Redondo to Temper Measure Covering Gifts to Officials : Ethics: Proposal for strict ban on nearly everything is rejected in a split vote. Instead, the city attorney will draft a less restrictive measure.

Redondo Beach public officials will still be able to accept a free cup of coffee--for now.

After considerable debate Wednesday night, the City Council voted 3 to 2 to reject a proposal that would have prohibited city employees and elected officials from accepting gifts, meals and beverages from virtually anyone. Instead, the council directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance patterned after a less restrictive one recently adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Although Redondo Beach has no law regulating the receipt of gifts, the state Fair Political Practices Commission requires elected officials and top city employees such as city managers and city attorneys to report gifts of more than $25 from a single contributor, and sets a $1,000 limit for all gifts in a calendar year.

Recently elected Councilman Robert Pinzler, who introduced the sweeping ban, argued that the strict regulations are needed to bolster public confidence in local government.

Councilman Stevan Colin backed Pinzler’s measure.

“What you send out to the public is a message that we are trying to conduct business as open and honest as possible,” Colin said. “This is the type of action that’s good for the council. It keeps everyone honest.”

At the meeting, most members of the public, who were supposed to be comforted by the proposal, spoke against the absolute ban.

“Let’s be reasonable here as opposed to Draconian,” said Steve Garfield, a member of the city’s Environmental and Public Utilities Commission. He and other appointed officials would be exempt from the ban.

“Let’s not get to the point where a cup of coffee is going to make a person a criminal,” Garfield said.

Some council members feared that the money they would be forced to spend to participate in civic events would be too costly. Mayor Brad Parton estimated he would spend $150 a month.

“I couldn’t afford it and I wouldn’t be able to go to these organizations anymore,” Parton said. “We should have a policy like this, but I don’t know where the line should be drawn.”

Councilman Joseph Dawidziak said state laws are adequate to control gifts to officials, and he suggested that the backers were grandstanding.

But Pinzler defended his motives. “This is not a political statement, it’s a statement of conscience,” he said.

City Atty. Jerry Goddard said he would model the new measure after one recently adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which acted after a gifts scandal involving a supervisor. Goddard said the draft ordinance would be ready by early July.

The Orange County ordinance prohibits gifts to county officials from people who have conducted business with the government within the past year. The ordinance is targeted at lobbyists and contractors, but also can include anyone who actively supported or opposed the issuance of a license or a permit.

Goddard said Orange County’s ordinance allows for officials to accept meals, beverages and free admission to events sponsored by educational, academic or charitable organizations as long as the value does not exceed $50 from a single source in a calendar year. He said he would write similar provisions into the Redondo Beach ordinance.

No Redondo Beach city official or employee has violated state laws governing gifts in more than a decade, Goddard said.

In 1981, Councilman Walter Mitchell was ousted from office after an FBI investigation found that he was taking gifts from a developer with a project pending before the City Council, Goddard said.