Why ethics fines don't work

Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar was fined more than $14,000 by the City Ethics Commission today for misusing his office-holder accounts to investigate former LAUSD school board member David Tokofsky. Is it creepy he used these funds to gather intel on another politician? Heck yeah. That money is supposed to pay for constituent things. Only a devious mind could interpret that to mean investigating a politician for another political entity.

Butt what's creepier is that this fine is barely a slap on the wrist to a tied-in politico like Huizar. A fine like that would sink me and many of us working schlubs (these days even the DWP's s $2.50-a-month surcharge for a bin I don't have has got me worried). But it won't even cause a ripple in Huizar's life. He's already gathering donations for defense funds. You can bet he will get them.

What we really need are punishments for politicians that work: Imagine how a ban on holding or attending a press conference for six months might put the fear of the Ethics Commission into a publicity-minded pol. Or no legislation for a year. How about they lose their city-owned car?