When William Richter served on the Chula Vista Districting Commission last year, he helped create the commission’s bylaws, a set of guidelines that would govern the advisory group.
A portion of those bylaws included commissioners maintaining a log of people or representatives of groups they met outside of a public meeting who have a stake in the way the district lines are drawn.
Now with the help of the City Attorney’s Office and the Chula Vista Board of Ethics, Richter wants to create a similar mechanism to register lobbyists anytime they meet with the city’s top officials.
“I am a big proponent of having an open government, and this is one of the small ways that a government can show they are transparent,” Richter said. “Without this process, we basically have backroom meetings. We have no idea who is meeting with whom or why.”
Chula Vista had toyed with the idea of registering lobbyists about a decade ago, but for unexplained reasons, the City Council then did not take action to institute a process.
Former Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda said he vaguely recalls the council discussing a possible registration process. He said the council only discussed the issue and never voted to have registration or not. He said the council didn’t take action because the city had budgetary issues at the time.
Other cities in the county like Oceanside and San Diego require the registration of a lobbyist once they meet with a city official.
Richter said it’s time for Chula Vista to join these cities.
“Having an open and transparent government helps foster trust in local government,” he said. “Without transparency in these private meetings, a culture of secrecy emerges which makes it easier to have the cliché backroom deals.”
Castaneda said lobbyist registration sounds like a good idea but that he isn’t entirely sold on the idea.
“I think it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing,” he said. “But I’m not really so sure of lobbyists running wild at City Hall.”
The ethics board, with one recusal, unanimously agreed to form an ad-hoc committee to develop an ordinance for the city related to lobbyist registration and disclosures.
Once the ad-hoc committee drafts an ordinance for the city, the full board will need to approve the draft upon its completion then it will be sent to the city council for review and possible approval.
“I voted to move forward with drafting the ordinance because I believe that a transparent lobbyist process is important and long overdue,” said Chris Shilling, Chairman of the Board of Ethics and member of the subcommittee. “I believe that the city is greatly lacking in transparency in regards to lobbyists.”
Richter said such an ordinance will make Chula Vista more transparent but he doesn’t think it will affect how decision makers vote on issues.
“To be honest, it doesn’t really affect much of the business that goes on,” he said. “The meetings can continue to go forward. Nobody would be precluded from meeting with anybody. The only thing that would happen is that the public would just have a better idea of who is meeting with whom.”
City Attorney Glen Googins agreed that lobbyists registration could make city officials more accountable.
“Done correctly, a lobbyists registration ordinance could be an effective tool for increasing transparency in City decision making by making sure that City decision makers — and the public— know who is representing whom, and in what ways, or matters before the city,” he wrote in an email.
Humberto Peraza, a prominent lobbyist in the South Bay, said he supports Chula Vista having a process to register lobbyists.
“I would never have any problems with any of my meetings (with city officials) being known to the public,” he said. “If you are worried about it, you’re probably doing something wrong.”
Richter said not everybody that a city official meets with should be registered, defining a lobbyist as someone being paid to try to change a rule or get an exception by influencing city officials.
