LAT20170111

LATIMES.COM WEDNESDAY,JANUARY11, 2017 B

be any cleaner if a developer
could still make a donation
several months before or
after a project is in play?
And as City Council mem-
bers David Ryu,Joe Bus-
caino, Paul Krekorian, Paul
Koretz and Mike Bonin
noted in their motion for the
drafting ofa new law by the
city Ethics Commission,
part of thechallenge will be
to define “developers and
their principals.”
Would a developer’s
spouse be bannedfrom
writing a check to a council-
man or mayor, or a candi-
date?Would the developer’s
employees, corporate part-
ners, affiliated LLCs, law-
yers, architects,consult-
ants, neighbors,cousins,
friends and golf partners
also be banned, and if not,
can anything really be ac-
complished?
If a recentruling by the
state Fair Political Practices
Commission is any indica-
tion, it’s not so easyto stop
the flow of money. Pismo
Beach City Councilman
Erik Howell — also a mem-
ber of the California Coastal
Commission— received a
$1,000 donation in 2015 for
his Pismoreelection bid. It
camefrom the business and

domestic partner ofa pow- erfulconsultant withdoz- ens of clients whose projects need approval from the Coastal Commission. Shortly after receiving the donation, Howell had dinner with theconsultant and voted in favor of a project sherepresented. The deal, asI notedrecently, stankworse thana bucket of dead clams. But the FPPC ruled that the donor did not herself represent the client whose projectwas in play, and there was no evidence her $1,000 was reimbursed by her company. Case closed. Nowbackto L.A. There are good and bad developers, and good and bad developments, here in a city where public officials have failedto come up with coherent planningguide- lines, invitingchaos and influence-peddling. There are also good and bad devel- opment foes, some of whom write checks to pol iticians, as do members of building trades unions. Would a donation ban on developers, and no one else, be fair or effective in a city where it’s legal for lobbyists to host fundraisers for

elected officials and then do business before them? Regardless of the an- swersto all those questions, there’s a bigger reason the impact of this proposal would be practically nil. First of all, an individual developer can only write a $700 check to a candidate. But there are otherways to apply thegrease, with no limits on donation amounts and arguably less transparency. You can make a lasting impression on an elected official by writinga fat check to his or her pet project, or to a ballot initiative he or she supports, orto inde- pendentexpenditure com- mittees that support or attack candidates and causes. The U.S. Supreme Court has opened the mother’s milk spigot wide, creating a national cesspool. When it comes to money and influence in politics, there’s no needto break the law. The biggest threatto good gov- ernment is what’s perfectly legal. As Zahniserreported late last month, developer Rick Caruso’s charitable foundation has provided $125,000to a nonprofit fund

set up by L.A.Mayor Eric Garcetti. And Caruso’s companies gave $200,000to Measure M, the transportation sales tax supported by Garcetti. And by theway, Caruso wants Garcetti and City Council members— many of whom he’s donatedto — to greenlighta 20-story building ona Beverly Grove site where the current height limit is 45 feet. More from our man Dave Z.: Westfield, the mall peo- ple, want to builda $1.5- billion project in the San FernandoValley, and they gave $950,000 to two Garcetti initiatives.Twen- tieth Century Fox Film wants to add1.1 million square feet to its Century City facilities, andFox’s relatedcompanies have plowed $1.25 million into the Mayor’s Fund for Los Ange- les and the transportation initiative Garcetti supported. In L.A.,a ban on$ donations by developers would be about as effective as a Band-Aid on organ cancer. So are we utterly help- less, with no better way to fumigate City Hall?

Yes and no. At theveryleast, says Jessica Levinson, Loyola Law School professor and presidentof the L.A. City Ethics Commission,we can shinea much brighter light on who’s writingchecks to whom. “It would be usefulto know if a City Council person gets 50% of his or her donations from dentists, or from real estate developers ...something thatallows peopleto infer something about the politician,” Levin- son said. But that information isn’treadilyavailable. “You look at the city’s Ethicswebsite and it’s unbe- lievably outdated,” said City Controller Ron Galperin. “It was state of theart for1984.” What we need, he said, is “radical transparency.” “There are someamaz- ing tools out there that will helpyou connectthe dots and know who’s giving, what their associates are doing, what projects they have,” said Galperin. Taxpayers should be able to go tothe city Ethics Commissionwebsite and get that information easily, he said,and “there’s no good reason it shouldn’t beavail-

able ina day ortwo” instead of the months it now takes. “And then elected officials can decide if theywant the cloud ofa certaincon- tributionto be over them, and developers, knowing everything’s going to be out there for everyone to see ... can [decide] whether they really want to make that contribution.” In the last line of their motion fora ban on devel- operdonationsTuesday, council members did ask for the Ethics Commissionto improve transparencyand report on thecost of “an accessible and easy-to- navigate website.” “If I could get some budget moneyto workon this with Ethics,I would love to do so,” said Galperin, adding that itwouldn’tcost afortune fora serious up- grade. I’ve got an idea. Developers andother highrollers have donated millionsto the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which is always looking fora good cause. Could there be a better one than cleaning up City Hall?

