City Hall Web Site Doesn't Disclose Or Post Dissenting Views on Council "Discretionary Funds" By Four Members -- One Third -- of Council Appointed Ethics Comm'n; We Post Majority AND Dissenting Reports
Independent Neighborhood Activist Bry Myown Submits Detailed Recommendations Calling For Sweeping Reforms; We Post Her Written Recommendations Verbatim
(July 6, 2002) -- LB City Hall's official web site includes a link to the majority version of the "Final Report Long Beach Ethics Task Force" but doesn't post or disclose the existence of dissenting reports on the issue of Council "discretionary funds" by a third of the Ethics Commission's In the public interest, LBReport.com posts links to both the majority and dissenting reports, below.
Meanwhile, veteran neighborhood activist Bry Myown (not a member of the Commission) has charged that a majority of the Council selected Commission effectively used the issue of "discretionary funds" at a recent public meeting to avoid seriously considering public input on implementation of recommended actions and the need for more sweeping reforms.
In detailed written testimony submitted to the Ethics Commission (to date without public response), Ms. Myown's recommendations (which we post in full below) go beyond those of City Hall's appointees. Ms. Myown calls for greater public access to public records, including placement of a Sunshine Initiative on a citywide ballot; extending conflict of interest recommendations to part-time employees and elected officials; creating a review and audit process for Economic Disclosure filings and requiring them for potential Commission appointees before appointments are approved by the City Council and for "quasi-public agencies" such as the Aquarium of the Pacific Board of Directors and the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors.
Ethics Commission members were approved by Councilmembers last year and tasked to prepare a report for Council reivew. Efforts to create an Ethics Commission with enforcement powers failed when concerns raised by some Councilmembers (notably 4th district Councilman Dennis Carroll) prevailed in restricting the Commission to delivering a written report.
The results of the As of July 5th, City Hall web site advises in pertinent part, "The full text of 'The Final Report of the Long Beach Ethics Task Force' (minus appendices) is provided...The appendices are too voluminous to include..." and lists a phone number where they may be obtained.
It doesn't mention that four of the Commission's twelve members dissent from the Final Report. Three Commission members (Haubert, Barwick, Williams) joined in one dissent, and Commission member Otto filed a separate dissent, all on the issue of In the public interest, LBReport.com posts links to both the "Final Report" and the dissenting reports in Section 1, below.
We post the text of Ms. Myown's Ethics Recommendations in full in Section 2, below.
Discretionary funds, defended by some as directing resources to needs best known to the district's Councilmember, were criticized by some who said incumbents gave themselves an unfair advantage in handing out taxpayer money to prospective voters (or, at minimum, creating this impression). Since discretionary funds are a budget item, the issue would disappear entirely if the Council in the coming budget cycle simply returned things to the way they were until relatively recently. The Ethics Commission's Final Report did not decide or recommend whether discretionary funds should be abolished or continued; it proposed regulations for them instead, adding that "within the next year, Long Beach voters should have the issue of discretionary funds presented to them, whether in the form of an advisory vote or actual change to the City Charter or Municipal Code." Dissenting Commission members recommended that the Council end The controversy over Council discretionary funds has eclipsed a potentially larger issue in the the Ethics Commission final report: recommended registration and disclosure of lobbying activities and a proposed definition of lobbying. The Ethics Commission's report is scheduled for discussion at the June 23 Council meeting which will be held in the 8th district at the Petroleum Club, 3636 Linden Ave. at 6:00 p.m.
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