UPDATE: One of our readers has launched a new O.C. lobbyist database. Click here to check it out.
Lobbyists have had the run of Orange County for far too long. In fact Orange County doesn’t even demand that they register with the County – and the public has no idea who these people are.
Contrast that with Los Angeles County, which has been forcing lobbyists to register since April of 1993! Click here to see what that looks like.
Now take a look at some of the information that you can get from Los Angeles County but not Orange County:
Lobbyist Quarterly Reports:
Individual lobbyists registered with the County of Los Angeles
Lobbyist employers and their employees
Lobbyist employers and their payments to firms
Lobbyist employers and their activity expenses
Lobbyist employers and their campaign contributions
Lobbying firms and their clients
Payments to lobbying firms
Lobbyist firms and their activity expenses
Lobbyists who have terminated their registration status in the last 12 months
Shouldn’t we know what lobbyists in Orange County are up to? I for one would like to know what John Lewis, Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham, Jeff Flint, Scott Baugh, Adam Probolsky, Jon Fleischman and others of their ilk are up to.
For too long the focus in Orange County has been on limiting fundraising. The real beast here is not campaign finance but rather the unregulated lobbyists who regularly work to elect County officials then turn around and lobby them endlessly. That is something we need to get a hold of, don’t you think?
Click here to contact your O.C. Supervisor and ask him or her to put in place a lobbyist registration program here in Orange County, like the one in Los Angeles County. And click here to contact Tom Mauk, the Orange County CEO.
Public disclosure is a desirable goal in government ethics legislation and it is reasonable and common in other jurisdictions to require that paid lobbyist who earn more than a specified amount to register so the public has information on who is paid to influence public policy and to monitor those activities.
Registration requirements, by themselves, do not infringe on free-speech rights or seek to limit or restrict any legal lobbyist activities. Orange County should require lobbyist registration and make that information available to public. Thanks or the post!
Travis,
Hmmm…might be time for an “O.C. Lobbyist” trading card set…
Yes, it’s high time that we have transparency. We don’t need any other regulation than that there be a list and that to act as a third party go-between your name and place of employment be on it. No fees, no qualifications, nothing: except the list – kept by the Clerk of the Board.
Pretty simple. Who could possibly object? Not the lobbyists. After all lobbying is a perfectly honorable endeavor, right?
Let’s find out who’s who in the zoo!
If you decide to make “OC Lobbyist” Trading Cards, I nominate Debbie Trabatonni for your first card. She’s Tom Daly’s 2nd wife.
Art, what about the employees of the lobbyist, shouldn’t they be registered, as well?
Tom Daly’s wife is a lobbyist? Isn’t that a sort of in-built conflict of interest?
Tony,
Good point!
David,
Definitely…no wonder John Lewis is backing Daly!
Straight from horses (Jerbls) mouth….”[aaand cue full disclosure: I, Matthew Cunningham, am a member the consultant fighting Disney’s opposition to the zoning overlay]”
http://www.ocblog.net/ocblog/2007/08/disneys-carouse.html
Lobbyist are running the show (into the ground).
Art, keep this one alive, hopefully with enough effort from the blogs (excluding Red Klownty), someday (not soon enough) we might find out who’s a suction cup, a tentacle, and the real OC-Octo-pus’!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ogifs/Octopus_bw.GIF
Fraudio and me came up with another lobbyist for your trading card set. Christopher Townsend of Irvine. Remember he is the one who raised a BOAT LOAD money for Carlos Bustamante. This is according to Clownia Alvarez who made this statement at a City Council meeting.
Debbie Trabattoni may be paid as a consultant to Daly’s campaign. She also teams up with the Costa Mesa’s City Managers wife and they lobby together on some projects.
I remember from my days as a OCTA Commissioner the name another Lobbyist. Lyle Overby. You should check him out. He was awarded a John Wayne Airport Taxi contract by the OC Board of Supervisors (who he lobbies). Even though he had no prior history as a Taxi Entrepenure he got a multi million dollar contract. He went belly up and had all his taxi cars repossessed.
Is that the same Lyle Overby who is a lobbyist for the Rancgo Mission Viejo?
#13. Oui.
Janet asked me to post Bill Steiners name. Former OC Supervisor now working as a lobbyist for Smith Public Affairs.
Bill Steiner? Put him on the list. And put that Lyle Overby character on it. And add Ernie Schneider. That was the guy in charge when the County went bankrupt in 1994. He’s a lobbyist now. What about Christine Iger? So is Tom Matthews, the dude who ran the OC Planning department into receivership back in 2002.
There is a silhouette of corruption here. We have people who work for supervisors getting jobs with “consultants;” and we have people working for consultants and trade associations getting jobs with supervisors. And then they jump back and for between the third and fifth floors like pong-pong balls.
Something stinks here and it’s not because a supervisor took his shoes off in your living room.
The Costa Mesa City Manager’s wife is Christie McDaniel. She and Debbie Trabattoni team as ‘THE ADVOCACY GROUP” aka “TAG”. Add Roger Faubel and Pete Buffa as lobbyists.
There is an Orange County Public Affairs Association (Lobbyist) and their phone number is (888)246-7424.
Don’t forget my breakfast buddy, Curt Pringle of Curt Pringle & Associates. Check out his website.