The nonprofit L.A. Mayor’s Fund is getting new ethics guidelines

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Document — our Metropolis Corridor publication. It’s Dakota Smith on the helm, with an enormous help from David Zahniser, Emily Alpert Reyes and Caroline Petrow-Cohen.

The Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund, a nonprofit began underneath former Mayor Eric Garcetti, was at one time a fundraising machine, pulling in additional than $60 million throughout Garcetti’s two phrases in workplace.

Good-government consultants commonly voiced considerations. They argued that the nonprofit’s operations, whereas offering wanted funding for neighborhood packages, additionally gave off the looks of a pay-to-play system throughout the mayor’s workplace.

Now, Mayor Karen Bass and the leaders of the nonprofit are making adjustments that might deal with a few of that previous criticism.

Mayoral workers will now not be allowed to lift cash for the Mayor’s Fund, or for different nonprofits and foundations related to the town, together with these related to the Police and Fireplace departments, underneath new pointers introduced this week by Bass.

That’s a stark departure from how the fund operated underneath Garcetti. Employees within the mayor’s workplace helped increase cash for the nonprofit, in some instances asking for donations from corporations or people that did enterprise with the town, a 2021 Instances story revealed.

The Mayor’s Fund’s board of administrators additionally voted lately to ban behested donations from registered metropolis lobbyists and restricted builders, a time period to explain builders which have enterprise earlier than the town.

Conway Collis, who joined the Mayor’s Fund as its chief government earlier this yr, mentioned in an interview that the brand new guidelines are meant to align extra intently with metropolis marketing campaign finance guidelines. Registered lobbyists and restricted builders are already barred from donating to political campaigns.

“What we have been making an attempt to keep away from was … individuals utilizing donations to attempt to curry favor,” Collis mentioned.

The rules seem to handle considerations over a sort of fundraising that has far fewer restrictions than different donations collected by L.A. metropolis politicians.

Though Bass can’t increase greater than $1,800 per donor for her officeholder account, the Mayor’s Fund is allowed by regulation to gather limitless sums. And whereas Bass is required to report the identify of every political donor who supplies her with $100 or extra, the Mayor’s Fund must publicly disclose solely every donation of $5,000 or extra that’s raised in Bass’ identify — a sort of contribution referred to as a behested fee.

Bob Stern, who helped draft the town’s ethics legal guidelines within the early Nineteen Nineties, referred to as the adjustments introduced by Bass’ workplace and the Mayor’s Fund “good steps, however not sufficient.”

Stern mentioned the nonprofit ought to go additional and settle for cash solely from charitable organizations, nonprofits, or rich people. In different phrases, teams that don’t need one thing again from Metropolis Corridor.

“When individuals or teams give they usually have enterprise pending earlier than the town — nicely, that’s why they provide,” Stern mentioned.

Garcetti helped launch the Mayor’s Fund in 2013, shortly after taking workplace. It operated out of workplace house at Metropolis Corridor, simply steps from the mayor’s workplace. Donations and grants given to the fund helped pay for an array of packages — environmental initiatives, youth employment, schooling and COVID-19 aid measures — that have been carried out by the town or impartial teams.

In contrast, the Mayor’s Fund underneath Bass has centered completely on stopping homelessness.

The Mayor’s Fund additionally moved its workplace out of Metropolis Corridor, to point out there may be extra independence from the town, Collis mentioned.

In one other change, he mentioned, the fund will take into account all donations that come into the nonprofit as behested funds.

That’s additionally totally different than from the operations underneath Garcetti. Throughout his tenure, the nonprofit didn’t publicly report donations that have been offered straight from contributors as a result of they weren’t straight sought by the mayor or his crew.

Below Bass, the Mayor’s Fund has raised about $2.8 million, in response to reviews filed with the town. Charitable foundations, labor unions and leisure leaders are amongst those that have written huge checks.

Cruise, a division of Basic Motors that has sought to function driverless automobiles in California, gave the nonprofit $100,000 this yr, in response to filings with the town.

Ruth Kwon, Bass’ mayoral ethics officer, mentioned the adjustments introduced this week “make it much more clear that the Bass administration is prioritizing the very best customary of ethics.”

State of play

— GRAND PLANS: The mayor’s homelessness crew can be counting on the L.A. Grand Resort a short time longer. Bass had been planning to maneuver a whole bunch of unhoused Angelenos out of the L.A. Grand and into the Mayfair Resort, which the town bought final summer time, in a couple of months. Nonetheless, a brand new report says the Mayfair received’t be able to tackle new residents till Could 1. To accommodate the delay, the mayor’s crew is planning to increase the town’s lease on the L.A. Grand — which has been charging practically $4,700 per room monthly, together with meals — till July 31.

