Measure EE Explained: Los Angeles Voters Decide on Higher Ethics Fines and Fewer City Council Meetings
The charter amendment would bar former ethics commissioners from running for city office for five years, raise the maximum campaign-finance fine from $5,000 to $15,000, expand police and fire oversight investigations — and cut required City Council meetings from three a week to one.
Los Angeles voters will decide Tuesday on Measure EE, a City Council charter amendment that aims to improve oversight of government officials' conduct and decrease the number of City Council meetings, the Daily Bruin reported. If passed, the measure would prevent the city's ethics commissioners from running for any city-elected office or Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education seat for five years after the end of their term, raise fines for campaign finance violations, decrease the required number of weekly City Council meetings from three to one, and increase the number of signatures required for a referendum petition.
The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, established in 1990, enforces city and state campaign finance, contracting, land development, government ethics and lobbying laws, and its five members are appointed by city officials and serve staggered five-year terms, according to the commission's website as cited by the Daily Bruin. Under the current charter, the maximum fine per campaign finance violation is $5,000 or three times the amount of the violation; Measure EE would raise the maximum to $15,000, adjusted annually for inflation, or three times the amount. The measure would also expand the power of the Police Department Inspector General and the Fire Department Independent Assessor to conduct investigations, barring their respective boards of commissioners from shutting those investigations down.
Supporters and opponents divide most sharply over the meetings. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said in an emailed statement, as reported by the Daily Bruin, that the measure is “an important step toward strengthening accountability and restoring public trust in City Hall.” Opponents, including District 7 Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, say decreasing the frequency of council meetings, and with them public comment sessions, will make councilmembers less accessible; Rodriguez called the package “a ruse of reform.” The referendum change would raise the signature requirement from 10 percent of the total vote count in the last mayoral election to 15 percent.
