avila said her staff was unable to identify cases where contributions were believed to have influenced a contract decision.

There currently are not enough data to indicate whether there is a problem, but the issue of a ban might be revisited if new disclosure shows contributions are a factor, Avila said.

“It [disclosure] is the direction we believe we should be going,” Avila told the panel. “We were persuaded by the work we have done that an actual ban doesn’t make sense.

Bob Sutton, an attorney for city lobbyists, said a ban would have a chilling effect on the exercise of 1st Amendment rights.

Commissioner Raquelle de la Rocha said she was concerned that such a requirement might add to the perception that contributions are important in the process.

“That just feeds that misconception that you have to give money,” she said.

Avila said the new rules might require disclosure to be filed at a later time with the department and the Ethics Commission so the public would have access to the information.