Now that the City Manager has placed a department head on administrative leave for accepting a gift of a hotel room from a lobbyist and for not being truthful when asked if he did so, it is time that a complete housecleaning be done at City Hall.
All department heads and all elected officials need to come clean about whether or not they have accept a gift of any kind from anyone having business at City Hall.
Two years ago, then Councilmember Bonnie Lowenthal and I were the ONLY votes in favor of a lobbyist ordinance -- and a proposal to prohibit the acceptance of gifts from lobbyists of any amount. Several of my colleagues argued that "These are our friends. We should be able to accept their gifts just as is done in the business world." (Yeah, we saw what the banks and Lehman Brothers did..)
After this latest debacle, and considering an earlier release of emails between another department head and a developer in which the department head told the developer: "I have 5 or 6 councilmembers in pocket..." the voters are saying "Enough is enough."
We need a complete investigation -- everyone. We also need the calendars of the elected officials published to show the public who has been meeting with whom. And, we need elected to disclose prior to a vote if they have had a private discussion with anyone having a matter before the City Council.
Unless we do and unless we pass the strictest lobbyist ordinance and prohibit any type of gift in the future -- the voters will not trust us.
