Labor Group to Pay Fine in Campaign Gift Case

The political arm of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has agreed to pay a $2,000 fine for failing to properly disclose $31,280 it spent on an independent campaign supporting Alex Padilla’s candidacy for the 7th City Council District seat this spring, officials said Monday.

The fine was levied by the Los Angeles Ethics Commission against the Los Angeles County Council on Political Education, which is the political arm of a federation serving as an umbrella group for 400 labor unions in the county.

Ethics Commission Executive Director Rebecca Avila cited “the importance of prompt notification of independent expenditures to the public and other candidates. . . .”

Avila did not seek the maximum fine of three times the amount that the organization failed to report, citing the fact that the labor group did not have a history of such violations.

Fabian Nunez, the political director for the group, told investigators that the delay in reporting was unintentional and based on a misreading of the ethics laws.

Corinne Sanchez, Padilla’s opponent in the runoff, said the one-week delay in reporting the spending disguised the involvement of the labor group at a crucial time in the campaign when northeast San Fernando Valley residents needed to know the extent of involvement by the downtown special interest group.

“I said it during the election and I still feel strongly that the voters need to have that information disclosed,” said Sanchez, who heads the social service group El Proyecto del Barrio.

An independent expenditure campaign must report to the Ethics Commission within 24 hours of spending more than $1,000 on behalf of a city candidate.

The group made the $31,280 expenditure for pro-Padilla mailers and door hangers March 29, two weeks before the April 13 primary, but did not report it to the Ethics Commission until April 6.

Labor leaders said they did not mail and distribute the material until March 30 through April 5, and they read the law to only require the spending to be disclosed when all campaign expenditures are reported.

The group ended up spending about $100,000 in support of Padilla.