Ethics Panel Sends a Campaign Funding Plan to Council

By Jeffrey Rabin, Times Staff Writer

On Tuesday, the same day that special interests behind a successful ballot measure to ease term limits held a celebratory party that included elected officials, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission sent to the City Council a proposal for full public financing of municipal election campaigns.

For months, the Ethics Commission has been struggling to draft a proposal to reduce special-interest influence by having taxpayers spend up to $11.6 million a year to pay for the campaigns of candidates for City Council, mayor, city attorney and controller.

Despite concerns voiced by campaign-reform advocates that the proposal doesn't go far enough, the commission voted 4 to 1 to send the proposal to the council.

Commission vice president Bill Boyarsky, a former city editor at the Los Angeles Times, backed the plan for full public financing of city campaigns.

"It takes campaign financing to a great extent and puts it in the hands of the public," Boyarsky said, "instead of businesses and labor unions who run City Hall."

What the council will do with the package remains to be seen. The commission urged council members to send the proposal to the city's neighborhood councils for review.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said the proposal is a starting point for discussion about a so-called clean money approach to financing Los Angeles election campaigns.

Greuel said she believes her council colleagues will seek comment from the neighborhood councils, campaign reform advocates and other interested parties.

She noted that Proposition 89, which would have established a system of public financing for state election campaigns, was soundly defeated in last week's balloting, the same day local voters agreed to ease term limits for council members.

"There is a lot of education and discussion that needs to happen" regarding clean money, Greuel said.

Six hours after the commission voted, supporters of Proposition R gathered at a downtown restaurant to celebrate passage of the ballot measure that allows council members to serve 12 years instead of eight.

The reception was held at Liberty Grill, a restaurant co-owned by the wife of Tim Leiweke, chief executive of Anschutz Entertainment Group. The largest contributor to the Proposition R campaign was the L.A. Arena Co., part of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the entertainment arm of Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.

Last year, the council approved up to $290 million in subsidies and loans for construction of a high-rise hotel as part of the L.A. Live project rising next to Staples Center and the city's financially troubled convention center.

Other leading donors to the campaign included developers and builders who do business with the city or have projects that need city approval.

The Ethics Commission's five members are appointed to enforce the city's campaign finance laws.

The city's voters in 1990 approved a system of partial public financing of political campaigns under which private contributions are matched with tax dollars. The system has helped open the council doors to political newcomers, but its effect has been limited in much more costly citywide contests.

Commission President Gil Garcetti urged his colleagues to send the proposal for full public financing to the council, which is headed by his son, council President Eric Garcetti.

But Commissioner Sean Treglia objected to approving the plan without more public hearings. "I'm not comfortable that we have heard from the public," he said.

Treglia said he was concerned that campaign reform "proposals generated from inside the house traditionally fail."

His concerns echoed those expressed by Susan Lerner, executive director of the California Clean Money Campaign, sponsor of the defeated statewide measure.

As recommended by the commission, candidates for council would have to raise $25,000 in contributions from individuals living in the city to receive public financing. The maximum donation allowed to qualify for public financing would be $250.

Once they qualified, candidates for City Council could receive $350,000 in public funds for an initial campaign and slightly less for a runoff.

Candidates for city attorney or controller would have to raise $75,000. Mayoral candidates would have to collect $150,000. The maximum contribution to qualify in citywide races would be $500.

Candidates for controller could receive $1 million, city attorney could get $1.5 million and mayor $3.5 million in the first-round campaign.

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