LIMITING LOBBYISTS' INFLUENCE ETHICS PACKAGE WOULD SET RESTRICTIONS.Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer The City Council today is expected to consider a long-delayed ethics package that seeks to limit the influence of lobbyists on elected officials they helped put into office. A main element of the proposal would require council members to recuse To disqualify or remove oneself as a judge over a particular proceeding because of one's conflict of interest. Recusal, or the judge's act of disqualifying himself or herself from presiding over a proceeding, is based on the Maxim themselves from matters that involve lobbyists or city bidders who helped to raise $7,000 or more in the past year for the council member's campaign. The package going to the council was delayed for more than a year and watered down in a council committee. The city's Ethics Commission In the United States, an Ethics Commission is a commission established by State law to discourage dishonest practices by their public employees and elected officials. Almost all American states have such a commission. , which proposed the package in August 2001, wanted the recusal recusal n. the act of a judge or prosecutor being removed or voluntarily stepping aside from a legal case due to conflict of interest or other good reason. (See: recuse) threshold to be set at $1,000 and wanted it to apply to any committee controlled by a council member, such as one spearheading a ballot measure drive like last year's secession secession, in art secession, in art, any of several associations of progressive artists, especially those in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, who withdrew from the established academic societies or exhibitions. campaign. The council's Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental in·ter·gov·ern·men·tal adj. Being or occurring between two or more governments or divisions of a government. in Relations Committee, chaired by City Council President Alex Padilla Alex Padilla is a politician in California. He was elected as the State Senator for the 20th District of California in November 2006 and was inaugurated in early December. In order to enter the Senate he had to resign as Councilman for the 7th District on the Los Angeles City , raised the threshold to $7,000 and removed ballot measure committees from counting toward that amount. The Ethics Commission also is seeking to increase the amount of reporting lobbyists do about their activities on behalf of elected officials. For example, on their quarterly reports, lobbyists would have to: --Disclose fund-raising activities on behalf of city officials and candidates. --Disclose donations of more than $1,000 to any nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. on behalf of an elected official or candidate. --Disclose contributions to other political committees made at the request of an elected official or candidate. --Give the Ethics Commission copies of fund-raising solicitations at the time they are distributed. The rules committee kept most of those provisions, but raised the disclosure amount to $5,000 for donations to nonprofits on someone else's behalf and removed the provision applying to donations made to other candidates at the request of an official. |
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