Stockton city council members took a first step toward creating new transparency rules for political consultants and possibly establishing a city ethics commission.
On Wednesday, the council's legislative committee told interim City Clerk Katherine Roland to draft policies that would require consultants working with local candidates and politicians to reveal basic information about their businesses and clients.
The move came just over a month after a grand jury alleged that a social media platform owned by Stockton political consultant Motecuzoma Sanchez repeatedly published misleading posts about certain city staff and elected officials. The platform sometimes presents itself as an accountability-oriented news website.
More: Grand jury: 209 Times 'affected every level' of Stockton government with continued harassment
New transparency rules could make clear which officials might be paying Sanchez as well as other consultants.
"That won’t affect me or 209 Times at all," Sanchez said when asked whether he'd support or oppose such rules in Stockton.
On the grand jury's advice, Roland plans to model Stockton's draft rules on San Francisco's extensive consultant policy , she said Wednesday.
Under San Francisco's approach, consultants must send their disclosures to an ethics commission, which Stockton does not currently have. Roland is also writing a plan to potentially create one, as well as to update the city council's ethics creed, she said.
More: Stockton needs more transparency about paid political consultants: grand jury
To become law, the legislative committee — which includes council members Michael Blower, Susan Lenz and Kimberly Warmsley — would have to agree on language for the proposed changes. Then, the full council and the public would have opportunities to discuss them before the council took a vote.
Blower said he'd need more information about San Francisco's consultant rules before he'd support similar rules in Stockton.
"There's a lot of good political consultants here," he said Thursday. "Is it punishing those guys because there's a few bad actors out there?"
"I want to dig into the details," he said.
Roland plans to share the draft rules with the legislative committee and public throughout several future committee meetings, she said.
Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers government accountability. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https ://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow .
This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton drafting possible transparency rules for political consultants after grand jury report
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