Indianapolis adopts stricter rules for lobbyists

The city on Wednesday unveiled new reporting requirements for lobbyists who target its officials and employees, and they're stricter than the standards for lobbying state lawmakers.

The new policies take effect Jan. 1 and will require lobbyists to register in a public database. Starting in January 2011, they also must file annual reports with the city that detail what they were paid for each meeting with elected officials, board members and city employees.






Lobbyists also must log how much they spent on meals and gifts for members of those groups and, for expenditures of $25 or more, for whom they were purchased.

The requirements apply to anyone who makes more than $1,000 a year from lobbying activities. They are part of a lobbying reform proposal passed earlier this year by the City-County Council and a citywide ethics initiative pushed by Mayor Greg Ballard.

Ballard said the changes would provide a "window for taxpayers to better understand how decisions that affect them are made."

"Citizens deserve to know who these (lobbyists) are and who they're talking to," he said. "We knew this needed to be done to make everything as transparent as possible."

The new rules are stricter than those for state-level lobbyists, who must report expenditures and gifts twice a year but need only itemize expenses by lawmakers' names if they exceed $100 a day or $500 a year.

Single gifts of more than $100, or $250 worth of gifts in a year, to a state lawmaker must be reported separately by the legislator's name within seven days.

Like the state, the city doesn't limit how much local elected officials may accept from lobbyists. That has raised criticism at the state level in light of the $25.8 million lobbyists invested to woo state lawmakers during the most recent annual reporting period.

The extent to which local elected officials are lobbied varies, but some on the council say it's not as often as at the state level.

Bob Cockrum, a Republican who serves as the council president, said he gets about 10 meals a year from various groups, including businesses and nonprofits, and they vary from simple breakfasts to dinners at upscale restaurants.

Source:indystar.com/