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Who Needs Prop R to be Ethical-Just Say No |
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Perspective
By Ken Draper
Prop R … the controversial lobbying and ethics reform ballot measure …has failed, as opponents predicted it would almost two years ago. Here are some of the reasons...
 Lobbyists are still surreptitiously raising sizable funds for the campaigns of our elected officials. Tax payers are still paying attorneys to defend the city in court because the City Council, at minimum, skirted the state’s single issue on a ballot measure law. The City Council still has not repaired the damage to its trust and credibility for bypassing public involvement in their decision to launch the initiative and for deceptively covering the extension of their term limits with an the ethics reform theme.
A year ago, the LA Daily News’ Beth Barrett, wrote that political donations continue to pour in through a loophole in Prop R that allows lobbyists to organize fundraising events.
“Measure R … was billed as a tough crackdown on lobbyists’ conduct,” she noted, “but it did not close the loophole used to funnel nearly $1 million to elected officials and candidates.”
Even Lisa White, president of the League of Women Votes of Los Angeles … which sponsored Prop R … said the fundraising issue was overlooked.
“We didn’t think about it,” White told Barrett, “we didn’t address those issues.”
One of the reasons it didn’t get the makers full attention was because ethics reform wasn’t the primary goal of the deceptive ballot measure. Extending the terms of LA’s electeds was real reason for the initiative.
But, polling showed that voters were less likely to approve a straight-talk measure extending term limits than they were if they were distracted by the idea of ethics reform.
Prop R was on the ballot in November of 2006. Now, a year and a half later, little has changed.
Ethics Commissioner Bill Boyarsky called it a sham. “I just didn’t realize it was that much of a sham,” he said.
Councilman Dennis Zine said that the loophole “has to be addressed and resolved. The idea was to take lobbyists out of the equation.”
It’s a year later and there is no sign of anyone … not the League, not co-sponsor the LA Chamber of Commerce, not the City Council … trying to plug the loophole.
One might reasonably expect, if these folks are as anxious to correct their mistake as they were to rush the initiative past the public and onto the ballot, they would, as you read this, be working feverishly on a corrective measure for this November’s ballot.
Many lobbyists told Barrett that City Council members asked them to conduct fundraisers. They reported raising amounts of $75,000, $71,950, $54,959, $43,167 for some council members.
Prop R was a flawed measure. Unfortunately, only 30% of the voters got it in November, 2006 and voted no.
In the meantime, tenacious David Hernandez continues trek through the court maze. He’s trying to get Prop R set aside on the grounds that it violates the states one issue per initiative law. He has worked his way up to the appellate level. Hernandez is due to file his final brief in the next couple of weeks.
And the city continues to defend itself, courtesy of LA’s taxpayers. Of course, the City Attorney could be spending our money on other business had the Council been straight with the voters in the first place and simply submitted an initiative to extend term limits.
A decision that may have helped them promote and pass Prop R, but to this day remains a stain on their credibility.
One lobbyist told the Daily News that council members or their staffers routinely ask them to hold fundraisers. He said that his office did it regularly. “The law allows it,” he said.
Council members and lobbyists alike, squeezing through a loophole to do something that the makers of Prop R said they neglected to address and Councilmember Zine said needed to be addressed and resolved. Because the law allows it.
Begging the questions: Why do we need a law to be ethical? Why not just say no? (Ken Draper is the editor of CityWatch. He can be reached at
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