Pass the canapés: Now, lobbyists can serve appetizers, not report it

Lobbyists and their clients will no longer have to report when they provide public officials with appetizers and drinks at invitation-only events they sponsor, the state ethics agency decided Thursday.

The exemption approved by the state Fair Political Practices Commission to simplify the rules applies when a public official drops by an event, does not stay for dinner and entertainment, but consumes "minimal appetizers and drinks."

The change was opposed by California Common Cause, which argued the public has good cause to know when lobbyists treat public officials to wine and canapés.

"Lobbying entities should have a higher disclosure standard than non-lobbying entities because the nature of lobbying is to influence public decisions," said Phillip Ung, a policy advocate for Common Cause, in a letter to the commission. 

The change approved Thursday, Ung complained, "would result in less disclosure for lobbying entities at a time when we are in need of more of it."

Commissioner Ronald Rotunda cast the only vote against the rule change, saying he wanted to delay action for a month to review Common Cause’s concern.

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Senators vote to give up free tickets to games, concerts

Under a measure approved Thursday by the state Senate, California lawmakers would no longer be able to accept concert and sports tickets, golf games and other gifts from companies lobbying the Legislature.

The measure was proposed by Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) because of what he said was his concern that the Legislature is tainted when members accept spa treatments, Lakers box seats and Disneyland tickets from special interests.

"Every time an elected official receives one of these gifts, it erodes the public trust and undermines the Legislature’s ability to lead on the big issues facing our state," Blakeslee said before the 33-1 vote to approve the measure and send it to the Assembly.

Current state law prohibits lobbyists from providing more than $10 per month in gifts to elected state officials, but their employers -- including oil, tobacco and insurance firms that hire lobbyists to seek favorable treatment from lawmakers -- can give up to $420 per year.

As a result, elected state officials were able to accept $4 million in gifts in the last decade, including tickets from AT&T to Lakers games, a San Francisco Giants World Series game, and golf at Torrey Pines in La Jolla.

SB 1426 would ban state lawmakers from accepting specific gifts that Blakeslee said do not have a legislative purpose, including theater and concert tickets; spa treatments; golf, skiing, hunting and fishing trips; gift cards and tickets to professional sporting events. Tickets to college sporting events would be limited to $25.

"To the public, these gifts just look bad,” said Pedro Morillas, legislative director of the California Public Interest Research Group. "They only serve to fuel the public's perception that it takes money and gifts to get what you want out of a politician."

Sen. Joel Anderson (D-San Diego) cast the only vote against the gift ban. He was not immediately available for comment.

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Photo: State legislators each year attend a golf tournament sponsored by AT&T, which was held last year at Pebble Beach. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

U.S. attorney lobbies against limits on wildfire liability

Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, has launched an unusual and intense lobbying effort to stop Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to limit legal liability for wildfires.

In a letter sent Friday to state Senate and Assembly leaders, Wagner said the proposal would undermine a high-stakes federal lawsuit against Sierra Pacific Industries, California's largest timber company. The civil trial, which involves alleged negligence causing the 2007 Moonlight fire, is scheduled to start on July 2 and could leave the company on the hook for $600 million.

Wagner wrote that his "deep concerns" are shared by the other three U.S. attorneys in California. He called the proposal an attempt to "tilt the legal playing field in the final days before the trial," and he urged lawmakers to "reject this unseemly effort to protect the alleged wrongdoer in a major federal case."

Brown's plan would limit the amount of money government agencies can recoup for battling wildfires and restoring damaged public lands, preventing them from seeking what the proposal calls "excessive damages." The timber industry, which owns large swaths of territory in California and donated to Brown's campaigns, says the federal government has sought several times more than the true cost of repairing the damage.

Wagner said in an interview that the federal government is seeking as much money as possible because recovering from wildfires is a long and expensive process.

"This is not about sending a check to the Treasury," he said. "The money that is recovered in these cases goes right back into the national forests."

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said it's rare for federal prosecutors to delve into the legislative process in Sacramento.

"Usually U.S. attorneys only interact with state politics when they're indicting somebody," Pitney said.

Wagner said he's not interested in shaping public policy, but is concerned that Sierra Pacific was working outside the courtroom to affect the outcome of the federal government's case.

"It appears to us that they're trying to get the Legislature to suddenly change the rules," he said.

Sierra Pacific did not immediately return a request for comment. Nor did representatives for Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles), but an aide to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said he plans to meet with Wagner to discuss the issue.

"The pro tem does not wish to affect any ongoing investigation or prosecution by the U.S. attorney," said Steinberg's spokeswoman, Alicia Trost.

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California government gets B-minus in corruptibility report

California does a poor job providing the public with access to government information but has a safeguard against corruption in aggressive auditors, good disclosure of lobbying activity and the way it redraws legislative districts, according to a survey done by good-government groups.

