Riverside County Approves $30k Contract with Lobbyist

By City News Service:

To ensure the county’s interests are represented in the state Legislature, the Board of Supervisors this week approved a $30,000 contract with a lobbying firm that will continue to work on the county’s behalf for another seven months, despite objections from one board member.

In a 3-1 vote on Tuesday, with Supervisor John Tavaglione absent, the board re- hired Michael Y. Corbett & Associates to the end of October. The action came two weeks after supervisors debated whether to terminate the firm’s services for good, along with Sacramento-based Cline & Duplissea.

Both lobbying groups have done business with the county since the early 2000s. Cline & Duplissea’s agreement was not renewed.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries opposed retaining Corbett, saying the contract was a needless expense and ran counter to a recommendation from county legislative affairs coordinator Brian Nestande, who submitted a brief report last month establishing grounds for only maintaining relationships with state lobbying concern Neilsen, Merksamer, Parrinello & Gross and federal lobbyist Thomas Walters.

“Our executive team put together recommendations, and they did not include this contract (with Corbett),” Jeffries said. “For whatever reason, we’re overriding them. I think it’s a mistake. We shouldn’t be forcing this down their throats.”

Temecula resident Paul Jacobs pointed to the board decision as another example of “broken government.”

“Lobbyists often dictate policy and supersede the people,” he said. “Representative government is a marketplace where votes are bought and sold.”

Supervisor John Benoit, who referred to Corbett as a “good friend,” said the criticism was unfounded and stressed the need for the county to carry greater influence at the state Capitol.

“We need to be represented in Sacramento,” Benoit said. “Mr. Corbett’s (services) have been effective and valuable in the past. If we’re not at the table making sure we’re getting our fair share, shame on us.”

Benoit noted that without lobbyists, the county might never have received the roughly $20 billion allocated by state and federal sources over the last decade.

Jeffries had requested in January that Nestande re-evaluate the county’s lobbying interests to determine who had returned value on their contracts and who hadn’t.

Nestande, a former assemblyman, did not address specific failings of any lobbying firm in his six-page assessment. But he said his analysis included questioning whether each legislative advocate had been prompt in responding to county requests, had accomplished goals set by the county and had proven generally effective in getting the county’s message across to lawmakers and the governor.

Nestande presented a cost comparison showing that, if the county had not renewed its contract with Corbett, the county’s two-year lobbying costs would have decreased from $860,000 to $690,000. That would be less than what’s spent in neighboring San Bernardino County -- $708,000 -- and in San Diego County, $1.05 million.

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