The City Ethics Commission is a semi-independent agency charged with administering and implementing the City’s laws regarding governmental ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying. The Los Angeles City Charter requires the Commission to evaluate the effectiveness of those laws on a regular basis and to make recommendations about the laws to the Mayor and the City Council.
To fulfill this important responsibility, the Commission collects data, identifies trends, and analyzes issues on an ongoing basis. The Commission works proactively to understand emerging trends and issues and how they are likely to affect City laws. Through its evaluation process, the Commission thoughtfully assesses existing policies, proposes legislation, and makes recommendations to help shape the City’s ethics laws.
Major policy issues are noted below, with links to key information. You can also access recent legislative updates, to learn the status of all legislation that is being considered or recommended by the Commission.
In the wake of several United States Supreme Court decisions, the Ethics Commission is reviewing the City's campaign finance laws. Recommendations for improving the laws will be forwarded to the City Council once the Ethics Commission has completed its review.
The Ethics Commission is currently examining the City's governmental ethics laws, which have not been comprehensively reviewed since their adoption in 1990. Recommendations for improving the laws will be forwarded to the City Council once the Ethics Commission has completed its review.
In September 2009, following 2 years of intensive study, the Ethics Commission recommended to the City Council a set of comprehensive changes to the city's lobbying laws. The status of the recommendations may be monitored through the City Clerk's online Council File Management System (Council File No. 07-3005-S2).
