Financial Disclosure Urged for Secession Lobbyists

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission asked the panel overseeing San Fernando Valley secession Thursday to enact strict new rules disclosing all lobbying efforts, pro and con, to influence breakup bids.

The Ethics Commission, which acts as the city’s campaign finance watchdog, lacks the power to force secession campaigns to publicly report their war chests, expenditures and contributors. That authority rests with the Local Agency Formation Commission, the state-created panel that presides over breakup attempts.

But ethics commissioners felt strongly that such requirements are needed. So they wrote to LAFCO on Thursday, formally requesting that it exercise its power to require disclosure.

Specifically, the letter proposes that LAFCO adopt lobbying rules requiring full public disclosure of efforts to influence the LAFCO process on “special reorganization,” the technical term for secession, noting that most government agencies have already established similar laws.

A nine-member panel appointed by a variety of local officials, LAFCO is about to embark on an unprecedented study of the economic effects of breaking up Los Angeles, and will ultimately decide whether to put secession to a public vote. Secession would require a majority vote of the Valley, as well as citywide.

“It is our view that the public interest would be well served by disclosure of the private sources that pay lobbyists to influence the special reorganization process,” the letter states. “By providing public access to such information, LAFCO will be taking an important step toward maximizing public confidence in the special reorganization process.”

A spokesman for Valley VOTE, the main group pushing for a study and possible vote on secession, said it would welcome a disclosure requirement--as long as it is applied to everyone.

“The proposal is pretty straightforward,” said former Assemblyman Richard Katz, now a leader of Valley VOTE. “We have no problem with it, as long as we’re not being singled out here. Personally, I have always believed in disclosure. If you’re trying to influence the political process, the public has a right to know.”

Whether LAFCO will actually enact new requirements for secession drives remains to be seen, however.

“I can’t see myself recommending those types of changes to the way we do business,” said LAFCO’s executive director, Larry Calemine. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

The state’s Political Reform Act requires nearly every type of political campaign, from candidates for office to initiative and recall drives, to reveal how much money it has raised and spent, and who provided it.

But the law does not specifically mention secession, and the state Fair Political Practices Commission has ruled that secession drives are immune from its requirements because they must pass through LAFCO before they can be placed on the ballot.

As a result, Valley VOTE has legally been able to avoid revealing its financial benefactors. Moreover, the group has to date refused to voluntarily disclose the information, saying it feared powerful opponents at City Hall would retaliate against donors. But the group said last month that it may release financial data on all but a handful of contributors who requested they not be identified.

Valley VOTE said earlier this year that it had spent roughly $500,000 on its campaign, including $290,000 on a signature drive to force the LAFCO study on secession.

Last year, it revealed that its biggest donor at that time was the Daily News of Los Angeles, which contributed $60,000 of the $200,000 the group said it had. But it has only identified a handful of other major contributors, including Valley auto dealer and Police Commissioner Bert Boeckmann and attorney and Fire Commissioner David Fleming.