Councilwoman to Pay $3,000 for Violation

LAGUNA BEACH — Councilwoman Lida Lenney has agreed to pay a fine of $3,000 for violations of California political ethics laws.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission, which investigated the case, said that violations occurred but concluded that Lenney did not intentionally break the law.

The commission found that Lenney failed to disclose her husband’s ownership in a trash hauling firm and then voted for a city budget that included a 4% trash rate increase that could benefit the firm.

Lenney called both actions inadvertent oversights, and the state report supported her claim that she did not knowingly violate the law.

“It appears that she voted on the (trash company) resolution only because she had not sufficiently familiarized herself with her husband’s assets,” the FPPC report said.

Nonetheless, the state watchdog agency said it believed that a $3,000 fine should be imposed. The maximum fine possible is $4,000.

In an interview Friday, Lenney said she still considers her offense “a technical violation.” But she said she agreed to the settlement in order to get the matter behind her.

“Both my husband and I are very concerned about playing by the rules,” she said. “Part of the reason I ran for public office was to try to prove that not all politicians are dirty. People knew me because I’d been a teacher in this community for 20 years, and I think people knew I’d never knowingly violate their confidence.”

The conflict-of-interest issue centered on Lenney’s husband’s ownership of 1,000 shares of Waste Management Inc. stock, valued at about $36,000. Waste Management owns Dewey’s Rubbish Inc., which hauls trash for the city of Laguna Beach.

Lenney said that in 1990 her husband failed to tell her about the stock. In the meantime, she said, a new city budget came before the City Council that called for a 4% trash-rate increase. The trash-rate increase was among “things in a budget 12 to 15 inches thick,” Lenney said. The City Council approved the overall budget by a unanimous 5-0 vote, including Lenney’s.

Those who have backed Lenney have included Mayor Robert F. Gentry. When the issue first rose last spring, Gentry said: “Lida has impeccable integrity. I think it was clear that there was no profit motive in her vote. Her stock in Waste Management is barely a drop compared to their overall worth.”

The FPPC report also stated that the vote on the trash contract would have minimal impact on the value of the stock.

“Because Waste Management is such a huge corporation, the (Laguna Beach) refuse agreement would have had little effect on the value of the one thousand shares held by Lida Lenney’s husband,” according to the FPPC report.

The FPPC fine of $3,000 is proposed in a settlement to be voted on by the state agency Dec. 3 in Sacramento. Lenney said she has agreed to the proposal.