Los Angeles - On the heels of a March 27, 2013 lawsuit against Mike Feuer, candidate for City Attorney, and his campaign consultant, John Shallman, for violating numerous campaign ethics laws, a second complaint was filed online, Saturday, April 13, 2013, with the Ethics Commission by Laura Lake.
Feuer’s Legal Defense Fund, formed to defend against the ethics charges, reported no legal defense contributions, expenditures or debts for the period February 28, 2013 to April 6, 2013. It is all zeroes. This is an apparent violation of reporting requirements. Feuer had already retained attorney Ron Turovsky (Manatt Phelps) during this reporting period.
Turovsky was retained by Feuer on or before March 30, according to an email he sent to Lake’s attorney, Bradley Hertz (Sutton Law Firm). There can be no basis for claiming that Manatt and Turovsky expended zero effort from the time they were retained as is evidenced by the communication from Turovsky.
Feuer’s failure to report his legal fees shows a troubling pattern of violating the law and failing to provide transparency. A copy of the complaint is attached along with regulations regarding requirements to report accrued expenses.
“This is another troubling violation that shows a pattern of disregarding ethics laws,” said Lake. “There is no excuse for failing to adhere to ethics laws, especially when the Feuer legal defense fund was formed to defend against ethics charges,” she concluded.
This violation is reminiscent of a violation in 1997 by then-councilman Hal Bernson and the Papiano law firm. As reported in the Metropolitan News, “Commission President Miriam Krinsky noted that the donors of excess campaign funds included people and firms with enough sophistication to know better.”
We agree.
-cw
CityWatch
4-18-13