Disclosure of Secession Funding Urged

Citing the public’s need to know, top Los Angeles Ethics Commission officials called Tuesday for tough new financial disclosure requirements for those involved in drives to break up the city.

Rules mandating disclosure of who is financing petition drives for cityhood and who is lobbying for and against pending proposals should be adopted, Chairwoman Miriam Krinsky and Vice Chairman Richard Walch of the ethics panel said.

“The city Ethics Commission continues to believe that it is critical for the public to have access to information about the receipts and expenditures made to support political campaigns--including those that fund the initiation of a special reorganization proposal,” the two officials said in a letter sent to the Local Agency Formation Commission, the panel studying secession of the San Fernando Valley and the Harbor area.

LAFCO had previously declined to adopt disclosure rules, questioning its own authority to do so.

Gov. Gray Davis recently signed a bill by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) that the ethics officials said gives “clear authority” for the rules.

In addition to seeking the disclosure of contributions and expenditures for cityhood petitions, the ethics officials asked that lobbyists be required to disclose who is paying them to influence the decision-making process.

“By providing public access to such information, the Los Angeles LAFCO will be taking an important step toward maximizing public confidence in the special reorganization process and in all governmental decisions LAFCO is empowered to make,” according to the letter.

Larry Calemine, the executive director of LAFCO, said Tuesday that the panel has formed a committee to consider possible disclosure rules and will probably hold a public hearing early next year to get input.

“It’s a complicated issue,” Calemine said. “We are in the process of reviewing it.”

The issue was first raised in 1998, when Valley VOTE acknowledged having spent more than $500,000 on a petition drive to trigger a study of cityhood for the San Fernando Valley, but refused to disclose its donors or expenditures. The group said identifying backers on an issue opposed by downtown political interests could lead to retaliation. The biggest financial backer in 1998 turned out to be the Los Angeles Daily News, which has campaigned for Valley cityhood.

Calemine said he supports disclosure in general, but hasn’t decided how detailed the rules should be.

The Ethics Commission’s call for broad disclosure is likely to be met with resistance from some members of the panel.

Henri Pellissier, who is on the committee looking at possible rules, said he understands those who want to know who is bankrolling breakup proposals, but said he is concerned whether there might be retaliation.

“I’m concerned that if people in city government are backing it, those people could be at risk” Pellissier said.

He said the board may have to look at creating a threshold amount for contributions and expenditures to make sure people do not have to file paperwork every time they call a commissioner with a question.

City Councilman Hal Bernson, a LAFCO member, said that the concept of disclosure is good, but that he is not sure it should be required before a cityhood proposal makes the ballot and becomes a political question for the voters.

But LAFCO Chairman Tom Jackson of Huntington Park said he would be likely to support broad disclosure by secession groups and lobbyists.

“There should be some way for me to know who is paying for it,” Jackson said. Under state law, after more than a quarter of all registered voters in the Valley signed petitions, LAFCO began a study of the economic impact of secession. The issue would ultimately be decided by city voters.

Previous state law already required disclosure of contributions and expenditures after measures were listed on the ballot.

Krinsky, a federal prosecutor, said in an interview that there are many government agencies with lobbyist and campaign disclosure rules that can serve as models for LAFCO. She said any new rules on contributions for initiating cityhood studies probably should not apply retroactively to Valley VOTE and Harbor VOTE for the petition drives they completed many months ago.

The Hertzberg legislation specifically exempts groups that file secession applications before Jan. 1, 2001, when the bill takes effect.

Meanwhile, City Hall hearings on the Valley and Harbor secession plans continued Tuesday with City Librarian Susan Kent warning that dividing up the library system among the Valley, Harbor and the remainder of Los Angeles would negatively affect service to patrons.