Former L.A. Councilmember Kevin de León faces ethics advantageous

Former Los Angeles Councilmember Kevin de León is going through an $18,750 ethics advantageous for voting on metropolis council selections by which he had a monetary curiosity and for failing to reveal revenue.

De León has admitted to 4 counts of “making or collaborating in a choice by which a monetary curiosity is held” and one rely of failing to reveal revenue, based on a report ready by the enforcement arm of the L.A. Metropolis Ethics Fee.

The ethics report says that in 2020-21 De León voted on three metropolis council points that benefited the AIDS Healthcare Basis and one which helped USC — all selections that have been made lower than a yr after he acquired greater than $500 revenue from every. In response to state legislation, elected officers should disclose every supply of gross revenue of $500 or extra acquired within the 12 months earlier than taking workplace.

Lower than 12 months after receiving revenue from AIDS Healthcare Basis, De León participated in three separate metropolis selections that affected the muse by which he knew or had cause to know he had a monetary curiosity, the ethics fee report stated. However based on the ethics fee report, De León didn’t disclose $109,231 in revenue he had acquired from the muse earlier than he took workplace.

On Nov. 25, 2020, he voted for the muse’s software for historic designation of the foundation-owned King Edward Lodge. On April 22, 2021, he voted for an merchandise concerning a metropolis lease of the foundation-owned Retan Lodge. On Could 4, 2021, he voted once more for a metropolis lease of the Retan Lodge.

De León’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however The Instances acquired a press release from a spokesperson for De León: “This matter facilities on disclosure — not private acquire. The objects in query offered homeless housing throughout a pandemic and well being companies to susceptible Angelenos,” the assertion stated. “They handed unanimously, and had Councilmember De León been suggested that he ought to recuse himself, he would have executed so with out hesitation — the outcomes would have been the identical.”

USC paid him $155,000 as an impartial contractor from July 2019 to June 2020.

Lower than 12 months later, De León participated in a metropolis choice that benefited USC, based on the ethics fee. In June 2021, De León voted to approve the Housing and Neighborhood Improvement Consolidated Plan proposed funds, which included a $1-million allocation to the USC Keck Faculty of Drugs.

In March 2020, De León was elected to characterize Council District 14 on the L.A. Metropolis Council. In Could 2020, whereas nonetheless a council member-elect, De León entered right into a consulting settlement with the Wholesome Housing Basis, a division of the AIDS Healthcare Basis and commenced offering companies as a strategic coverage advisor.

The settlement stated that De León was to “advise and strengthen technique concerning partnerships and coverage insights on behalf of HHF’s packages and portfolio,” and “[e]ngage with policymakers and regulators on all areas associated to total strategic objectives of HHF,” based on the ethics fee.

De León took workplace in October 2020. He filed a monetary disclosure kind the following month, however didn’t disclose the AIDS Healthcare Basis or its Wholesome Housing Basis as sources of revenue. In December 2020, he filed an amended monetary kind however didn’t disclose revenue from the AIDS Healthcare Basis, which was “the true supply of the revenue that he acquired beneath the consulting settlement,” based on the ethics fee report.

In figuring out the advantageous quantity, the ethics fee stated that De León cooperated with workers and that he has no prior enforcement historical past. Nevertheless, the ethics fee famous the violations on this case are severe and that “the violations seem to point a sample of conduct.”

Related points have been highlighted in a 2023 Instances story that discovered De León helped organized a gathering in summer time 2020 with a gaggle of metropolis division heads and high-ranking mayoral staffers to deal with points going through the AIDS Healthcare Basis. On the time, De León had been elected however not but taken workplace.

Within the months earlier than the assembly, the AIDS Healthcare Basis was pursuing a lawsuit alleging town illegally denied funding for an inexpensive housing challenge that the muse was proposing. An electronic mail from the mayor’s then-deputy chief of workers to colleagues stated De León “needs to have interaction and give you an answer.”

5 metropolis officers who attended the briefing or have been concerned in organizing it advised The Instances in 2023 they have been unaware that De León was employed as a marketing consultant for the muse on the time — or of the greater than $100,000 it was paying him within the six months earlier than his taking workplace.

Political ethics consultants, in the meantime, advised The Instances that De León’s relationship with the muse and failure to reveal his monetary ties raised a possible conflict-of-interest concern. They believed his actions might have left metropolis staffers with uncertainty about whose pursuits he was serving — town’s or his then-employer’s.