LOBBYING ORDINANCE REVIEW – Consideration of Draft Language
The Ethics Commission has completed a significant portion of its comprehensive review of the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance. To date, the Commission has reached consensus on a number of proposed changes. Staff memos detailing the changes are available at the CEC’s website. (See link below.) At the Commission’s June 2009 meeting, the staff will provide the Commission with draft language that reflects the proposed changes for its consideration.
To help ensure that the Commission’s discussions are most productive, the staff will be holding an interested persons meeting on May 21, 2009, to allow for comment on the proposed language. In mid-May, draft language will be made available through the next Lobbyist Update and our website. You are welcome to attend and voice your opinions at that meeting, or you may call, write, or email us with your comments. Emails should be sent to ethics.policy@lacity.org.
To stay informed with the latest information regarding the lobbying ordinance review and other related issues, be sure to visit the commission’s lobbying page at http://ethics.lacity.org/lobby/lobby.cfm. Once there, you may access staff reports related to lobbying issues, search lobbying registrations and quarterly disclosures reports filed since 2003, or submit your comments or feedback.
INCOMPLETE REGISTRATIONS
A recent audit of the lobbying registrations filed for 2009 revealed a number of registrations filed missing required items. A complete lobbying registration for the City is comprised of the following components.
1) Electronic version of registration of lobbyist(s), lobbying firm, lobbyist
employer, and/or client(s) filed via LEFS (Lobbyist Electronic Filing System);
2) Signed hard copy printout of registration filed in #1;
3) Payment for registration filed in #1; and
4) Authorization letter, if applicable (applies only for client registrations or
registrations for lobbyists associated with a lobbyist employer).
Lobbying registrations are not considered complete until the Ethics Commission is in receipt of all components described above. You can check on the status of your registrations at any time by logging on to LEFS. Notice of incomplete registrations will appear in the green ALERTS section on the Lobbying Main Menu. Clicking on the link provided will indicate which components of an incomplete registration are missing.
Please take a moment to log on to LEFS to check on the status of your 2009 lobbying registrations. Should you be alerted that you have outstanding items, please submit them as soon as possible to the Ethics Commission. Outstanding registration fees may be paid for by Visa or Mastercard online via the City’s secure webpay pay server. Simply click on the “pay by credit card” link and enter the requested information. If you choose to instead to pay by check, please submit payment to the Ethics Commission for immediate processing.
Once all outstanding components have been processed, the notice of incomplete registrations will be removed from the ALERTS section of your main menu. Please call Mark Low or Esther Lira at (213) 978-1960 if you have questions.
