Updated
Updated · The San Diego Union-Tribune · Aug 12
San Diego County Supervisor Proposes 2-Year Lobbying Ban and Prediction Market Curbs
Updated
Updated · The San Diego Union-Tribune · Aug 12

San Diego County Supervisor Proposes 2-Year Lobbying Ban and Prediction Market Curbs

1 articles · Updated · The San Diego Union-Tribune · Aug 12

Summary

  • Terra Lawson-Remer wants San Diego County to bar former staff from lobbying the county for private clients for two years and to ban employees from betting on work-related prediction markets.
  • The proposal follows reporting that the county has no revolving-door restriction, unlike other large California jurisdictions; 10 former county employees were registered lobbyists in June, and seven started within two years of leaving.
  • Her plan would also require officials to disclose any prediction-market income on state financial forms, though Lawson-Remer said she knows of no county misuse and framed the rule as a preemptive safeguard.
  • Supervisors are set to take up the package next Wednesday; if they approve it, staff would draft enforcement details before a later vote on a formal ordinance.
  • The ethics push extends Lawson-Remer’s broader county-governance campaign ahead of a November charter ballot measure, where a lobbying ban was left out because she said it could be enacted more easily by ordinance.

Insights

Will San Diego's new ethics rules actually stop insider influence, or will former officials just exploit the strategic adviser loophole?
Why are public employees betting on their own projects, and can new rules truly prevent this modern insider trading?