Los Angeles Ethics Commission

City Controller Laura Chick said Thursday that she was nominating journalist Bill Boyarsky to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, calling him "the antithesis of a City Hall insider" while citing his knowledge of government gained through 30 years as a reporter, columnist and editor for the Los Angeles Times. Boyarsky, who has retired from The Times and lectures at USC, said that he supports a strong Ethics Commission that actively enforces campaign finance and ethics laws.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Thursday recommended increased restrictions on how elected officials solicit and spend special officeholder accounts--meaning that newsletters to constituents are in, but gym fees and church memberships are out. The commission forwarded an ordinance to the City Council for final approval that is designed to restrict use of the funds to governmental and legislative purposes, eliminating personal and campaign expenditures.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission says a former city planner may have violated the city's year-old ethics law by appearing before a committee handing out a lucrative city contract and has ordered the Planning Department to "avoid such conduct in the future." But commissioners decided against opening formal proceedings that could lead to sanctions because the ethics law is new and the city is still learning to adapt. Ethics Commission Executive Officer Benjamin Bycel ruled in the case of Gary A.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission approved several amendments to the city's lobbyist law on Thursday, aiming to clarify the rules regulating the multimillion-dollar industry operating in City Hall. While most of the law, considered the strictest in the nation, remained intact, the five-member commission agreed to broaden the range of financial activities subject to disclosure for some of the lobbyists with the largest client bases.

Re "Delgadillo fete raises hackles," March 7 So City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo is having a lavish party thrown for him by a City Hall lobbyist who represented Clear Channel in a billboard fight that ended in the company's favor. Clear Channel was one of several entities that spent $425,000 to promote Delgadillo's candidacy on billboards. When this was discovered, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission fined Clear Channel $30,000 for failing to promptly disclose its role in backing Delgadillo and a council member.

Revealing the high cost of doing business in City Hall, lobbyists were paid a record $3.2 million in the third quarter of 1998 to help win City Council approval for a variety of developments and contract awards, according to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. The Ethics Commission report, which covers July through September, also shows the highest number of registered lobbyists in the city--170--and lobbyists' clients--547--since the city's lobbying ordinance was amended in 1994.

For the second time in as many weeks, the director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission accused a billboard company Tuesday of not properly disclosing an independent expenditure campaign backing candidates in the 2001 election. Executive Director LeeAnn Pelham issued a public accusation declaring she found probable cause to believe that Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc.

A billboard company has agreed to pay a $9,500 fine to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission for failing to disclose independent expenditure campaigns touting city candidates, including City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. Clear Channel Outdoor, which promoted the candidates on billboards between 2001 and 2003, admitted to 19 counts of failing to provide the Ethics Commission with required notification.

Richard Walch, the executive director of the 23,000 member Los Angeles County Bar Assn., was unanimously voted president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Thursday. The city commission, created by voters in 1990, regulates city ethics, lobbying and campaign finance laws. Walch has served on the commission since 199 and was named vice president in July 1997. "I intend to lead the commission in the tradition of openness and public service established by my predecessors," Walch said.

As president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, Gil Garcetti sits in judgment of those accused of violating the city's campaign finance laws. As the father of an aspiring young politician, it was perhaps only natural that Garcetti, a former Los Angeles County district attorney, would contribute to the reelection campaign of his son, Councilman Eric Garcetti. Except for one little detail: The City Charter prohibits ethics commissioners from donating to candidates in municipal elections.