LA City Panel Approves Package Of Ethics Reforms

A Los Angeles City Council committee approved a series of proposed ethics reforms Thursday, including one that would triple the maximum amount of fines imposed on people who violate city ethics rules.

The reforms come more than a year-and-a-half after they were first proposed by the Ethics Commission and follow a series of City Hall scandals that have shaken the public’s trust in elected city officials.

“I’m very excited we are moving forward after all this time,” said commission President Jeff Daar. He called the reforms “long overdue.”

Under one proposal, the Ethics Commission would have the ability to impose fines of up to $15,000 per violation — three times the current limit.

“We’ve seen that the fines haven’t deterred a lot of things from happening in the past,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who sits on the Ad Hoc Governance Reform Committee. “We need to elevate those fines.”

Will raising fines lower corruption?

Over the past three years, former council members Mitch Englander, Jose Huizar and Mark Ridley-Thomas have been sentenced to federal prison on corruption charges.

Councilmember Curren Price faces corruption charges in state court. And the city Ethics Commission has accused Councilmember John Lee of accepting illegal gifts from developers. He is not facing criminal charges.

“Increasing fines will hopefully deter wrongdoing,” Daar said.

Others were skeptical. Ethics reform advocate Jamie York said increased fines would only go so far in preventing corruption.

“The reality is that many of these actors have an immense amount of money where relatively small fines don’t matter,” York said.

As an example, York pointed to the case of former CBS President Les Moonves, who was fined the current maximum of $15,000 Wednesday for three violations of ethics rules. Moonves was accused of working with LAPD officials to try to cover up allegations of sexual assault against him.

Moonves had an estimated net worth of $700 million when he left CBS in 2018, according to Business Insider.

Under the current proposal, Moonves could have been fined up to $45,000.

“I don’t think that begins to even approach the damage to public trust that has occurred,” York said.

What's next?

The ethics reforms will now go to the full city council. The reforms are proposed charter changes and would require voter approval.

Supporters hope the council will place the set of proposals on the November ballot. The deadline to do that is early July.

The ad hoc committee also approved a proposal that would allow the Ethics Commission to place its own reforms on the ballot. Under the proposal, only a two-thirds vote of the council could stop the reforms.

The panel approved a proposal to increase the size of the Ethics Commission from five to seven and another to establish a minimum annual budget for the panel of $6.5 million, to be adjusted annually.

“We’ve strengthened the Ethics Commission and made them more independent today,” said council President Paul Krekorian, who chairs the ad hoc committee.

At its meeting, the committee also approved a proposal to create an independent redistricting commission for the L.A. Unified School District. It would be modeled after a similar proposal for the city council in which an independent panel would draw voting districts for the school board.

And the committee approved a proposal to create an independent charter reform commission that would consider more changes to the city charter, the set of laws that govern how the city works.

Those proposals will go to the city council for possible approval.