Starting in May, lobbyists in El Monte will need to register with the city, publicly disclose their clients and adhere to a $50 monthly gift limit.
The new rules allow both the public, and city officials, to know who a lobbyist is working for and how much they’re spending, said Councilmember Martin Herrera, who pushed for the ordinance with Councilmembers Alma Puente and Richard Rojo.
“Without this ordinance, I really didn’t know — unless they were a direct employee of a company — whether a person was paid to give me their two cents,” Herrera said. “I think it’s important that as an elected official I know where you’re coming from, so I can take your counsel, but also I know what your motivations are and I can make a sound judgment based on that.”
The public, meanwhile, will now know when lobbyists wine and dine council members or city employees and why.
The ordinance, which takes effect May 18, requires lobbyists to register within 15 days of any lobbying in the city and to identify their clients when presenting at council meetings if they’re not already registered.
The registration will include the lobbyist’s name, who is paying them, what they’re being paid to lobby for, and must disclose any payments they’ve made to, or on behalf of, a city official or their family members, including meals, gifts and salaries, according to the approved ordinance. Campaign contributions are currently excluded from the reporting, as those payments are already reported elsewhere, but Herrera said that could be changed later to make that information more accessible to the public.
After the initial registration, lobbyists are required to submit reports on their activities twice a year. City officials also must report the same information independently, which Herrera said will hopefully act as a check and balance to ensure both sides are properly disclosing their interactions.
Failure to comply with the city’s lobbying ordinance can include administrative fines of $100 to $500 per offense.
The City Council plans to revisit the ordinance in a year to review what worked and what needs adjustment, he said. That could include changes to what type of information is reported, or to the gift limits, if the amount is determined to be too high, or too low, Herrera said.
Herrera said the idea of registering lobbyists has been in the works for years, but that a recent controversy reinforced the need for the ordinance. Former El Monte Mayor Andre Quintero reported Councilmember Victoria Martinez Muela to the Fair Political Practices Commission in 2021 for not disclosing a $1,100 payment from a friend — and lobbyist in the city — to assist with the cost of a breast augmentation procedure in 2016.
The FPPC cleared Martinez Muela of any wrongdoing earlier this year, determining the payment was not a gift and did not need to be reported. State law allows for financial assistance from “longtime friends” and existing personal relationships, as long as the individual is not registered as a lobbyist with the official’s agency.
Martinez Muela had been close friends with the lobbyist in question, Sigrid Lopez, for years at the time. Both have stressed the payment did not have any strings attached and there is no indication Martinez Muela supported Lopez’s employer in subsequent votes. The two eventually had a falling out over Martinez Muela’s strong stance against a cannabis regulation that Lopez supported.
Herrera said that controversy might have been avoided if the city had stronger disclosure requirements at the time. The registration system will make it clear to all city officials where the line should be drawn between friend and lobbyist, he said.
Herrera noted he also has friends who are lobbyists and that he personally will benefit from the ordinance by knowing which topics they’re being paid to promote, he said.
El Monte reviewed lobbying rules in other cities, including Los Angeles, Anaheim and West Hollywood, to create its ordinance. Herrera said he is hopeful that other cities, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley, will look to El Monte as a model for this type of system in the future.
“Maybe it’ll improve the landscape of politics throughout the region,” he said.
