August 12, 2004

San Jose adopts New Lobbyist Ordinance
Full disclosure and transparency at the core

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

Starting Sept.10, lobbyists will be required to divulge more about closed door meetings and politically motivated donations that might influence the decisions of city officials—the result of an ordinance passed by the City Council Tuesday night that will amend and restate the San Jose Municipal Code Lobbying Ordinance.

Gonzales established the Blue Ribbon Task Force, including councilmembers Yeager, Reed, Dando and Chaves in February to seek out ways to maintain governmental integrity by redefining accountability and transparency concerns with regard to the decision-making process.

The new ethics rules come on the heels of a lucrative lobbyist trade in San Jose that has grown to include nearly 60 registered lobbyists to date. It is hoped the new rules limit the potential for future abuse, encourage legitimate business activity and protect the rights of free expression.

Although concerns regarding “clarity” remained high with regard to several issues, Mayor Gonzales, at the request of Councilmember Dave Cortese, suggested testing the new law—but kept the door open to make changes as situations arise that might hamper the effort.

“We could be here until our terms end trying to work on every one of these scenarios,” he said. “If we take every one of these into consideration, it’s just not going to work. We have to do what we think is best for the city and the citizens we represent. If we decide to change it later, that won’t be easy to do, but we need to test the waters.”

“Clarity is absolutely non-negotiable,” replied Councilmember Judy Chirco, who considered the ordinance a work-in-progress and recommended that it come back later for review.

The new guidelines list categories that define various lobbyists. For example, “contract” lobbyist—someone who is hired specifically for lobbying purposes and is paid $1,000 or more during a three-month period to pitch an issue to the city council. Employed or “in-house” lobbyists fall into the category if they earn more than $1,000 a month and log more than 20 hours for their efforts. The “net” will now include architects and engineers as well.

Neighborhood associations will be exempt from the new ordinance, but members of non-profit groups and trade organizations who exceed the three-month, 20-hour threshold will be required to register as lobbyists.

“It’s all about following the money,” explained Councilmember Pat Dando. “That’s clearly what we’re trying to do here. If someone has the potential for great gain financially, we need to focus on that.”

According to Councilmember Ken Yeager, the threshold will capture the leaders and governmental affairs representatives of business organizations, labor unions, corporations, trade associations and nonprofits, while flushing out those who would not ordinarily be considered lobbyists.

“The threshold of 20 hours seems a reasonable measure of what would constitute true lobbying activity,” he said. “It is my experience that routine requests from constituents or business owners do not come close to this threshold.”

According to the new disclosure rules, lobbyists will have to provide a description of what they are trying to influence, along with names of the city officials they have met with and how much they are being paid to pursue the issue. They will also be required to list political contributions to city council members during a three-month period, as well as any charitable donations over $1,000 that were made at the behest of a council member.

One major concern among non-profit groups lies in contribution disclosures, where many feel that donors who wish to contribute more than $1,000 anonymously will be discouraged to do so.

“There are still bumps in the road,” said Planned Parenthood Public Affairs Director Gayle Tiller. “I’m very disappointed and concerned that non-profits will get hurt. Donors who wish to remain anonymous will cause serious problems for the non-profit community.”

Jim Cuneen, president of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce is a registered lobbyist, but stressed that the success of the ordinance will be gauged by its implementation and interpretation, with three factors; cost, clarity and complexity.

“Is the cost of compliance affordable to businesses, non-profits, trade associations, government advocates and others?” he began. “Is the ordinance clear in whom it touches and how it complies and is the ordinance too complex so individuals, businesses, or non-profits are unable or unwilling to do business with the city? Their voices need to be heard.”

Although arguably not perfect, the council passed the motion unanimously and Gonzales stressed that the steps were a positive move in insuring full disclosure and transparency.

“Ordinances don’t make good citizens,” he said. “People do.”