By Matt Hamilton, L.A. MATERIAL
https://lamaterial.com/p/la-karen-bass-donation-lineage
The little-known fundraising tool that lets elected officials solicit donations from corporations, unions and wealthy backers.
SHORTLY AFTER THE LINEAGE warehouse fire erupted in Boyle Heights earlier this summer, blanketing the neighborhood with toxic smoke and enraging the community, the company’s CEO was on the phone with Mayor Karen Bass.
“The mayor had a great suggestion,” Lineage’s operations chief, Jeff Rivera, later recalled. “Because we didn’t know what to do, and who to support.”
After that conversation with Bass, Lineage donated $2 million to the California Community Foundation, which in turn identified local community groups to distribute Lineage’s money to so they could assist Boyle Heights residents.
The donation from Lineage could be read many ways: routine corporate philanthropy; a public relations ploy from a company navigating a crisis; an attempt to curry favor with L.A.’s civic establishment. The donation is also a classic example of a little-known form of political largesse — the “behested payment.”
In California, elected officials are allowed to fundraise for other groups, soliciting or suggesting that companies or individuals give money to another organization, typically a nonprofit. If that donation is $5,000 or greater, the elected official must report it as a “behested payment.”
California politicians up and down the state have been behesting these payments for decades for a variety of charitable purposes — not without controversy. Gov. Gavin Newsom has reported steering nearly $350 (opens in new tab) million in donations (opens in new tab) since taking office, including to nonprofits linked to his wife (opens in new tab). Former Gov. Jerry Brown directed millions to charter schools. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti founded the Mayor’s Fund for L.A., for which he and his staff solicited millions to support summer recreation, cash assistance, and youth job programs.
“It’s influence peddling,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, the nonpartisan public interest group. “It’s another form of a shakedown, …a shakedown on behalf of charities you like or allies who can help you with your policy agenda.”
Defenders of the system highlight that the money often goes to worthy causes and that California law puts sunlight on a practice that otherwise could remain shrouded in secrecy.
While politicians face all sorts of limits on money in politics, like an $1,800 maximum in L.A. for campaign contributions, and a $100 to $630 cap on gifts to city officials, behested payments have no legal limits. The only requirement: A payment must be disclosed within 30 days.
Periodically, the issue has made news, often after investigations (opens in new tab) by local (opens in new tab) media (opens in new tab) into controversial donations. But the average Californian remains generally unaware that this system even exists.
Where Karen Bass has directed tens of millions of dollars
Since taking office, Bass has “behested” more than $38 million in donations to outside charities.
More than $2.2 million has gone to the Getty House Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving L.A.’s official mayoral residence in Windsor Square and hosting civic programs there. Donors include Bank of America ($25,000), Amazon (three donations totaling $100,000) and United Building Co., an affordable-housing builder (five donations totaling $55,000).
More than $4.2 million has gone to the California Community Foundation — nearly half of it from Lineage — while more than $3.6 million has gone to the LA4LA Fund, a public-private partnership aimed at boosting affordable housing.
Like Garcetti before her, Bass has directed the vast majority of her behested payments, nearly $20 million, to the Mayors Fund for L.A.
After Bass became mayor, her longtime friend and supporter, anti-poverty advocate Conway Collis, took over as CEO of the Mayors Fund. Collis told L.A. Material that under Bass’ watch, the Mayor’s Fund has focused on homelessness prevention. It has also adopted strict ethics rules, including limits on anonymous gifts and a prohibition on gifts from companies that hold city contracts.
Bass has had minimal to no involvement in fundraising specifically for the Mayor’s Fund, Collis said, noting that many of the largest backers — Kaiser, Molina, HealthNet, L.A. Care — are healthcare organizations with whom Collis has had direct, longstanding ties. Nevertheless, Collis said that the organization and Bass consider all gifts to the Mayor’s Fund as a “behested payment,” which results in a donor’s gift being reported to the L.A. City Ethics Commission.
Yet as the Lineage executive’s account of their $2 million donation indicates, Bass’ involvement in soliciting for other charities is more overt.
Delayed filings by Bass and others — and an anonymous complaint
Regardless of who is getting the money, however, Bass often blows the 30-day disclosure deadline.
On average, it took Bass 51 days to report a behested payment, according to a review by L.A. Material of the more than 560 donations she publicly reported through Aug. 28 with the L.A. City Ethics Commission.
In some cases, Bass took months or longer to disclose behested payments, such as the 372 days it took to disclose a $10,000 gift from United Building Company to the Getty House Foundation.
Bass’ press office did not respond to questions. On Friday, Bass’ office disclosed a $1 million donation on July 11 from AirBnB.org (opens in new tab) to families affected by the Lineage fire; the disclosure was roughly two weeks after the legal deadline.
Bass is running for reelection and facing off against Councilmember Nithya Raman, who has a far smaller but still tardy record on behested payments. Raman directed a total of $22,500 from three donors, including Live Nation, to the American Diabetes Assn. and a Van Nuys middle school. One donation from 2021 wasn’t reported until 2023, more than two years late.
Raman’s office said in a statement that they initially received “conflicting guidance” about behested payments but ultimately filed disclosures after reviewing legal requirements. “We have since strengthened our internal processes so that there will not be such delays in the future,” the statement said.
The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission at times punishes politicians for failing to comply with timely reporting requirements. Former O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas was fined (opens in new tab) $21,000 for failing to timely report $190,000 in donations to a nonprofit. In 2021, L.A. City Councilmember Curren Price was fined (opens in new tab) $1,600 for failing to disclose eight donations totaling $55,000 from 2017 to 2019. In 2024, then-Assemblymember Chris Holden was fined (opens in new tab) $24,000 for failing to timely report about $1.5 million in donations, mostly to the state Legislative Black Caucus Policy Institute.
In the case of the $2 million Lineage donation this summer, Bass once again blew past the 30-day deadline.
On Aug. 5, the state FPPC received an anonymous complaint that Bass failed to report the donation from Lineage. “This would be the third largest behested payment ever received by Mayor Bass, but she has failed to report it,” stated the complaint (opens in new tab), which L.A. Material obtained from the FPPC.
After the FPPC alerted Bass to the anonymous complaint, her office publicly reported the Lineage donation — two weeks late.
