Saturday, April 18, 2015

[Orange County] Activist's call for a county ethics panel may go to ballot in 2016


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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