[email protected]

Developers’ money not easy to quell

[Lopez,fromB1]

picture.
Lake Tahoe has risen 12
inches injust the lasttwo
weeks as thestorms have
dumped33.6 billi on gallons
of water into the massive
landmark, which measures
72 miles around and has a
capacity for 37 trillion gal-
lons ofwater.
As of Tuesday morning,
154 of the largest reservoirs
tracked by the California
Department ofWater Re-
sources hadfilledto about
97% of theircollective aver-
age for the day, saidMaury
Roos, a longtime state hy-
drologist.Just a year ago,
manywereatorbelow50%of
average.
The storms dumped a
combined1.3 million acre-
feet ofwater in thosereser-
voirs from Jan. 1 to Tuesday,
Roos said. That’s about 423
billiongallonsof water —
enoughto serve more than
2.5 million families for a year.
Theturnaround at the1-
million-year-oldMono Lake
and its ecosystem has been
particularly dramatic. Less
thantwo years ago, itwas
within2 feet of the level that
state officials say threatens
the alpineecosystem at the
base of the eastern Sierra
Nevada. Officials worried
that there would be so little
water that coyotes would
roamonthedrylakebedand
go after the large gull colony
there.
Less thantwo weeks ago,
hydrologists had worried
that itwould take a wetter-
than-average winter to keep
this drought-stricken body
of saltwater at a level high
enoughto avoid havingto
haltdiversionsof it s Sierra
Nevada snowmeltto L.A.
If the level drops below
6,377 feet above sea level, the
city cannot export water
from here. The California
State Water Resources Con-
trol Board established the
limit in 1994 to resolve a dis-

pute between environmen- talists seekingto protect the lake’s wildlifeand the city 350 milesaway defending its long-heldwater rights. Prospects for averting the crisis brightened signifi- cantlyover the weekend after another storm drenched the slopes surrounding this high desert lake east of Yosemite National Park with enough rain and snow to raise its level by at least

6inches. NowMcQuilkin, execu- tive director of the Mono Lake Committee, a nonprofit group organizedto save and protect the bowl- shaped ecosystem, said, “The worst-case scenario is probably notgoing to hap- pen.... These weatherevents have put us all on a different track.Who knows what the rest of the winter will bring?” Many lakes and reservoirs have been slowly rising since October asNorthern California saw increases in rain and snow. But January has been particularlywet thanks to “atmospheric river” storms. JanaFrazier,a tourguide for the Departmentof Water Resources atLake Oroville, has a view of the dam and the reservoir from her office. Thenumberstell part of the story: The lake has risen more than 90 feet since De- cember, she said— 21 feet during the 24-hour span between Saturday and Sunday alone. But seeingthe change in person iseven more strik- ing. Priorto thisweekend’s storm, officialswere launch- ing boatsfrom the bottom of oneramp.Waterhadrisento the top of the rampby Tues- day morning, Frazier said. When Frazierreturns to the rampWednesday, she expectstofindthatthepark- ing are a with the boat launch will be underwater and officials will have to move to a different ramp on higher ground. “It’s really weird,” Frazier said. “We’ve been so low in water for so long, it seems strange to dri ve acrossthe

dam and see it almost full.” Lake Oroville, Lake Shasta and otherreservoirs in Northern California are key pieces of the state’s water system, which moves the resourcefrom the SierraNe- vadatocitiesandfarmlands. Although therecent rains are makinga dent, officials said it’s still too earlyto say the drought isover. Rain and snow are expectedto continue through Thursday,with some higher elevations expectedto see up to 20 inchesof s now over the course of theweek. Sev- eral key rivers have over- flowed, and more flooding is expected. In Sonoma County,

about3,000 residentswere asked to evacuate as the Russian River swelled, dam- aging some homes. Along the Cosumnes River in the town of Wilton, about 2, peopleweretold to move to higherground. The deathtoll from the storm alsorose. A 20-year- old man was found dead Monday inside an over- turned car submerged in a creek in Novato, authorities said. Three other deaths — including awoman whowas killedby a fallen tree — are alsobelievedto betiedto the storms. For all thewater that has flowed into Lake Tahoe, the National Weather Service

said the lake was still below its long-term avera ge for winter. Which is why ChuckSelf is n’t batting an eye at the conditions. The51-yearLake Tahoe resident, whoruns Chuck’s Charter Fishing, said“the lake has come up, no doubt.” But historically, “this is absolutely nothing.”

louis.sahagun @latimes.com [email protected] [email protected] Sahagunreported from Mono Lake, Sernaand Stevens from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Paige St. John contributedto this report from Truckee, Calif.

Rising water levels at state lakes

THEBOARDWALKat the MonoLake Tufa StateNatural Reserve splits exposed tufa towersnear a spot where the lake level was in1941.

Brian van der BrugLos Angeles Times

[Lakes,fromB1]

FOLSOMLAKEcontinued to rise as theFolsom Dam released water into the American River on Monday. The lake had risen13 feet since Sunday.

Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times

Los Angeles police fatally
shota man late Tuesday
afternoon during a con-
frontation downtown, au-
thorities said.
The shooting occurred
about 4:50 p.m. on Hope
Street between11 th and12th
streets, according to LAPD
Capt. Andrew Neiman.
Officers were flagged
down by an L.A. City De-
partment of Transportation
officer and directedtoward
the man, whowas wielding a
large kitchen knife.
The manwas struck by
gunfir efromatleastoneoffi-
cer.He was takento a hospi-
tal, where he was pro-
nounced dead,Neiman said.
No offi cerswereinjured.
The officerswerewearing
body cameras atthe time of

the shooting,Neiman said. As police investigated along Hope Street, which wasclosedto trafficbetween 11 th and12th streets, a woman arrived and notifiedoffi- cersof a dead woman in a nearby apartment. Officerswentto anapart- ment complex in the 1100 block of Flower Street, one blockfromtheshooting,and founda woman in her 40s who had died “of anobvious homicide,”Neiman said. Theproximityofthe slay- ingto theconfrontationwith the knife-wielding man raised suspicion. “At this point,we don’t know if they are connected, but we are looking at the po- tential for that,” Neiman said.

matt.hamilton @latimes.com

Police kill man;

womanfound dead

ByMatt Hamilton

LAT20170111

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