The scandal doesn’t stop at Los Angeles City Hall. With a fourth city councilor, Karen Price, indicted on corruption charges in less than three years, there should be a heart-searching in the halls of power. How did so many leaders go astray, and how can LA clean up its rotten political culture?
One obvious and overdue solution is actually quite simple. That is to ask voters to strengthen the ethics committees that oversee the city’s elected officials, candidates for office, political appointees and lobbyists.
When the commission was created by voters in 1990, it was considered one of the most ambitious ethics reforms in the country. But after three decades of oversight and enforcement, it became clear that the commission lacked the oversight independence and authority that Angelenos expected it to need.
The city council and mayor decide how much to fund the commission, which determines the size of the staff of investigators and enforcement officers, and whether to enact recommended ethics law changes. . This means that the regulator needs permission from the regulated party to do its work. Of course, this arrangement presents an obstacle to oversight and enforcement.
For example, for 15 years the Ethics Committee has correction of common sense Amendments to city lobbying laws to make paid advocacy more transparent and easier to enforce rules. The city council repeatedly refused to consider the proposal, and it died. In 2018, according to a Times article, a former Ethics Committee official was told by a senior committee member that he had threatened to cut the Ethics Committee’s budget unless a member relaxed rules about gifts to politicians. and filed a whistleblower complaint.
Last year, the Ethics Committee Ten changes recommended Amendments to the City Charter would give the Commission more power and independence. But these proposals have been put on the back burner while the city council’s special committee on municipal governance reform focused on creating an independent land readjustment commission and deciding whether to expand the city council.
But it wasn’t just the criminal charges against Price that accelerated ethics reform last week.A group of political scientists announced their recommendations Los Angeles is calling for governance reforms, prioritizing empowering ethics committees. Their rationale makes sense. If Angeleno residents are asked to expand the city council and bring in more politicians, they need to know that in return they will get the cleanest city government possible.
in particular, LA Governance Reform Project Change the city charter to ultimately require the city council to act on the ordinance proposed by the commission, allowing the commission to bypass the city council and put proposed policies on ballots for voters to decide recommended to do so. These are smart changes.
Any reform ballot bill must guarantee a minimum budget to the committee, so politicians cannot cut committee funding to put pressure on the ethics staff. It is also worth considering setting up a larger commission that includes non-political appointees who do not benefit from elected officials. LA City Commissioners are elected by the city’s elected leaders.of long sandy beach, The seven-member Ethics Committee includes four elected members who elect the other three members.
Could these changes prevent further corruption scandals? they might help. Empowered commissions may be able to respond more quickly when ethical issues arise, without overcoming the conundrum of congressional skepticism and obstructionism.
For example, among the allegations against Mr Price is that he voted for a project developed by the company that employs his wife, which creates a conflict of interest. Mr. Price declined himself when it was related to his wife’s work, but not on other occasions, according to the report. time report in 2019.
City law requires the appointment of a commissioner file documents If you have a conflict of interest and refrain from voting. These resignations are tracked and conflicts of interest are reviewed when a Commissioner resigns her three times a year. However, elected officials do not have to follow the same reporting rules and need only make a verbal declaration if they decide to resign. This makes it difficult for the public to track and understand the conflicts of interest of elected officials. If unpaid volunteer commissioners are required to document their resignations, why shouldn’t city councilors do the same?
A parade of scandals is fueling the momentum for big changes in the city of Los Angeles. But this task would not be complete without ethics reform.
