The FPPC has officially decided that SB 1439, the new law which requires city councilmembers, county supervisors and other local elected officials to recuse themselves from proceedings involving a land use applicant or prospective government contractor who has contributed over $250 to their campaigns, will also apply to elected city […]
A Sacramento County Superior Court Judge has upheld SB 1439, the new law which severely restricts campaign contributions to local elected officials (such as city council members, county supervisors, and candidates for those offices) in the legal challenge brought by the California Building Industry Association and other trade associations. The […]
May 2023 Alert SB 1439, the new law which requires city councilmembers, county supervisors and other local elected officials to recuse themselves from proceedings involving a land use applicant or government contractor who has contributed over $250, continues to raise new questions. While the law was evidently aimed to extend the […]
March 2023 The fifth time is evidently a charm. Though the City Ethics Commission has sent four proposed City lobbying law updates to the City Council over the last 15 years, each of those proposals died a slow death. Although the latest proposal seemed to be headed for the same fate, the […]
March 2023 The Sutton Law Firm is pleased to announce that Matthew Alvarez has become a partner of the firm. Matthew, a graduate of Boston College and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, has been with the firm since 2014. Matthew regularly advises candidates, elected officials, political […]
February 2023 As expected, a lawsuit has been filed challenging Senate Bill 1439, the new state law which requires city councilmembers, county supervisors and other local elected officials to disqualify themselves from land use and government contract proceedings involving their campaign contributors of $250 or more. The lawsuit was filed […]
BY MATTHEW C. ALVAREZ Requiring public disclosure of an organization’s grassroots lobbying efforts may not be a new concept, but San Francisco’s recently adopted Proposition C is a reminder of the regulatory creep of lobbying disclosure regimes on nonprofit organizations across the nation. San Francisco is the latest of many […]
BY MATTHEW C. ALVAREZ Special to The Bee The money-in-politics world recently witnessed a seemingly rare event: a government agency actually did something about super PACs that secretly and illegally coordinate with politicians to affect our elections. Unfortunately, the wrong government agency acted. California’s version of the Federal Election Commission […]
BY BRAD HERTZ In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll used the phrase “curiouser and curiouser” to describe Alice’s amazement as her body grew so big she imagined having to mail her shoes to herself. “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,” she says. “Nothing […]
BY BRAD HERTZ You probably remember Proposition F (the anti-Airbnb law that lost) and Proposition A (the $310 million affordable housing bond that won) from San Francisco’s November ballot. But you might not be aware of the 10 new state laws that take effect January 1. In what has […]
