Latest Developments:
- The Mayor of San Diego approved Ordinance 21098, which requires a nexus between a lobbyist’s activity expenses and the city official. Under the changes made by the ordinance, expenses must be disclosed if the lobbyist lobbied the official’s department, agency, or board within the previous 12 months or if it is reasonably foreseeable that the lobbyist will lobby the official’s department, agency, or board within the next 12 months. Employment-related activity expenses, such as a salary or an amount for contract services that is paid to an official or an official’s immediate family member during a reporting period is reported in seven bracketed amounts. The lowest bracket is $10 to $2,500 and the highest captures amounts over $100,000.
- The City Council of Aurora, Colorado (part of the Denver metropolitan area) approved an ordinance this week that creates an Ethics Review Panel composed of judges, limits gifts to elected officials from lobbyists and other interested parties, and imposes revolving door restrictions. According to the Colorado Sentinel, the council nixed an ordinance that would have required lobbyists to register and file activity reports.
Reminder:
The Practising Law Institute presents the annual Corporate Political Activities Conference on September 6-7, 2019 in Washington, D.C. The program comprehensively covers campaign finance, lobby disclosure and government ethics on the federal state and local level, with a break-out session on foreign political activities. A one-day version of the program will be presented later in San Francisco, CA on October 3. Nielsen Merksamer co-chairs these programs. To sign up, use the following links: PLI Two-Day Conference in Washington D.C.; PLI One-Day Program in San Francisco (also webcast)
In Case You Missed It:
- Nice Work if You Can Get It: The Pittsburg Post-Gazette reports that the “large union crowd” for a presidential speech at a Beaver County petrochemical facility was paid to be there. Royal Dutch Shell workers were given the option of being paid to attend the speech or taking the day off without pay. According to a union source, “one day of work might amount to about $700 in pay, benefits and a per diem payment that out-of-town workers receive.”
- Nice Work, but You Can’t Do It: The former head of City Planning for Los Angeles is facing a record fine for repeated violations of revolving door provisions, according to the Los Angeles Times. Former high-level officials are banned from lobbying their former employer for 12 months. Michael LoGrande was aware of these restrictions when he violated them and has agreed to pay a $281,250 fine for his repeated violations. The Los Angeles Times subsequently reported that during the same period that he was lobbying, the former official was also receiving more than $18,000 a month in consulting fees from the city’s Planning Department.
- Pay $50,000 to Play: The San Jose Mercury News reports that the $300,000-per-year CEO of the Oakland Coliseum Authority, a public joint powers authority, sought a $50,000 “finder’s fee” from the winning bidder for naming rights to the municipally-owned stadium. After negotiating on behalf of the Authority and sending two invoices for his personal fee on Coliseum Authority letterhead to RingCentral, he resigned his position. According to the article, under a state “self-dealing” law (California Government Code Section 1090) the contract may be in jeopardy.
- More Perils of Contract Lobbying: The Governor of Rhode Island is under scrutiny for awarding a billion dollar no-bid contract to International Game Technology (IGT) to run the state’s lottery, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Governor Raimondo is also the Chair of the Democratic Governors Association and, it turns out, the Treasurer of that Association is a lobbyist for IGT. The state’s Ethics Commission is now investigating.
- Argument in Russian Election Interference Prosecution: “We Weren’t There and We Didn’t Spend Enough”: In a report by the Washington Times, a Russian consulting company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, allegedly paid $1.25 million per month to the Russian Internet Research Agency to fund a social media campaign to interfere with elections in the U.S. and other countries. Prosecutors allege that the U.S. activity required campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and registration with the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Concord argues that the DOJ has failed to identify who should have registered with the FEC and DOJ, that it had no person present in the U.S. that could register as a foreign agent, and that it spent only $2,930 on independent expenditure ads and $1,833 on payroll for rallies in the U.S.
- Facebook Blocks Political Ad for Targeting “Personal Attributes.” Facebook reportedly pulled an ad by the Trump Campaign for violating its prohibition against “content that asserts or implies personal attributes,” including, among other things, “direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s … gender identity,” according to The Hill. The ad featured a crowd of women with the caption, “The Women for Trump Coalition needs the support of strong women like you!”