City Council Appoints New Ethics Board

The Long Beach City Council voted in a new eight-member Board of Ethics last week, drawing criticism from one councilman who said the appointments were mostly politically motivated.

During the council’s Aug. 21 meeting, Councilman Mike Fagen said half of those appointed have made donations to the Long Beach Democrats over the last two years. Councilman Scott Mandel challenged Fagen at the meeting, saying that he was unnecessarily turning it into a political issue.

Fagen also said the former ethics board was never contacted about being replaced.

Those appointed to the new board were Helen Dorado Alessi, Stuart Banschick, Matthew Behrens, Robert L. Carroll, Kathy DiBari, John Laffey, Chris Lynch and Lawrence N. Rogak.

“Four people have financial ties to the council,” said Fagen. “There’s an appearance of pay-to-play here.”

Mandel asked Fagen, who is a registered Democrat, why he was singling out Democrats and not researching which applicants had donated to the Republicans.

“His agenda was to politicize the applicants to the ethics board by highlighting those affiliated with the Democrats,” Mandel said. “His investigation and the rationale he presented that night was flawed. He left out how many of those people donated to the Republicans and he conveniently omitted those who have contributed to his own campaign.”

Fagen said he was more concerned about the appearance of a conflict of interest in those appointments and it did not matter if it involved Republicans or Democrats.

“What difference does it make if they are Republican or Democrat?” Fagen said. “I looked at four names on the list and realized there may be a conflict, so I wanted to stop the show.”

Fagen said he wanted to table the resolution to appoint the eight new members. But the vote went ahead and the council voted 3-1 to pass it, with Fagen casting the lone dissenting ballot. Councilman John McLaughlin was absent.

At the meeting, Karen Adamo, a member of the Long Beach Democratic Club Executive Board, who has been asking the council to revive the ethics board, said a person’s political affiliation should be kept private. And City Manager Jack Schnirman noted that the board of ethics application does not ask for political affiliation.

Mandel said the former ethics board was inactive, failing to meet in years and resulting in few even knowing the board existed.

“The fact that no one was 100 percent certain that we have an ethics board highlights why we need a new ethics board,” Mandel said. “We need an effective ethics board.”

But Fagen said the board had no reason to meet.

“They only meet when the city manager refers a complaint to them,” Fagen explained. “If they haven’t met, it’s not the ethics board’s fault.

“Those who complain about them clearly don’t understand the basic function, which is to review complaints referred to them by the city manager,” Fagen added.

He said a complaint is referred to the board anytime there is an accusation of inappropriate behavior by a city employee, a personal conflict of interest or ethics violation.

“There hasn’t been a complaint brought in six years, which is why they haven’t met,” Fagen said.

Mandel said that Fagen probably sat on the council when an issue of ethics arose, but did not refer it to the board. Mandel criticized Fagen for waiting until the council meeting to voice his conflict of interest concerns when the appointment process has been going on for months.

According to the resolution, the eight members are appointed by the board, should reside in Long Beach and serve without compensation, and with one member being either a city employee, or an elected or appointed officer.

The ethics board is a neutral body that is supposed to render an advisory opinion concerning breaches of ethics without fear of retribution, said Mandel.