The City Council agreed to enhance the city’s lobbying laws for the second time in just over a year, as Anaheim leaders push to ensure that lobbyists are registering with City Hall.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said passing the ordinance, which councilmembers approved in a 5-2 vote this week, shows residents that the city takes the lessons of the past few years seriously.
“Whatever your title is, if you spend most of your time advocating and trying to influence public officials, I believe you should have to register,” Aitken said.
Councilmember Carlos Leon called the city’s current lobbying laws “wide open double doors” and said the proposed adjustments will do more to let the public know who has access to councilmembers and is being paid to try to influence them.
The two votes against the changes came from councilmembers Jose Diaz and Natalie Meeks, who both said the council’s new policy requiring city leaders to start disclosing who they meet with is sufficient for transparency.
“What more transparency are we getting from this lobbying provision that we’re not getting from making our calendars public?” Meeks said. “I struggle with this.”
The new laws expand the definition of lobbying and who needs to register to include both outside lobbyists and those employed directly by the company they are advocating for. Craig Steele, an attorney who is helping Anaheim with City Hall reforms, said the city’s current lobbying laws had “no meat on the bone.”
“Now that it’s got a little more teeth to it, a little more definition if you will, I think more people will look at it and be able to say, ‘Yes I do need to report.’” Steele said.
A July report out of a city-commissioned, independent investigation said numerous potential violations of the city’s lobbying laws had been identified.
A second council vote is needed to make the new lobbying law official. Steele said those who will need to comply with the city’s lobbying laws will understand the changes.
The city currently has 18 registered lobbyists.
The new law would empower the city auditor to do yearly reviews of 20% of registered lobbyists to ensure compliance. The law bars lobbyists from working as a paid or unpaid advisor to members of the City Council for a year after their last lobbying activity, unless they report all contacts as an advisor to the City Clerk.
Labor group negotiators in contract talks with the city would be exempted from registering as lobbyists. Councilmember Stephen Faessel said he didn’t think it was fair to give one group a pass, but he ultimately voted for the changes.
The council last updated the city’s lobbying laws in September 2022, months after federal investigators revealed they were looking into allegations of City Hall corruption. Then, the city made it a criminal violation to violate lobbying rules.