Overall, California was given a B-minus in the State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms in all 50 states. The grade put California among the top five states, falling just behind New Jersey.

"California scored relatively highly on the State Integrity Index, but the state could improve in such areas as campaign finance enforcement and pension fund management," said the report by the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity.

The state's overall grade was dragged down by a D-minus in the category of public access to information, and a C-minus in the area of judicial accountability, but it received A's in the areas of lobbying disclosure, internal auditing and redistricting. Last year, the state took the redrawing of legislative districts away from legislators and gave the job to a citizens panel.

Last week, a more limited study by the California Public Interest Research Group faulted Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to take down a "transparency" website in giving the state a D-minus on public reporting of spending.

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Photo: Tourists and spectators on the grounds of the Capitol in Sacramento walk through the rain. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Animal activists step up campaign to save California shelter law

The Stray Cat Alliance is not backing down.

Animal activists have pledged to continue their campaign to pressure Gov. Jerry Brown to preserve California's shelter law, enlisting state and local lawmakers and vowing to highlight their cause in Capitol budget hearings.

The law, which lengthened the amount of time shelters must hold stray and abandoned pets before euthanizing them, is on a list of mandates Brown wants to eliminate. The governor has said that shortening the hold period from six days to three would save the state about $46 million per year.

Armed with a petition of more than 13,500 signatures, members of the Stray Cat Alliance met with Brown's finance staff last week to convince the governor otherwise. Christi Metropole, the group's executive director, said officials were not persuaded.

"We don’t believe the Governor's office understands this issue fully yet, and how dire the future will be for animals if it is permanently repealed," she said in a statement. "Californians need to keep up the pressure and explain this is precedent-setting law that saves lives and saves tax dollars."

For its part, the administration has cited a 2008 report from the Legislative Analyst's Office that found "no evidence" that longer holding periods had resulted in increased adoptions, the intent of the law. Brown's office has also said the state can no longer afford the costs at a time when it is slashing social services to balance the budget.

The administration said it is only proposing the repeal of certain provisions.

"Nothing in this proposal would prohibit a city or county from having a hold period that is longer than three days," said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. "It simply says the state will not be paying any additional costs."

Activists touted their own numbers, arguing that the Hayden Law, named after former Democratic state Sen. Tom Hayden, had reduced the number of cats and dogs killed in shelters. They note that the law has been suspended since 2009 and is not costing the state money.

The Stray Cat Alliance will push its case Wednesday at a news conference with Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz. Next week, activists plan to pack a budget subcommittee hearing.

Meanwhile, Brown can't seem to escape the issue.

When the governor visited a labor leader last month to discuss a tax initiative, he faced questions from the union official's 12-year-old daughter. She was writing a report on Brown's effort to repeal portions of the shelter law.

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Photo: Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, walking their dog, Sutter. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Animal advocates blast Gov. Brown for ‘putting pets on death row’

Sure, Gov. Jerry Brown has slashed funding for social welfare programs and public universities by billions, but now, some say he’s gone too far -- he's targeting pets.

Brown has proposed repealing the Hayden Law, named after former Democratic state Sen. Tom Hayden, which gives animals more time in shelters before they are euthanized.

Brown said shortening the time that sherlters must hold strays from six days to three would save the state about $46 million per year.

Hayden criticized Brown -- who with his wife, Anne, owns a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Sutter -- for suggesting the repeal. In an online video, he urged Brown to to "look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animals to die."

California sees record lobbying -- more than $285 million spent

 

Businesses, unions and other special interests set a record for spending on lobbying state government in California last year-- more than $285 million.

Education, healthcare, assistance to a proposed NFL stadium in Los Angeles and a proposal to dissolve the troubled city of  Vernon were among the top issues drawing attention from lobbyists  in 2011.

The amount spent on lobbying was up 6% from the year before, and just above the previous record -- $281.7 spent on lobbying in 2008.

"Lobbying is at record levels because special interests will always look for ways to game the system," said Phillip Ung, a spokesman for California Common Cause. "Californians should be worried that their voices may be drowned out by lobbyists who outnumber legislators 16:1."

The California Teachers Assn. spent the most on lobbying last year, $6.5 million, in a year when schools were battling threatened budget cuts and legislators acted on bills involving education reform and charter schools. Lobbying disclosure reports were required to be filed with the state by midnight Tuesday, although some are still trickling in.

The California State Council of Service Employees was the second-biggest spender on lobbying with $4.9 million, followed by Western States Petroleum Assn. at $4.2 million, the city of Vernon at $3.5 million and Kaiser Health Plan Inc. at $2.9 million. Chevron, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Hospital Assn., the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn. and AT&T rounded out the top ten.

Vernon, an industrial city that is home to many large corporations, was able to defeat legislation by Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles) that would have dissolved the municipal government. Perez sought the bill because of concern about financial mismanagement by the city.

