Appointees May Face New Ethics Rules

Tackling some ethics issues that were raised during the mayoral election, a Los Angeles City Council panel recommended new rules Wednesday to tighten restrictions on the city’s appointed commissioners.

The council’s Rules and Elections Committee voted to ban commissioners from working as paid lobbyists at City Hall, require them to notify the Ethics Commission every time a conflict of interest disqualifies them from a vote, and bar them from screening city contracts when the decision is to be made by their panel.

“The reforms we passed today will hold political appointees and politicians to the highest ethical standards and make sure decisions are made in the best interest of the public and not the politically powerful,” said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, vice chairwoman of the committee.

The proposals require approval by the full City Council.

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa won the May 17 election after a campaign in which he repeatedly criticized Mayor James K. Hahn for appointing lobbyists to commissions and for failing to deal with commissioners who have multiple conflicts of interest.

“We are very pleased with the progress being made and look forward to seeing these proposals become law,” said Joe Ramallo, a spokesman for Villaraigosa.

The mayor-elect said during the campaign that City Hall was tainted by corruption caused by lax ethics rules, including the practice of appointing city lobbyists to commissions.

The number of lobbyist commissioners has declined to four, including Mike Roos, chairman of the Recreation and Parks Commission, and Dominick Rubalcava, chairman of the Department of Water and Power Commission.

Ramallo said the ban “just makes common sense” and noted that Villaraigosa has vowed to exclude lobbyists from his appointment of more than 300 commissioners.

“The perception is that lobbyists have unusual access because they are commissioners,” Greuel said. “We want to take away that perception.”

The panel also voted to require that whenever a city commissioner is disqualified from voting on a matter because of a conflict of interest, the commissioner must report the recusal to the Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission is supposed to decide whether commissioners must sell an interest that creates a conflict that leads to three or more recusals in a year.

Deputy City Atty. Renee Stadel told council members that commissioners are now urged to report the conflicts but are not required to by the law.

A recent article by The Times on Harbor Commission President Nicholas Tonsich reported that he had excused himself from votes and discussions at least 20 times in the last two years, without filing notices to the Ethics Commission.

The council committee also recommended Wednesday that the full council adopt an ordinance prohibiting members of commissions that approve contracts from serving on subcommittees to screen and recommend the contracts.

City Controller Laura Chick said an audit of the city’s airports department more than a year ago found an environment ripe for abuse and fraud because commissioners involved in fundraising were playing a role in recommending contracts to the full commission.

“This ordinance before you eradicates this problem,” Chick wrote in a letter to the council members Wednesday.

Hahn had previously issued an executive order banning commissioners from participating in the evaluation and selection of contracts when the commission they sit on is the final authority. However, council members said an ordinance was needed to make the requirement a permanent law.