Citing the public's need to know, top Los Angeles Ethics Commission officials called Tuesday for tough new financial disclosure requirements for those involved in drives to break up the city.
Rules mandating disclosure of who is financing petition drives for cityhood and who is lobbying for and against pending proposals should be adopted, Chairwoman Miriam Krinsky and Vice Chairman Richard Walch of the ethics panel said.
"The city Ethics Commission continues to believe that it is critical for the public to have access to information about the receipts and expenditures made to support political campaigns--including those that fund the initiation of a special reorganization proposal," the two officials said in a letter sent to the Local Agency Formation Commission, the panel studying secession of the San Fernando Valley and the Harbor area.
LAFCO had previously declined to adopt disclosure rules, questioning its own authority to do so.
Gov. Gray Davis recently signed a bill by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) that the ethics officials said gives "clear authority" for the rules.
In addition to seeking the disclosure of contributions and expenditures for cityhood petitions, the ethics officials asked that lobbyists be required to disclose who is paying them to influence the decision-making process.
"By providing public access to such information, the Los Angeles LAFCO will be taking an important step toward maximizing public confidence in the special reorganization process and in all governmental decisions LAFCO is empowered to make," according to the letter.
Larry Calemine, the executive director of LAFCO, said Tuesday that the panel has formed a committee to consider possible disclosure rules and will probably hold a public hearing early next year to get input.
"It's a complicated issue," Calemine said. "We are in the process of reviewing it."
The issue was first raised in 1998, when Valley VOTE acknowledged having spent more than $500,000 on a petition drive to trigger a study of cityhood for the San Fernando Valley, but refused to disclose its donors or expenditures. The group said identifying backers on an issue opposed by downtown political interests could lead to retaliation. The biggest financial backer in 1998 turned out to be the Los Angeles Daily News, which has campaigned for Valley cityhood.
Calemine said he supports disclosure in general, but hasn't decided how detailed the rules should be.
