Enforcement Matters Resolved This Year By Ethics Commission Reflect its Broad Charter Mandate

Since the beginning of the calendar year, the City Ethics Commission’s board has resolved a number of enforcement matters through stipulations or orders. Among the cases resolved have been those involving violations of the City’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance, Municipal Lobbying Ordinance, and the City’s Campaign Finance Ordinance and Charter provisions. A summary of key cases appears below.

CEC Case No. 2006-11 - In April, the City Ethics Commission fined a former City official $5,000 for violating a provision of the City's Governmental Ethics Ordinance (Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 49.5.12(B)) that prohibits City officials from negotiating future employment with persons with a matter pending before that official. The respondent, a former assistant general manager at a large City department, was found to have negotiated a job offer with a private firm which had a contract pending before her in the course of her official duties. In a separate stipulated settlement, the firm admitted to violating LAMC Section 49.5.12(C), which prohibits persons with matters pending before a City official from negotiating future employment with that official. The Commission also assessed a $4,500 fine against the firm for its part in negotiating future employment with the official.

CEC Case No. 2004-38 - In a stipulated settlement approved in May, the Commission fined a respondent for violating LAMC Sections 48.07(A) and (C) and 48.08(A) of the City’s Municipal Lobbying Ordinance. In this case, the respondent failed to register and pay annual lobbying and client fees when required by the law to do so, and failed to file quarterly lobbying disclosure statements. In approving the agreement, the Commission assessed a fine of $3,000 against the respondent.

Since January 2007, the Commission’s board also has resolved 17 campaign-related enforcement matters through stipulations or orders. Of these cases, 14 arose from campaign audits mandated by City law, and involved violations by City candidates or contributors. Three others followed Commission investigations into political money laundering or failure to meet the independent expenditure disclosure requirements of City law. Seven of the 17 cases resulted in infraction stipulations, which required public acknowledgement of the violation but assessed no monetary fine. Ten other cases resulted in assessments of fines totaling over $91,000. Among those were the following:

CEC Case No. 2005-45 - In a stipulated settlement, the respondent admitted to violating the City Charter Section 470(k)'s prohibition against assumed name contributions, Charter Section 470 (c)(3)'s per person contribution limits and Charter Section 470(c)(6)'s per election contribution limits when she reimbursed five contributions from her students or employees to the campaign committees of a City Councilmember in connection with a special election. The respondent paid a $12,000 fine to the City’s General Fund.

CEC Case No. 2002-01 - After a full evidentiary hearing on the merits and a hearing regarding penalties before an administrative law judge, the Ethics Commission concluded that the respondents had failed to timely report three independent expenditures on behalf of three City candidates during the 2001 regular and special elections in violation of LAMC Section 49.7.26. The Commission also found that the respondents had failed to include required disclaimers on 188 billboard advertisements in support of various LA City candidates, in violation of Charter Section 470(l). The Commission expressly declined to adopt the hearing officer’s recommendation that the 188 violations regarding disclaimers be reduced to only five counts and rejected his recommended penalty of $7,000, assessing instead an administrative penalty of $38,695.

For more information about the Commission’s enforcement process, or to access a full and searchable list of the board’s enforcement actions, visit the Commission’s website at: http://ethics.lacity.org/enforcement/enforcement.cfm.

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