The Los Angeles County Governance Reform Task Force Friday approved technical changes to a draft proposal for the creation an independent ethics commission and Office of Ethics Compliance.
The task force unanimously approved the changes and directed staff to finalize the proposed ordinance, as well as a letter to the Board of Supervisors detailing their work.
The Board of Supervisors are expected to consider the proposed ordinance during their meeting Tuesday.
Nicholas Heirdorn, a consultant for the task force and assistant professor of law and public policy at the University of the Pacific, highlighted the proposal would allow the ethic commission to hire, fire and set the salary for its compliance officer, as well as enable in-house legal services. Additionally, the proposal would allow the ethics commission to be able to refer measures to the ballot.
The proposal would also authorize the future ethic commission to enforce state laws related to governing ethics and campaign finance.
In their deliberations, the task force clarified evidentiary standards in enforcement proceeding, the ethics commission’s jurisdiction to impose fines for violations of ethics laws and procedures related to charter conflicts, among other things.
“In the draft GRTF report, the GRTF had proposed that the ethics commission have the discretion to enforce state ethics laws. This includes campaign finance laws, such as the reporting law for campaign finance, as we as the core ethics laws that are in state law, such as conflicts of interest, gift laws, things of that nature,” Heirdorn said.
“So, while L.A. County does have some county-specific ethics law, they’re fairly minimal, and a lot of there’s a lot of essentially reliance on state law,” Heirdorn added.
Task force members recommended for these changes to be codified in the county’s charter, too, which would required voter approval.
County officials are working on establishing an independent ethics commission and Office of Ethics Compliance as mandated by Measure G, which voters approved in November 2024.
The measure required the establishment of an ethics commission as part of broader governance reform efforts, including the expansion of the Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, and an elected county chief executive officer, among other things.