Written Records of Contacts With Lobbyists Proposed

Seeking to reduce influence-peddling in Los Angeles City Hall, Councilman Joel Wachs proposed Tuesday that city employees and commissioners be required to keep written public records of all their contacts with lobbyists.

The measure, far stricter than the city’s current disclosure policy, would make public the “real behind-the-scenes lobbying,” Wachs said.

But it could also pose logistic problems in a building where lobbyists are friends with many of those they are lobbying and do their work not just in formal meetings but in hallways, elevators and the employee cafeteria.

“You would have to walk around with a pad and pen,” one staffer said.

The motion came a day after the release of a city Ethics Commission report that 138 City Hall lobbyists earned $1.49 million during the second quarter of 1992, up 22% over the previous quarter.

Currently, lobbyists are required to register with the city, disclosing their clients, the issues they are advocating and their compensation. But compliance with the rules is difficult to substantiate and many attorneys who act as lobbyists do not file the reports, citing attorney-client privilege.

“It’s not a crime to lobby,” Wachs said. “Everyone lobbies. You need that to get information. But there are certain people with excessive influence and people should know that.”

The city Airport Commission adopted a similar reporting requirement last week, calling on staffers in that heavily lobbied department to note any contacts with lobbyists. That policy will be in place by the end of the month.

Mayor Richard Riordan supports the policy and has already imposed such rules in his office, requiring all mayoral staffers to report contact with lobbyists to his chief of staff, William McCarley.

Lobbyists themselves called the proposed requirement, which will be reviewed in the coming weeks by the council’s Rules and Elections Committee, unnecessary.

“Why don’t they try to enforce the laws that are on the books right now?” said Joseph Cerrell, whose Cerrell Associates Inc. is one of the most prosperous lobbying firms.