Panel Votes to Ban Fundraising

Amid expanding investigations of potential corruption at City Hall, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission recommended Tuesday that members of city boards and commissions be prohibited from soliciting political contributions for elected officials.

The ethics panel asserted that the fundraising ban would reduce conflicts of interest, real or imagined, when city commissioners seek contributions from firms or individuals doing business with the city.

“I simply think the outright banning of fundraising by city board members and commissioners is the right thing to do,” said Ethics Commission President Gil Garcetti. “The point of being a commissioner is to focus on your appointment and your field of responsibility and not to try and leverage that position to assist others, friends, or to assist your own career.”

With its unanimous vote, the Ethics Commission forwarded the issue to the City Council, which is expected to take it up as early as next week after consideration today by its Rules and Ethics Committee. A majority of council members have said they supported the ban.

The recommendation is the latest evidence of growing concern about ethics at City Hall. City Controller Laura Chick said recently that an audit of airport commission contracts turned up evidence of “potential illegal acts,” and county and federal grand juries have launched investigations into city contracting. Chick said Tuesday that she also has asked the Ethics Commission enforcement staff to look into possible wrongdoing.

The ban endorsed Tuesday would prohibit commissioners from requesting, either orally or in writing, that another person make a contribution to a city political candidate or ballot measure committee. It would also ban the use of commissioners’ names on invitations to political fundraisers and make it illegal to hold fundraisers at the homes or offices of commissioners.

Los Angeles has 54 boards and commissions that provide citizen oversight at city agencies, and many of the panels have the power to approve contracts. Most of the recent attention has been on the city’s largest commissions.

On Tuesday, the ethics panel heard more than two hours of testimony from nearly 20 residents, elected officials, and current and former city commissioners who said they supported the ban and were troubled by the appearance of a “pay to play” environment at City Hall.

“Unfortunately, there does exist an ever-growing perception among the people of Los Angeles that their city government is up for sale,” Chick told the panel. “More and more, it has become a belief that if you want access to City Hall, if you wish to be heard and -- most troubling -- if you seek to do business with the city, you must ante up with campaign contributions.”

Flora Gil Krisiloff, president of the West Los Angeles Planning Commission, said the ban would help reduce public cynicism about the commission system and allow panelists to do their jobs without feeling pressure to generate campaign contributions.

Although current law prohibits commissioners from raising money from sources having business before their commission, several people told the ethics panel the law does not prevent a commissioner from soliciting contributions from contractors seeking business with another department.

Jane Usher, who was an appointee of former Mayor Tom Bradley to a regional transportation authority more than a decade ago, said she recalled seeing staff recommendations routinely overturned by fellow commissioners who benefited from campaign contributions.

Ethics Commissioner Dale Bonner said he was concerned that the panel’s enforcement staff appeared not to have aggressively pursued reports of wrongdoing under the current law. As a result, he voted reluctantly for the ban, saying the action would be largely symbolic unless there was enforcement.

The only testimony against the measure came from Robert Hunt, general counsel of the Service Employees International Union, Local 347, who said he worried that the new rule would prevent labor leaders who served on city commissions from soliciting their members to fund political action campaigns.

Mayor James K. Hahn, who appoints most of the city’s 350 volunteer citizen commissioners, has said he would prefer disclosure of commissioner fundraising instead of a ban, but he has left open the possibility that he might sign an ordinance prohibiting the practice.

Under the proposal, any commissioner who violated the fundraising ban would be subject to fines up to $5,000 per incident. The Ethics Commission delayed action Tuesday on a proposal to also penalize violators by prohibiting them from serving on a city commission for five years.