Ethics Policy for County Workers to Be Drafted

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to draft an ethics policy that would prevent employees from lobbying the county for at least one year after they leave a county job.

Supervisors also instructed that the ordinance should restrict county employees from negotiating a job offer with people who have business before the county and prohibit anyone with a matter pending before the county from discussing a job with county officials.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who introduced a motion calling for the new law, suggested that the county’s ethics policies be modeled after similar provisions in the city of Los Angeles.

Also on Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council asked the city attorney to draft a motion that would require quarterly reports on which city commissioners recused themselves from voting on a certain item because of conflicts of interest. To date, there is no program to monitor which commissioners can’t vote.