Ethics commission: don't require statement-of-economic-interests form

L.A. Ethnics Commission President Helen E. Zukin called on Monday for the City Council's Education and Neighborhoods Committee to adopt narrow financial reporting requirements for members of the city's neighborhood councils that are tied to action on neighborhood council files only.

She also asked the committee to reject moves to establish broader requirements modeled after state law using statement-of-economic-interests forms.

Zukin wrote in a letter to the Education and Neighborhood Committee that members of the Ethics Commission concluded that broad, state-like financial disclosure requirements for neighborhood council boards should not be adopted at this time because of concern that those requirements could chill participation on neighborhood council boards.

The City Council adopted a two-year pilot project last January that authorized neighborhood councils to place buisness before the City Council by creating up to three neighborhood council files a year.

As part of that project, the City Council adopted a motion to require board members of neighborhood councils to file the state's statement-of-economic-interests form.

Following the adoption of that motion, Councilmembers Richard Alarcon, Wendy Greuel and Janice Hahn asked the Ethics Commission for input regarding the use of statement-of-economic-interests forms.