The voters of the City of Los Angeles recently passed Charter Amendment H, enacting new local "pay to play" laws that impose significant restrictions on contractors doing business with the City. The amendments to the City Charter will cut a wide swath across all industries and include specific provisions for subcontractors, company executives, contractors’ agents, and bond underwriting firms.

This Amendment to existing ordinances has the stated purpose to "encourage a broader participation in the political process and to avoid corruption or the appearance of corruption in city decision making, and protect the integrity of the City's procurement and contract processes by placing limits on the amount any person may contribute or otherwise cause to be available to candidates for election to the offices of Mayor, City Attorney, Controller, and City Council and promote accountability to the public by requiring disclosure of campaign activities and imposing other restrictions."

Note the broad scope of these new Los Angeles laws.

This second amended ordinance has a broad reach to underwriting company executives, owners, agents, PACs, and others. Underwriters must also comply or face penalties or debarment. The ordinance does exempt bond underwriters in situations where the underwriting firm is selected on the basis of competitive bidding.