Friday, April 19, 2013

VIDEO: New Greuel TV Ad Lies About Garcetti Taking "Illegal Vote" On Billboards

In her harshest attack yet, Wendy Greuel launched a TV ad this morning claiming opponent Eric Garcetti took an "illegal vote" when he approved a settlement that allowed Clear Channel Communications to convert hundreds of billboards to a digital format.

Watch it:



Going by the graphics in the ad, Greuel apparently is basing her attacks on this February 21 LA Times article about an ethics complaint filed by then-mayoral candidate Emanuel Pleitez.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Emanuel Pleitez lodged a complaint with the Ethics Commission this week alleging his opponent, Eric Garcetti, had a financial conflict of interest when he signed off on a lucrative deal with a billboard company. 
Garcetti, a city councilman, voted in 2006 for a legal settlement that allowed Clear Channel Outdoor to convert hundreds of billboards to a digital format. At the same time, he held stock in Clear Channel Communications, the billboard company's parent. On financial disclosure forms, he had checked a box valuing the stock at between $2,000 and $10,000.
Garcetti gave the shares to charity in 2007. Greuel also voted in favor of the billboard settlement.

However, nothing in the article alleges that the vote Garcetti took was "illegal", and in fact goes on to list a conflict Greuel herself had regarding another vote taken around the same time.

The Times reported last week that City Controller Wendy Greuel pushed for the council to block (a) Home Depot project yet did not publicly discuss that she had inherited a 50% share in a potential competitor, a family building supply business nine miles away. A Greuel spokeswoman said last week that there was no conflict because other Home Depots were near her family's business.

Under state law, regulators determine a conflict of interest after reviewing a variety of factors, including the size of the elected official's investment and the amount of revenue generated by the vote. Experts contend the council's vote on Clear Channel generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the company. That surpasses any threshold used by state regulators to establish a conflict of interest.

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