Blog note: the article points out
that County supervisors have, two times, rejected grand jury recommendations to
create an ethics panel.
Frustrated by years of futile
efforts at better enforcement of the county’s campaign finance laws, activist
Shirley Grindle announced Wednesday that she has prepared a 2016 ballot measure
that would establish a county ethics commission.
Grindle, author of the county
campaign ordinance known as TINCUP – which stands for “Time Is Now, Clean Up
Politics” – has been calling for the Board of Supervisors to establish such a
commission since 2008. The county grand jury issued reports in 2013 and 2014
saying the slipshod nature of ethics in county government necessitated such a
panel.
Grindle, who plans to begin
circulating an initiative petition later this year, has also repeatedly called
on District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to take a more active role in enforcing
campaign finance laws.
“I have not been very happy
with the enforcement of TINCUP by the district attorney,” Grindle said
Wednesday at an ethics workshop hosted by county Supervisor Todd Spitzer in
Irvine. She used the event to announce she and fellow activists plan to begin
gathering initiative petition signatures.
“I’m tired of county employees
investigating other county employees.”
The proposal would create an
independent panel with subpoena and enforcement powers to oversee campaign
finance filings by candidates running for county offices. It would also oversee
the county’s gift-ban ordinance, the lobbyist registration ordinance and the
county code of ethics.
The measure would empower the
panel to levy fines of $5,000 for each violation or three times the amount the
violator failed to report properly, whichever is greater.
County supervisors have twice
rejected grand jury calls for an ethics panel, whose duties would include being
a watchdog of those same supervisors. Grindle says she has lost hope that
position will change.
Spitzer said he’s open to the
idea but had not studied Grindle’s proposal closely enough to have an opinion
of it.
Mark Sacks, a deputy district
attorney who was a panelist at Spitzer’s workshop, defended Rackauckas’
campaign finance enforcement.
“To paint the picture that
nothing is being done in regards to TINCUP is not fair to our office,“ Sacks
said.
However, when challenged by
Grindle, he could only name one TINCUP violation the district attorney had
pursued since the measure was approved by voters in 1978.
Supervisors attempted to
address the issue last year with a measure whose ballot title called for an
“Ethics Commission.” Voters approved it, but the measure’s wording actually
outlined a plan for the state Fair Political Practices Commission to enforce
local campaign finance laws.
But Sacramento legislation
allowing the FPPC to oversee county finance laws was rejected last year.
Grindle said that even if such
legislation is eventually approved, the state panel lacks the expertise and
focus to enforce local laws.
Grindle qualified the 1978
TINCUP measure for the ballot using volunteer signature gatherers.
But with the growth of the county,
she said she plans to employ paid gatherers for the 62,052 valid signatures
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley says are needed to qualify the measure. She
said the fundraising budget is $200,000 and she plans to begin the 5 1/2-month
task of collecting signatures in November.
Grindle has often served as a
one-person quasi enforcer, alerting the elections office – and sometimes
candidates themselves – when forms have been inadequately filled out. In those
cases, she sought voluntary compliance. However, Grindle is now 80 years old,
and she and her allies would like to see a formal enforcement panel.
April
15, 2015
The
Orange County Register
By Martin Wisckol, Staff Writer
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