Title
Ordinance Amending Various Sections of Chapter 2.15 and Section 2.112.030 of the Sacramento City Code, Relating to Lobbyists (Passed for Publication 06/18/2024; Published XX/XX/2024)
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FileID
File ID: 2024-01202
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Location
Location: Citywide
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Recommendation
Recommendation: Adopt an Ordinance amending various sections of Chapter 2.15 and Section 2.112.030 of the Sacramento City Code relating to Lobbyists.
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Contact
Contact: Mindy Cuppy, City Clerk, (916) 808-5442, mcuppy@cityofsacramento.org, Office of the City Clerk; Gary Lindsey, Senior Deputy City Attorney, (916) 808-5346, glindsey@cityofsacramento.org, Office of the City Attorney
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Presenter
Presenter: None.
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Attachments
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
2-Ordinance-Redline
3-Ordinance-Clean
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Description/Analysis
IssueDetail
Issue Detail: On May 16, 2023, after prior deliberations by the Sacramento Ethics Commission and the Personnel and Public Employees Committee, the Law and Legislation Committee passed a motion directing the City Clerk and/or City Attorney to bring back to the Law and Legislation Committee draft amendments to ordinance(s) on behalf of the Sacramento Ethics Commission per committee direction. The matter now before the Law and Legislation Committee is those draft ordinance amendments.
Pursuant to Sacramento City Code section 2.112.030, subsection A, paragraph 1, clause d, the Sacramento Ethics Commission “has the power and duty to . . . review, investigate, and consider complaints alleging violations of . . . Chapter 2.15 (‘Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Code’) ….” Contradictorily, subsection B states the following:
The commission’s authority under subsection A extends only to city elected officials, candidates for city elected office, independent expenditure committees, members of boards and commissions, the city manager, the city clerk, the city attorney, the city treasurer, the city auditor, the independent budget analyst, and the public safety accountability officer.
(Emphasis added.) The glaring omission is the word “lobbyist.”
The Sacramento Ethics Commission proposes to amend subsection B to add lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers to those whom the commission has the authority with respect to complaints. This is in addition to further amendments to the Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Code (Ch. 2.15) itself in order to accomplish the following modernizations:
1. Changing lobbying registration thresholds to (a) 15 hours per 3-month period for in-house lobbyists and (b) $1,500 per 3-month period for contract lobbyists;
2. Requiring lobbyists’ quarterly lobbying reports to indicate (a) how much lobbying firms are receiving from clients and how much lobbyist employers are paying lobbying firms; in addition to, (b) stating any gifts, campaign contributions, and behested payments made to city officials by a lobbying firm, lobbyist, or lobbyist employer; and
3. Limiting gifts from lobbyists and lobbying firms to an amount valued at less than $10 per month to elected officials, and are prohibiting lobbyists and lobbying firms from directly contributing to campaigns of the elected officials whom they lobby.
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PolicyConsiderations
Policy Considerations: Approving updates to the Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Code and the related scope of the Sacramento Ethics Commission is in alignment with furthering government transparency.
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EconomicImpacts
Economic Impacts: None.
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EnvironmentalConsiderations
Environmental Considerations: This action is not a project subject to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it involves only general policy and procedure making and does not have the potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. (CEQA Guidelines, §§ 15002(d), 15378(b)(2), 15061(b)(3)).
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Sustainability
Sustainability: Not applicable.
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Commission/Committee Action
Commission/Committee Action: On October 24, 2022 the Sacramento Ethics Commission passed a Motion forwarding the general recommendations for modernizing the Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Code to the Personnel and Public Employees Committee for review and deliberation. On April 18, 2023 the Personnel and Public Employees Committee reviewed and provided direction on the Sacramento Ethics Commission recommendation and directing staff to forward the recommendations to the Law and Legislation Committee for deliberation. On May 16, 2023, the Law and Legislation Committee passed a motion directing the City Clerk and/or City Attorney to bring back to the Law and Legislation Committee draft amendments to ordinance(s) on behalf of the Sacramento Ethics Commission per committee direction. The Law and Legislation Committee reviewed the proposed ordinance on May 21, 2024 and passed a motion forwarding the ordinance to the City Council for adoption. The City Council passed for publication the ordinance title per Sacramento City Code section 32(c) on June 18, 2024.
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RationaleforRecommendation
Rationale for Recommendation: These amendments modernize the Lobbyist Registration and Reporting Code and close a loophole in the Sacramento Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction over local lobbying activities.
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FinancialConsiderations
Financial Considerations: Not applicable.
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LocalBusinessEnterprise
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.
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