QUESTION
What types of organizations are former elected officials and public servants lobbying for?
1:21:58
·
103 sec
The general counsel explains that the Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) does not regulate lobbying itself, but rather focuses on former public servants who are paid to communicate with the city government.
- The COIB's regulations apply to former public servants, not all lobbyists.
- The regulations cover all types of paid communications by former public servants with the city, not just lobbying.
- This includes routine business matters like seeking licenses and permits.
- The goal is to have a 'cooling off' period to prevent undue influence on current officials by former colleagues.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:21:58
And then for what types of organizations are former elected officials and public servants lobbying?
1:22:04
Your experience?
Ethan Carrier
1:22:05
Well, well, you know, that's an interesting question.
1:22:08
I mean, so this prohibition, I I don't know the answer to that question.
1:22:12
Because we don't regulate lobbying.
1:22:14
We regulate former public servants who are communicating with a city for under this post employment restriction, which is both sort of broader and narrower.
1:22:23
It's not all lobbyists because probably most lobbyists are not former public servants.
1:22:27
I I'm guessing.
1:22:28
I'm assuming most of them are not.
1:22:30
But where our concern is only about those former public servants, and it's broader in that its communication of all different kinds, not necessarily stuff that would qualify as lobbying though I'm not expert in what what requires somebody to become registered as a lobbyist.
1:22:51
But it's all kinds of communications as long as you were paid by somebody to communicate.
1:22:59
So not just sort of classic lobbying, but also kind of routine business vacations, seeking non ministerial licenses and permits from the city.
1:23:07
Lots of things that I think people would not normally think of as being necessarily the kind of advocacy kind of thing that maybe we think of when we think of lobbyists.
1:23:16
So this is sort of a just a different kind of restriction.
1:23:20
It's really mostly focused on rights, only former public servants, and it's mostly focused on trying to make sure that government officials who might know those former public servants because of the work that they did are not being unduly influenced.
1:23:35
So it's sort of a cooling off period would be maybe the way to describe it.
Shahana K. Hanif
1:23:39
Thank you.
1:23:40
Thanks so being here.
1:23:41
Thank you.
