LOBBYING - How much influence on L.A.'s elected officeholders and other city officials does $33 million buy? The question is impossible to answer precisely, but it's certainly germane, given that $33 million is what clients paid registered lobbying firms last year to represent their interests in City Hall.
Those lobbying firms were also involved in political fundraising and the delivery of campaign contributions to city council members and other elected officeholders---many from clients with business before the city--to the tune of more than $800,000. But more about that later.
The leader of the lobbying spend-o-rama was AEG, the Colorado-based sports and entertainment giant that owns Staples Center and L.A. Live. That's no surprise, given that the privately-held company wants to build a new downtown stadium to bring the NFL back to the city's football-starved masses. According to City Ethics Commission records for 2011, AEG paid $1,877,410 to three firms employing a total of 34 registered lobbyists, although it's unknown if every member of that small army actually worked on AEG-related business.
AEG is one of 518 lobbying clients registered with the Ethics Commission. The list includes major corporations like Chevron, Coca-Cola, Google and IBM, as well as lesser-known entities like Project Frog and Red Hot Enterprises. Also on the list are individuals--the musician Ry Cooder is one--as well as schools, hospitals, and at least one community organization, the Venice Stakeholders Association. Major labor unions are represented by lobbying firms, as are some Southern California cities--Palmdale, Ontario, and Vernon, among others.
Looking after the City Hall interests of this diverse collection of clients are 116 firms with 263 registered lobbyists on their payrolls. Some employ a single lobbyists, while others, like the L.A.-based international law firm of Latham & Watkins, can send 22 different persons the few blocks to City Hall to buttonhole councilmembers, commissioners, and other city officials.
But back to the question, what are they getting for their money? In AEG's case, it looks like the road to the approvals needed to build the stadium has been cleared of major obstacles, and one can assume that the firms lobbying on the company's behalf--Latham & Watkins; Armbruster, Goldsmith & Delvac; and Sage Advisers--were at least partly responsible. But what about the second biggest spender on the list, Millenium Partners, a New York-based real estate development company that paid $782,564 last year to two lobbying firms?
The answer can be found at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, where Millenium plans to build a large mixed-use commercial and residential project on property surrounding the iconic Capitol Records building. A project of its scale will require multiple permits and entitlements and hearings before the City Planning Commission and a City Council committee, and there will almost certainly be meetings with various officials as well as community and neighborhood organizations. In other words, plenty of work for lobbyists seeking to defuse any outbursts of opposition or other roadblocks in the path to the project's eventual approval by the City Council.
For Tower Lane Properties, the company that spent the third-most on lobbying last year, the equation between lobbying and expected results is equally visible. According to a March, 2011 article in the L.A. Times, Tower Lane is seeking to build an 85,000 sq. ft. family compound in a wealthy residential area of Benedict Canyon. An eruption of neighborhood opposition may explain why the company shelled out $597,765 to a pair of lobbying firms, an amount that could build a very nice house for most city residents.
Other companies spending more than a half million dollars last year on lobbying were iStar Financial, a real estate investment firm involved in the large-scale Ponte Vista development planned for San Pedro, and NBC Universal, which wants to redevelop its Universal City property in the Cahuenga Pass area. Like the Millenium project in Hollywood, these developments will require multiple hearings and approvals, and like the Tower Lane project, have attracted considerable opposition from neighborhood and community groups.
Of the 518 lobbying clients, twenty-two spent more than a quarter million dollars last year on attempts to influence some official or agency. Of those, two-thirds were involved in real estate development, as property owners, developers, or financiers. Clients with non-development interests included the billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor, Fresh & Easy markets, the BNSF Railway, and the Official Police Garages Assn., which represents towing and storage facilities with city contracts.
Now back to fundraising and campaign contributions. Registered lobbying firms are required to report funds they raise for city office candidates, and contributions they make directly or deliver to officeholders and candidates on behalf of individuals, businesses, labor unions, or other entities. Those activities last year resulted in an infusion of $814,457 into campaign coffers and officeholder accounts of 27 different candidates and elected city officials, according to Ethics Commission records.
Who were the biggest beneficiaries of this lobbyist largesse? At the head of list was Dennis Zine,
a City Councilman and candidate for City Controller in the 2013 election who got $87,100 from lobbying firms in 2011. Not far behind was City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who took in $80,296 in lobbyist-related funds to help her campaign for mayor in the upcoming election. Other sitting council members who benefited nicely from this lobbyist activity were Council President Herb Wesson, with $62,065; Paul Krekorian, $42,395; Bernard Parks, $40,000; Jose Huizar; $37,300; and Mitchell Englander, $37,050.
Councilman Tom LaBonge, who wasn't up for re-election last year, badly lagged his colleagues, getting only $8,500 from lobbying firms. Councilman Ed Reyes, who did run in last year's election, didn't do a lot better, with $15,100, but that could be a reflection of the fact that $43,900 in lobbyist funds flowed to Jose Gardea, who is running for Reyes' seat in next year's election and is regarded as the councilman's anointed successor although he could be facing a tough race against termed-out State Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, who has announced his candidacy for the seat.
(Dennis Hathaway is the president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight and a contributor to CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) –cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 17
Pub Feb 28, 2012