Two New Members Begin Service on the City Ethics Commission

This summer, the City Ethics Commission welcomed two new members to its five-member board.

New Commissioner: Paul Turner

    Commissioner Paul H. Turner is a community relations and development officer for Citibank. He has over 15 years of experience as a local, state, and national leader in civic engagement, election reform, and economic development policy.

    Turner was appointed in April to the City Ethics Commission by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to succeed Robert M. Saltzman, who left the Ethics Commission last fall when the Mayor appointed him to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Because Turner is serving out the remainder of Saltzman's five-year term, which will end June 30, 2010, he will be eligible for a full five-year reappointment to the Commission at that time.

    Prior to his work at Citibank, Turner served for five years at the Greenlining Institute, a Berkeley-based nonprofit with a mission to empower disadvantaged groups, where he advised community and civil rights groups, corporate leaders and others, while framing campaign finance reform as a civil rights issue. As the senior program manager and national director of the Greenlining Institute’s Claiming Our Democracy Program, Turner has been a national advocate for open, honest, and accountable government through same-day voter registration, full public campaign financing of elections, independent redistricting commissions, and instant run-off voting, among other reforms. Assisting with the passage of the landmark Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (the McCain-Feingold Act), Turner was part of the advocacy coalition that submitted amicus curiae briefs to the United States Supreme Court on the bill’s behalf.

    Turner began his career as the community economic development coordinator for the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row in Los Angeles. He then helped establish the West Angeles Community Development Corporation in South Los Angeles, a non-profit development group affiliated with the 20,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ. Serving as Director of Economic Development from 1994 to 1998, Turner helped make the West Angeles CDC into one of the largest and most effective faith-based community development organizations in America.

New Commissioner: Nedra Jenkins

    Commissioner Nedra Jenkins is a Principal Deputy County Counsel for Los Angeles. She is a 1994 Graduate of the UCLA School of Law and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and Master of Arts degree in social science in 1991 through a joint degree program from the University of Chicago.

    During her legal career, Commissioner Jenkins has successfully handled a diverse array of cases, from dependency law for the Department of Children and Family Services to employment law and complex construction contract litigation for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). She began her legal career by clerking in the Criminal Appeals Section of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. She also fought child abuse for three years while working as a trial attorney in the Edelman Children’s Court.

    Since 1999, Commissioner Jenkins has represented Metro in employment and breach-of-contract cases. In 2001, she obtained rarely awarded defense attorney fees and costs in the amount of $191,000 for successfully defending a Fair Employment and Housing Act retaliation lawsuit. She has also enforced the California False Claims Act by pursuing contractors and subcontractors who submitted false claims and records for payment. In February 2006, she obtained a jury verdict against a subcontractor for 57 false claims violations and obtained civil penalties ultimately resulting in a $1.8 million judgment. In August 2008, she successfully obtained a jury verdict in the amount of $606,767 against a former Metro contract administration director for violation of Public Utilities Code § 130051.20, conversion, misappropriation of documents, and fraudulent inducement of employment.

    Commissioner Jenkins was recognized as one of Southern California’s rising stars in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 by Law & Politics magazine and the publishers of Los Angeles magazine—the only attorney in the Office of the County Counsel to be awarded that recognition. She has also been recognized in Who’s Who Among African-Americans and Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles as a result of her outstanding legal work and community service. In 2005, she received the Distinguished Woman Award from the Pasadena Chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction.

    Commissioner Jenkins has also provided leadership to various community service organizations, which highlights her commitment to giving back to the Los Angeles community. Since 1994, she has been actively involved with the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc (BWL) and, as its 2003-2004 president, helped spearhead the adoption of four deserving families who received mentoring, financial support, school supplies, and scholarship money. Since 1997, she has advocated against domestic violence as a board member, and the 2005-2006 president, of the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law. She is also a member of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.

    Commissioner Jenkins was appointed to the Ethics Commission in June 2008 by City Controller Laura Chick. Her five-year term will end in June 2013.

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