It’s been nearly a year and a half since elected leaders at Los Angeles City Hall promised ethics reforms after a series of scandals forced the City Council president to resign and sent other members of the council to federal prison. In the wake of those events, political leaders said reform would be a top priority.
And yet there’s been no action — no hearings, no votes — on proposed changes to the City Charter that would make the Ethics Commission more independent and give it more power. The changes were first proposed by the commission in October 2022.
“Given all of the scandals that have been going on, all of the corruption at City Hall, it’s really high time that they at least have a discussion on this,” said Sean McMorris, the Transparency, Ethics and Accountability Program manager for Common Cause, an organization that fights for government accountability.
“The clock is ticking,” he said.
The City Council has until early July to act to place the proposals on the November ballot. The proposals include increasing the amount of fines the Ethics Commission can impose, giving the panel the ability to place reforms directly on the ballot, and providing the panel with attorneys who are independent of the city attorney, one of the elected leaders the commission watchdogs.
The proposals must first go through the Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform.
What do current City Council members say?
A spokesperson for City Council President Paul Krekorian, who chairs the committee, said a hearing to consider reform would be scheduled for later this month. Krekorian became council president after Nury Martinez resigned the position in…
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