[EL] FPPC Budget and independence

[Larry Levine]

Independence may be desirable, but oversight in a must. As a political
consultant in California I know I am risking the wrath of this agency by
speaking out, but I can point to a number of ways in which the independence
has been abused by members of the commission, often to the dismay of staff.
One thing everyone in my industry has know for years is that the commission
will levy fines that encourage payment rather than challenge. In other words
"pay this amount or hire an attorney for a lot of money to fight it."
Obvious clerical errors have drawn fines in the $2,000 to $5,000 range. In
addition, the commissioners have enacted regulations that run counter to
statutes in the knowledge that it would cost a lot of money to challenge
those regulations and that those inclined to challenge would not want to
risk the ire of the commissioners. Through the years, as new member of the
commission have brought their own pet "reforms" forward for consideration,
other commissioners have deferred, the result is a patchwork of rules and
regulations that defy understanding. It has long been a game of "gotcha"
when it comes to dealing with this commission and frequently staff members
have greeting questions about commission decisions and regulations with
shrugs of the shoulder or raised eyebrows. Those are the kinds of things
that require oversight. Perhaps the legislature should conduct hearings into
the activities of the commission and grant immunity to anyone who comes
forward to testify. Or, for the protection of those wishing to offer
testimony, legislative auditors should interview people in private to
protect those with information. 

Larry

 

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf
Of Allison Hayward
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 9:47 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] FPPC Budget and independence

 

Greetings, fans of California campaign finance regulation, and/or fans of
independent political regulatory agencies:

 

You might be interested in the following: 

 

LAO Report on FPPC Budget & Workload 

Dated May 7, 2018.  

Requested by Senate Budget Subcommittee #4 on April 5, 2018

 

http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3822 

 

In brief - it's budget season in California!  And, the FPPC has a budget,
about half of which is guaranteed (by the Political Reform Act, which means
immune from amendment by ordinary legislation), and about half of which is
not.  The Senate Budget Committee asked the Leg Analyst's office (LAO) to
review the FPPC's operations, to better inform the committee on the adequacy
of the FPPC's budget and budget change requests.  It is thought by many that
the chair of the committee was seeking to justify budget increases, by the
way (I am not in a position to say, myself).

 

Oops.  The LAO report isn't flattering. Go ahead and read it at the link
above. (Behold the self executing nature of the law of unintended
consequences!)

 

At our open meeting Thursday, the Chair objected to the LAOs requests for
additional information, reporting and performance benchmarks, observing that
such requests undermined the independence of the FPPC.  If people are really
interested, I can dial up the part of the Youtube record where this
discussion occurs.

 

Clearly there is a tension between "independence" and "oversight."  I had
always thought the portion of the FPPC's funds that are guaranteed under the
Political Reform Act was the "independence" part (for lack of a better
label), and to the extent the agency gets even more money from the state,
the use of that money can be subject to limitation and oversight just as any
other agency's would be.  I am not pretending that the guaranteed money is
sufficient to execute the FPPC's current mission with all its bells and
whistle and future obligations and whatnot, only that there has been a
balance struck.

 

I offer this information for what interest it might be to people
(particularly academics), and also to inquire how other state's
campaign/ethics regulators are overseen and budgeted.

 

Thanks,

 

Allison

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