Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Measure L seems like it won’t do much for ethics if it passes

A couple weeks ago Bites wrote that “the current city council is simply not going to create a strong ethics committee.”

Major California cities—like San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles—all have “ethics commissions” with the power to enforce ethics and campaign-finance rules. The strong-mayor proposal on the ballot Tuesday, Measure L, only creates an ethics “committee.” It doesn’t include enforcement power, or any specifics at all.

Measure L spokesman Josh Wood insists, however, “nothing in Measure L precludes the creation of an Ethics Commission.”

So, Bites polled the council members serving on the “ad hoc” committee to implement Measure L: “Do you support an ethics commission with enforcement power?”

Council member Allen Warren didn’t respond. Jay Schenirer’s district director, Joe Devlin, had a little meltdown and replied to a half-dozen of Bites’ emails with the question, “Are you a journalist?” over and over and over again, cc’ing SN&R CEO Jeff vonKaenel every time.

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office sent a statement: “If Measure L doesn’t pass, we will have the status quo—nothing.” If it does pass, the council will have 180 days to figure out the details. How ambitious will they be?

“The charter change, as worded on the ballot initiative, requires the committee and the code,” Councilwoman Angelique Ashby explained. “So the focus is to make sure we comply with that requirement. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t do more, but we certainly can’t do less.”

Asked if she would support an ethics commission with enforcement power, she replied, “A commission is a likely logical next step, but before we round second we need to get to first.”

So, it doesn’t sound like a strong ethics commission is in the works. Unfortunately, the ad hoc meetings are not open to the public, and its recommendations so far are exempt from the California Public Records Act.

There is, however, growing support for real ethics reform at City Hall. District 3 city council candidates Cyril Shah and Jeff Harris both say they support creation of a strong ethics commission, with enforcement power, whether or not Measure L passes. And Measure L’s most vocal opponent on the council, Steve Hansen, says “of course we should create an ethics commission,” though he’s not yet sure of the best model.

And Bites has to credit the Measure L campaign with showing voters just how much special-interest money is flowing into City Hall right now. When even The Sacramento Bee editorial page is wringing its hands about K.J.’s “pay to play” system, you know it’s time for Sacramento to join the majority of major California cities and create an ethics commission with teeth.

And earlier this week, local government watchdog group Eye on Sacramento announced a new campaign for a package of good-government reforms, whether or not Measure L passes—including an independent redistricting commission and a strong ethics commission with enforcement power.

“If Measure L loses, we’ll see if those council members who put L on the ballot are really serious about adopting ethics, redistricting and transparency reforms, or whether it was just campaign puffery to juice votes for L,” said EOS president Craig Powell.

Supporters of Sac City school board candidate Jessie Ryan freaked right out over last week’s column. Bites won’t go into all the behind-the-scenes drama. Suffice it to say, they were stunned when Bites mentioned the Ryan campaign is supported by the California Charter Schools Association Advocates.

Couple of things: One, if you choose not to talk to a reporter, don’t complain that the reporter didn’t print what you wanted to say. Two, as of this writing the Secretary of State reports more than $13,000 worth of independent expenditures from the CCSA Advocates in support of Ryan’s candidacy. That’s more than any other single source of financial support for the Ryan campaign.

Ryan has decided not to talk to Bites directly, apparently taking her plays from supporters Schenirer and Devlin (and yeah, Devlin’s tantrum was probably related). She has since told SN&R editor Nick Miller that she “turned down” direct contributions from CCSA Advocates. That’s interesting. But Bites was clear last week that the charter-schools dough came through an independent-expenditure committee.

It’s understandable that she wants to distance herself from the charter-school money. Nonetheless, that money is putting campaign mail in voters’ mailboxes right now on her behalf.

And whether the money goes through an IE committee or a candidate’s regular campaign committee, donors generally want something from the people they help to elect. That’s why it’s Bites’ job to report on the major interest groups involved in any election, whether it’s the charter schools association or the teachers union.

It is ridiculous for Ryan or her supporters—like Schenirer and Darrell Steinberg—to act like this reporting is somehow off-limits for her campaign.