Los Angeles council debates new disclosure rules for independent campaign spending; council asks city attorney for broader ordinance

The Los Angeles City Council spent a prolonged session on April 27 debating two ordinances from the City Ethics Commission that would require new, faster disclosure of some independent campaign expenditures and of paid communications sent by organizations to their members.

The proposals, presented by Ethics Commission Executive Director Leanne Pelham and Commission President Miriam Krinsky, were written to restore disclosure the commission says was removed by changes in state law (Proposition 34) and to preserve parts of the city’s matching-funds system that depend on knowing the scale and source of outside spending.

Why it matters: Council staff and reform advocates said voters should know, before the June runoff, who is paying for ads and prerecorded phone calls that influence elections. Opponents said changing rules in the middle of an election is unfair and risks politicizing enforcement.

What the commission proposed and why Leanne Pelham told the council the ordinances would require organizations that pay to communicate with their members in support of or opposition to city candidates to report those payments and the sources of…