Ethics commission director speaks at Valley VOTE meeting

LeeAnn M. Pelham, executive director of the L.A. Ethics Commission, spoke at the recent Valley VOTE meeting.

She discussed the Full Public Financing program that is being discussed in L.A. political circles and is currently under review by the L.A. neighborhood councils.

She said the office has been looking into FPF, has drawn some conclusions about it and is concerned about some issues.

Specifically, unlike the "Clean Money" approach - where a new public financing system would be started from scratch - her staff believes that it would be better for the city to build on its already-in-place "Partial Public Finance" system that has been used for many years for citywide offices, such as the mayor, controller and city attorney.

Among the critical issues are determination of how much a FPF program would cost the city and the amount of public funding that should be made available to each of the various candidates.

To read more about the Valley VOTE meeting and Pelham's talk, visit www.valleyvote.org.