In 2008, the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission began discussing proposed changes to the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance (MLO).1 In July of that year the Commission began hearing public comments on what should be included in this proposal2 and in September 2009 they sent a 162 page report to the Rules and Elections committee of the Los Angeles City Council, thus initiating Council file 07-3005-S2. This committee was chaired by then Councilmember Eric Garcetti, who essentially killed the whole thing after less than an hour of discussion, perhaps influenced by the trumped-up and only marginally relevant concerns of his personal friend (and, since 2013, Windsor Square neighbor) Hollywood Property Owners Alliance Executive Director Kerry Morrison.
Continue reading How BIDs and Eric Garcetti Torpedoed A Major Revision of the Los Angeles Municipal Lobbying Ordinance Proposed by the Ethics Commission in 2010 and Didn’t Even Help Themselves That Much