County Tightens Rules on Gifts to Employees

County supervisors have added 119 positions to the ranks of county employees who cannot accept gifts of more than $300 from contractors.

The new regulations are the first part of the county’s review of its gifts policies in the wake of revelations that an official in the Department of Children and Family Services accepted more than $20,000 in assistance from a county contractor who helped her buy a new Mercedes-Benz.

That gift was legal because the official’s position was not designated as covered by the county’s conflict-of-interest code, which relies on state law to restrict gifts to $300 and require public disclosure of all presents.

The regulations, approved Tuesday, cover 30 county agencies. The county’s code review staff is still looking at regulations for the final seven, which includes many of the county’s largest departments.

Even with the expanded ranks of officials whose acceptance of gifts are restricted, the county will still have far looser regulations on gifts than the city of Los Angeles or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on whose board county supervisors also sit.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who along with Supervisor Don Knabe proposed the review in October, said that when the regulations for the final seven county agencies are finished the board will turn its attention to possibly expanding other restrictions.

“We have a long way to go,” he said. “We want to err on the side of caution. The public isn’t served by narrowing designations.”