City Council will consider amendments being proposed by the Auditor’s Office to strengthen lobbyist registration requirements and broaden revolving-door prohibitions for certain City officials. Deborah Scroggin, who oversees the Lobbyist Registration Program, will outline the changes for Council at 3 p.m., Wednesday, April 13.

If adopted as proposed, the amendments will:

• Prohibit City elected officials and their at-will staff from lobbying their former colleagues for two years instead of one and extend the prohibition to any subject matter;

• Prohibit City directors from lobbying directors of their former bureau and the current Commissioner-in-charge for two years;

• Increase the maximum penalties from $500 per violation to $3,000 per violation for repeat violators;

• Add a dollar threshold to the existing number-of-hours threshold that triggers lobbyists to register with the City. If a lobbying entity spends $1,000 or lobbies for eight hours in a quarter, it will have to register;

• Clarify calendar requirements for elected officials and bureau directors by adding types of information to be disclosed; and,

• Codify the Auditor’s authority to initiate investigations and obtain information needed to enforce the requirements as well as seek recovery of attorney’s fees and other expenses.

 For additional information, find a summary here and the proposed Code language here.