Former Los Angeles Councilman Kevin DeLeón faces a $18,750 moral fine to vote on the city council’s decision because he has financial interests and has failed to disclose income.
De Leon has pleaded guilty to “decision of or participation in a decision to make or participate in a financial benefit” and one offence of undisclosure of income, according to a report prepared by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission’s law enforcement department.
Ethics Report said that in 2020-21, De Leon voted on three city council issues that benefited from the AIDS Medical Foundation, which helped the U.S. — All decisions were made less than a year after he earned more than $500 from each. Under state law, elected officials must disclose the total revenue source for each total revenue within 12 months before taking office.
The Ethics Committee reported that less than 12 months after receiving AIDS Medical Foundation income, de Leon participated in three independent city decisions that affected foundations that he knew or had reason to know he had a financial interest. However, according to the Ethics Committee report, none of the $109,231 income from the foundation received from the Ethics Committee was disclosed.
On November 25, 2020, he voted for the Foundation’s historical name for the Foundation’s Edward Hotel. On April 22, 2021, he voted for the foundation-owned Retan hotel’s urban rental project. On May 4, 2021, he again voted for Retan Hotel’s city rental.
DeLeón’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Times received a statement from a DeLeón spokesman: “The matter is centered on disclosure, not on personal interest. These items provide homeless housing during the easy-to-realize pandemic and health services in Angelenos,” the statement said. “They passed unanimously, and if the Council member De Leon was told he should withdraw himself, he would do it without hesitation – the result would be the same.”
From July 2019 to June 2020, USC paid him $155,000 as an independent contractor.
Leon took part in a city decision that benefited from the University of Southern California less than 12 months later, according to the Ethics Committee. In June 2021, DeLeón voted to approve a proposed budget housing and community development merger plan, which includes a $1 million allocation to the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
In March 2020, DeLeón was elected as the 14th District Representative Council of the Los Angeles City Council. In May 2020, while still elected to the Council, DeLeón signed a consulting agreement with the Health Housing Foundation, a division of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and began serving strategic policy consultants.
The agreement says DeLeón[e]The Ethics Committee said litigation by policy makers and regulators in all areas related to HHF’s overall strategic objectives. ”
DeLeón took office in October 2020. He filed a financial disclosure form next month but did not disclose the AIDS Medical Foundation or its Health Housing Foundation as a source of income. According to the Ethics Committee report, he submitted the revised financial statements in December 2020 but did not disclose the income to the AIDS Medical Foundation, which is “the real source of income he earned under the consulting agreement”.
The Ethics Commission said in determining the fine that De Leon worked with staff and he had no previous history of execution. However, the Ethics Committee noted that in this case, the violation is serious and that “the violation seems to indicate a pattern of behavior.”
Similar issues were highlighted in the 2023 story, and it was found that DeLeón organized a meeting in the summer of 2020 with a group of municipal department heads and senior mayor staff to address the issues facing the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. At that time, De Leon was elected but had not yet taken office.
In the months leading up to the meeting, the AIDS Medical Foundation is filing a lawsuit alleging that the city illegally denies funding for affordable housing projects proposed by the foundation. The mayor’s then-chief of staff said DeLeón “wanted to be involved and come up with a solution.”
Five city officials who participated in the briefing or organized it told the Times in 2023 that they did not realize that De Leon was hired as a consultant to the foundation or paid him more than six months in the six months before he took office.
Meanwhile, political ethics experts told The Times that De Leon’s relationship with the Foundation and his failure to disclose his financial ties have caused potential conflicts of interest. They believed that his actions might make the city staff feel uncertain about the interests of the city or employees at that time.
