ETHICS BLIGHT-Most local politicians have given lip service to the ideal of openness and transparency in city government, but few have worked up much of a sweat translating those words into deeds.
One exception is former LA City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who six years ago introduced a motion directing the City Attorney and City Ethics Commission to develop a policy regarding ex parte communications by city commissioners and board members.
For those unfamiliar with the subject, ex parte communications are ones made without notice to or participation by all interested parties. For example, a private meeting by a developer's representative with a city planning commissioner about a project before the commission would fall into this category because members of the public wouldn't be privy to anything that was said during that meeting and thus have an opportunity to respond.
Following Greuel's motion, then-City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo issued a report recommending a ban on ex parte communications by city commissioners, hearing officers, and others required to hold public hearings and make decisions on such matters as land use, code enforcement, permit appeals and license revocations. In his report, Delgadillo said, "Ex parte communications may give rise to an appearance of impropriety because excluded parties do not have the opportunity to know precisely what transpired during the private meeting and to address those points."
Delgadillo noted that his office had issued several prior opinions that commissioners who met privately with parties to particular proceedings should be disqualified from acting on the matters in question. This, Delgadillo said, "is not only to avoid evil, but to avoid the appearance of evil, thereby giving the public a greater confidence in the acts of its public officials."
Greuel's motion and the City Attorney's report were referred to the City Council's Rules and Elections Committee, chaired by now-City Council President Herb Wesson. That committee was an apparent black hole, because the motion was swallowed and never heard from again.
The subject of ex parte communications next arose in the form of a city council motion in 2011, when Councilman Bernard Parks proposed that members of the newly-formed Redistricting Commission be required to disclose any ex parte communications with elected officials or organizations concerning the commission's work in re-drawing boundaries of the 15 city council districts.
In his motion, Parks wrote, "Ex parte communications are private communications with decision makers that create an appearance of undue influence and favoritism."
Two months later, Councilwoman Jan Perry, who along with Parks had reason to suspect she wouldn't be happy with her own re-drawn district, wrote a letter to Wesson urging passage of an ordinance on ex parte communications using Delgadillo's recommendations, among others, as a guide. Perry mentioned the work of the Redistricting Commission, saying, "It is especially important that this process be free of the presence and the appearance of a politicized process."
Again, the motion and letter were referred to Wesson's Committee, now named the Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations committee, and again no action was forthcoming. The subject wasn't entirely dead, however, because the City Ethics Commission was working on revisions to the ethics ordinance, and just last month issued recommendations that include a prohibition on ex parte communications in matters where a decision maker such as a commission member or other official is required to conduct a hearing and make a decision based on the law and facts in a particular case.
In matters where commissioners and board members are making legislative decisions but not adjudicating specific cases, the Ethics Commission recommends that those persons disclose ex parte communications on the record at meetings. As did Delgadillo in his report, the commission recommends that elected officials be exempted from the ex parte communications regulations, because limiting those communications conflicts with citizens' constitutional right to petition their elected officials.
Will this relatively simple, easy-to-implement step toward greater transparency in government decision-making meet another quiet death in Wesson's committee? If it does, Los Angeles will continue to stand apart from many other government bodies. A number of cities in the area regulate ex-parte communications. As does San Diego, San Francisco, the California Coastal Commission, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and most state boards and commissions.
But might this just be a solution in search of a problem? A few years ago, a member of an area planning commission I know personally said that whenever a major project was before the commission she would get calls from lobbyists and developers' representatives wanting to tell her why the project should be approved. She said she rebuffed these callers, telling them that even if it wasn't illegal she believed it unethical to have such private conversations.
It's not hard to believe that this happens to other commissioners and board members, and it seems almost certain that some aren't as fastidious as this woman when it comes to ethical considerations.
As the Ethics Commission says in its latest report, "When ex parte communications occur, the public's confidence in the equity of City decisions can be threatened. Communications that occur outside a formal, public process can lead to the perception that City decisions are biased because of a particular person's special access or influence, rather than objectively based on facts, law, and good public policy."
Regulating ex parte communications is not going to magically correct what many believe is a widening imbalance of power between the general public and the lobbyists and other influence-wielders who can be seen every day in City Hall, often in conversation with both elected and appointed city officials.
But it's a relatively simple way for politicians who have talked the talk on openness and transparency to start walking the walk.
(Dennis Hathaway is the president of The Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight. He is a journalist, a community advocate and a contributor to CityWatch.)
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CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 76
Pub: Sept 20, 2013