— CARRILLO CASE: A choose on Friday delayed a listening to till Jan. 19 within the DUI case filed in opposition to state Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, now working for Metropolis Council. Below the situations of the postponement, Carrillo can be required to attend Alcoholics Nameless conferences twice per week. Carrillo’s lawyer, Alex Kessel, informed the choose that the state lawmaker has already been attending AA on her personal accord. The assemblymember’s blood-alcohol content material on the time of her arrest was 0.18, greater than double the authorized restrict of 0.08, in response to metropolis prosecutor Adam Micale.

— A LITTLE LEE-MENTUM: Rep. Barbara Lee’s marketing campaign for U.S. Senate picked up the endorsements of two L.A. council members: Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martínez, who make up a part of the council’s leftmost flank. “Our marketing campaign’s path to win has all the time run by communities of coloration and younger progressive voters,” Lee’s marketing campaign supervisor mentioned in an announcement.

— STEPPING DOWN: Longtime mayoral appointee Samantha Millman is stepping down from the Metropolis Planning Fee after an eight-year run. Millman, appointed to the put up in 2015 by then Mayor Eric Garcetti, had spent the final 5 years because the fee’s president, serving to to information it by the Zoom-heavy COVID years.

— FOCUS ON THE 4TH: Two candidates certified for the March 5 poll within the race for the council’s 4th District: Levon “Lev” Baronian, who serves on the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, and Councilmember Nithya Raman, who’s working for a second four-year time period. Raman’s district covers a lot of the Hollywood Hills, stretching from Silver Lake to Encino.

— POLICE PRESENCE: One other candidate planning to run within the 4th is Deputy Metropolis Atty. Ethan Weaver, who has not but turned in his petitions. On Wednesday, he picked up the endorsement of the Los Angeles Police Protecting League, the union representing practically 9,000 rank-and-file LAPD officers. Though that wasn’t an enormous shock, it was noteworthy, because the union generally spends huge on its favored candidates.

— A GROWING FIELD: The checklist of candidates continues to develop within the Eastside’s 14th District, the place Councilmember Kevin de León and three others have certified for the poll thus far. The others are Carrillo and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, and, most lately, schoolteacher Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas, who celebrated his achievement with an electronic mail asserting “socialism can be on the poll in March.”

— MEANWHILE, IN THE 10TH: 4 candidates have certified thus far within the tenth District, which stretches from Koreatown to the Crenshaw Hall. They’re Councilmember Heather Hutt, Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, environmentalist Aura Vasquez and lawyer Grace Yoo.

— HOME-SHARING HURDLE: The council endorsed a plan to pressure Airbnb operators to undergo a brand new bureaucratic hurdle, requiring that every host safe permits from the LAPD earlier than opening their houses for short-term rental. That requirement is a part of a a lot bigger ordinance that imposes new rules on the event of recent motels.

— REDISTRICTING REFORM: In a separate motion, the council moved forward with its plan for a November 2024 poll measure creating an impartial redistricting fee to attract council district boundary traces. That was one in all a number of reform proposals mentioned within the wake of final yr’s audio leak scandal.

— SLOWING DOWN: Work on one other reform measure — increasing the dimensions of the Metropolis Council — has slowed down significantly. On Thursday, a council committee held off but once more on taking any motion on that proposal, opting as a substitute to proceed finding out the idea subsequent yr.

— BYE-BYE, BALLOT MEASURES: Angelenos received’t find yourself voting on whether or not to cap the compensation of L.A. hospital executives, or on a $25-per-hour healthcare minimal wage. SEIU-United Healthcare Employees West, which backed each proposals, withdrew them after the passage of Senate Invoice 525, which can step by step increase the minimal wage to $25 for a lot of healthcare staff statewide. The regulation prohibits cities and counties from adopting healthcare wage or compensation measures for the following a number of years.

— NO RODRIGUEZ RUN: Former U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas delivered a jolt to San Fernando Valley political circles final week, saying he received’t run for an additional two-year time period. On Friday, one other Valley politician, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, issued an announcement saying she won’t run for his seat. “With so many households challenged to satisfy primary wants and the continued homeless disaster, my dedication stays with the L.A. Metropolis Council,” she mentioned.

Fast hits

• The place Did Inside Secure Go? The mayor’s program to fight homelessness returned to South Los Angeles, specializing in the intersection of 81st and Hoover streets. It was her thirty second Inside Secure operation, and her newest in Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s South L.A. district.
• On the docket for subsequent week: The council is right down to its last two weeks of enterprise for 2023, and the agendas can be packed. The council’s Planning and Land Use Administration Committee will take up 24 separate objects, together with a controversial proposal to permit the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to put in dozens of recent digital billboards.
• FAREWELL, JULIA!: Beloved Metropolis Corridor reporter Julia Wick is shifting off the native authorities beat and over to the state and nationwide politics crew. She’ll be masking the presidential race and a few California congressional races. So please ship suggestions her method!