Although not in the top 10, another firm that won a major lobbying victory last year is Anschutz Entertainment Group. It reported paying $608,000 to lobbyists last year and was able to win approval of a custom law that expedites any environmental court challenge filed against its proposal to build an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles.

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Image: Anschutz Entertainment Group spent $608,000 to lobby successfully last year for legislation that would protect a proposed NFL stadium in Los Angeles from protracted litigation. Credit: AEG

CalAccess database for campaign money crashes again ... and again

Want to know how much oil companies are donating to your local assemblyman? How much the tobacco industry is spending on lobbying? Good luck.

The state website that allows residents to look up campaign contributions and lobbying activity was out of service for most of the last week and crashed again Friday -- a reminder, some say, of the state’s neglect of its computer systems.

The computer technology that runs Cal-Access is 12 years old and in need of modernization, but replacement would cost up to $20 million, according to Nicole Winger, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen. "It is fragile," Winger said. "There is no funding for support of this system."

The weeklong crash of the system was caused when a memory module failed. Winger’s agency had to search for one of the three computer experts in the country familiar with the old technology  and finally found a person who could fix it in Auburn.

The crashes are unnecessary, according to Derek Cressman, regional director for Common Cause. "It is outright embarrassing that the state where Silicon Valley is leading the world in computer technology cannot maintain its campaign disclosure system up to modern standards,'' Cressman said.

He said the fees required of lobbyists to register with the state are among the lowest in the nation, and are lower than getting a fishing license. "So it should be a no brainer to raise those fees modestly to finance whatever improvements are needed in the Cal-Access system,'' Cressman said.

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Proposed changes to rules on gifts to public officials draw protests

 

The state’s ethics watchdog panel is considering what its chairwoman calls "a complete overhaul" of regulations on gifts to public officials, and some of the proposals drew objections Friday from open-government advocates.

California Common Cause welcomed many of the changes for making the rules clearer but worries that others could create loopholes allowing special interests to try to exert undue influence through gifts.

"Unfortunately, in some cases, more specificity can potentially open up more opportunities for special interests to 'game the system,’"wrote Phillip Ung,  the group’s policy advocate, in a letter to the state Fair Political Practices Commission on Friday. The panel is set to vote on the changes Thursday.

Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel said Friday the changes proposed by the staff are aimed at making the gift rules "more clear" and more reflective of the law and advice the agency has provided to public officials over the years.

Currently, public officials are prevented from accepting gifts worth more than $420 from a single source or $10 from a registered lobbyist, and must publicly disclose gifts. The new rules would clarify that gifts from family members, longtime friends and someone the official is dating are not subject to reporting requirements.

Ung  and attorney Robert Stern, who helped write the Political Reform Act, are concerned that the panel’s staff has also proposed to exempt from the limits "home hospitality" gifts, including food, drink and lodging provided in a home by the home’s owner. "The proposed regulations do nothing to prevent registered lobbyists from providing home hospitality, even though such gifts would be highly influential and would most certainly exceed the lobbyist’s gift limit," Ung wrote to the commission. Ravel said she would not comment on the issue until she has had a chance to review the letter.

Stern also objects to a proposal that he said would allow government officials to travel overseas and have their expenses paid for by a special interest as long as the travel relates to a governmental purpose and could have been reimbursed by the official’s agency. "Philosophically, I have a problem opening up more loopholes for travel paid for by special interests," Stern wrote.

 

-- Patrick McGreevy, reporting from Sacramento

Amazon cuts a deal with legislative leaders

Amazon has cut a deal with top legislative leaders to avoid a ballot battle over the state's insistence that the online retailer collect state sales tax on purchases by Californians.

Amazon would delay collecting taxes until September 2012, according to multiple sources directly involved in the matter. A new state law mandated that it gather the fees starting this past July. Instead, Amazon has poured $5 million into collecting signatures for a referendum challenging the law.

Under the deal, Amazon's referendum would never make it to the ballot. It would clear the way for a special legislative maneuver to make the sales tax law impervious to challenges at the polls. If Congress acts by next summer to settle the contentious issue of how online retailers should be taxed, that decision would override Amazon's deal with California.

The sources declined to be identified because the deal has not been made public. Notably, there is no word yet from Gov. Jerry Brown, who last week rejected an olive branch from Amazon that included the offer of opening two distribution centers in the state in exchange for being allowed to start collecting the tax in 2014.

"I'm concerned about anything that would reduce revenues going forward because we're in a very uncertain economy," the governor said last week. "We need more revenues unless we're going to keep curbing schools, courts, corrections."

However, Senate Democrats and Republicans have signed off on the deal, as well as the Assembly's Democrats, the sources said.

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Photo: A UPS driver delivers Amazon.com packages in Palo Alto in June. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press