Could controversy over Bulgari Hotel planned in Benedict Canyon lead to ethics reforms in L.A. City Hall?
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, June 20, requested a report on how the city could revise its ethics and conflict of interest laws to require lobbyists to disclose ties to a council member — or their staff.
The motion by Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky was in response to a possible ethics violation by her predecessor’s deputy of planning and land use, in acquiring a zoning designation forEthics Commission records indicated that Stacey Brenner received more than $174,000 for lobbying efforts to obtain the General Plan amendment for the hotel project while her husband, Shawn Bayliss, was working as the planning and land use deputy for then-Councilmember Paul Koretz.
“There is absolutely no evidence that the City Ethics Office or the City Attorney’s Office were ever consulted about this clear conflict of interest that this presented and whether or how they could mitigate that conflict,” Yaroslavsky said in May when the full council considered an appeal of the hotel project.
Brenner was the one who personally submitted and signed the General Plan amendment application, Yaroslavsky added. The councilmember also noted that the developer, Gary Safady, had spent almost $3 million to lobby for the amendment.In an attempt to prevent conflict of interests from occurring in general, the motion instructed the chief legislative analyst, the city’s Ethics Department and the City Attorney’s Office to report back on whether and how the city could do so.
Specifically, the motion requested city staff to establish laws that require lobbyists to disclose if they are a spouse, registered domestic partner, parent or child of a council member or council member’s staff and require them to file a Form 700, statements of economic interests under the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
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