Miscellaneous
The Sacramento City Council will vote on a package of ethics reforms in the coming weeks, many of which are in response to the administration of former Mayor Kevin Johnson. The proposals include things like requiring city employees to use city email addresses to do city business, putting an end to the practice of ad hoc council committees that do business behind closed doors, and creation of an ethic commission to investigate and take enforcement against ethics violations. This week I talked to two people who have been pushing for these reforms for the last two years, Paula Lee, with the League of Women Voters, and Nicolas Heidorn, with California Common Cause. I should say at the time we recorded the interview, many of the details were still being worked, particularly on the ethics commission piece. Nicolas and Paula give a good run down of the new rules, they make the case for why they are needed, they talk a little bit about where this ethics package could be improved. You can SIGN UP on my semi-weekly mailing list, to get links to new Open Ears episodes as they arrive: eepurl.com/cy_d4z