Orange County’s largest public corruption scandal in recent history is leading some city officials in the county to tighten regulations and try to create more transparency on lobbyists – people paid to influence local leaders.
The Fall of Reform
Corruption probes in Anaheim are triggering tough ethics discussions across OC and Southern California. Will reform follow?
Officials in the City of Orange voted unanimously this week to finalize an ordinance without discussion that would require lobbyists to register and publicly disclose their activities in the city.
The newly adopted law comes after investigations by both the FBI and Anaheim-hired investigators concluded that Anaheim City Hall was essentially run by Disneyland resort interests and lobbyists.
The FBI found that lobbyists in Anaheim as well as Irvine failed to disclose their activity at city hall and alleged attempted bribery in Irvine.
As a result of the scandal, Anaheim officials have voted to tighten their lobbyist registration ordinance to include in-house lobbyists while Irvine officials are looking at making changes of their own.
[Read: Orange County’s Biggest Cities Tackle Lobbying Reform]
Anaheim’s independent investigators also found that lobbyists and city officials were at a secret meeting where resort interests floated the idea of keeping as much as $100 million out of the general fund – the city’s most flexible spending pool, which can pay for things like park upgrades and library services.
[Read: How Disneyland Resort Interests Planned to Withhold Tax Money from Anaheim’s Working Class]
Orange Looks at Lobbyist Reform
Orange City Councilwoman Kathy Tauvolaris proposed the ordinance in the fallout of the scandal in Anaheim and Irvine, but said lobbying is still an important part of getting projects done in the city and called the new law a safeguard for the city council.
“I do not want this to be a bashing of lobbyists,” she said at the Nov. 28 meeting when the ordinance was introduced.
“Since I’ve been on council, it’s been three years of being caught in the middle of different lobbyists trying to peddle for their business, which is fine for them to do except when they’re including a council person in the middle of it.”
Orange officials in October decided to create an ad hoc committee in light of the corruption scandal to draft their own lobbyist registration and disclosure ordinance.
The new ordinance carves out several exemptions including for journalists, public officials, state licensed architects and engineers and employees of a business.
City Councilwoman Arianna Barrios publicly pushed back against a recommendation from Shirley Grindle, who authored the county’s own campaign finance ordinance in 1978, to require lobbyists working in-house at a company to disclose their activity – a change freshly implemented in Anaheim.
“That’s a big ask and it is a dragnet,” Barrios said at the Nov. 28 meeting, adding that it’s something future city councils could decide. “Nor do I think in Orange that there’s that particular problem.”
Barrios is the founder and CEO of Communications LAB – a public relations firm with ties to Faubel Public Affairs, a lobbyist firm.
Anybody who is convicted for violating the law could be banned for up to one year from lobbying in the city.
Disney’s Official Could Be Classified as Lobbyist in Anaheim
Unlike in Orange, one of the biggest changes Anaheim’s elected officials made to their lobbyist ordinance is to require in-house lobbyists to register with the city and disclose their meetings.
That means Disney’s Director of External Affairs Carrie Nocella, whose name popped up multiple times in the city commissioned corruption investigation report, could have to register in Anaheim for the first time.
Investigators accused Nocella of attending a secret Anaheim Chamber of Commerce retreat detailed by the FBI during which former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament spearheaded a plan to keep as much as $100 million out of city coffers – in a town where nearly half of residents are on public health plans.
[Read: Disney’s Representative Could Soon be Considered a Lobbyist at Anaheim City Hall]
Anaheim officials voted 5-2 to finalize their newly amended ordinance on Dec. 5 – one of their biggest reform actions they’ve taken this fall that include publicly posting city council members’ meeting calendars on the city website.
Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Meeks and Jose Diaz spoke against the ordinance – arguing that publicly posting who officials are meeting with is enough and calling the law confusing.
“Having this ordinance is fundamentally bad government, its bureaucratic red tape without benefit to the public,” Meeks said at the Dec. 5 city council meeting.
Meeks called for city staff to bring back a report in a year’s time tracking how much staff time the newly amended law is taking up.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
•••
Since you’ve made it this far,
You obviously care about local news and value good journalism. Help us become 100% reader funded with a tax deductible donation. For as little as $5 a month you can help us reach that goal.