California’s new law could expose future legislative bosses

from Ryan SabalowCalMatters

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Elected and appointed officials in California will now have to tell the public when they have accepted a job offer from a new employer who may seek services from them while they are still in office.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed earlier this month Assembly Bill 1286 by a member of the Democratic Assembly Tasha Börner at Solana Beach. The measure requires California elected officials and state appointees to indicate on mandatory conflict-of-interest forms whether they received a new job before their terms expire.

Boerner introduced the measure in response to a The CalMatters story last year it highlights how legislators are not required to tell the public if they are negotiating with or have accepted a job with an organization trying to get something from the legislature.

“People’s distrust of government is growing,” Boerner said in a statement after the bill was introduced to Newsom. “As public servants, one of the most important parts of our job is transparency. It’s the one-way ticket to building trust between public servants and their communities.”

Sherry Yang, spokeswoman for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces California’s ethics laws, said Chairman Adam Silver pitched the idea for the bill to Boerner’s office after reading the CalMatters story.

Under the new law, officials they must now provide the committee with the date they accepted a job offer, the position they will hold and a description of their employer’s job, as well as the employer’s name and address. Boerner’s bill passed the Legislature without a single lawmaker voting against it.

The CalMatters report came out as about a quarter of the Legislature left office. Some lawmakers were looking for their next job while still voting, potentially on issues that could benefit their future employers.

Of the 180 lawmakers who have left office since 2012, about 40 have registered as lobbyists, worked as political consultants or taken executive-level positions at companies or organizations that actively lobby the Capitol.

It is illegal and considered a bribe for a public official to vote or do other official favors in exchange for a promise of future employment. It is also illegal for officials to use government resources to seek or secure new employment.

Lawmakers must also refrain from any official action that has a “direct and significant” financial impact on an entity with whom they are negotiating for employment or who has offered them employment,” according to a brochure from the Legislative Ethics Committee.

But state ethics guidelines still allow lawmakers to vote on bills that could benefit a prospective employer, allowing them to debate and vote on bills that would benefit a “significant segment” of an industry rather than their particular prospective employer.

In practice, this means that a lawmaker with a pending job at a major tech company can continue to vote on legislation that affects all tech companies.

Government ethics experts told CalMatters last year that adding disclosure requirements for lawmakers seeking employment would add needed transparency and help lawmakers and lobbyists stay honest.

FPPC Chair Silver called the measure “an important step forward toward transparency and accountability in the political process.”

“This reform is about more than disclosure forms — it’s about trust,” he said in a statement. “This ensures that Californians know that their government works for them, not private interests. And more practically, it ensures that the FPPC has the information it needs to promptly and effectively identify and prosecute violations of the state’s prohibition on influencing future employment.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.