The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission’s decision this week to uphold all 10 counts of ethics violations against Councilmember John Lee ties a sitting member of the City Council to a scandal many Angelenos associate with a different figure: Mitchell Englander.
Englander, the former councilmember whose 2017 Las Vegas trip became one of the most consequential City Hall corruption sagas in recent memory, pleaded guilty in 2020 to scheming to obstruct a federal investigation into that trip and his acceptance of cash and gifts from a businessman. Lee was not charged federally.
The Ethics Commission concluded Wednesday that Lee violated city rules in 2016 and 2017 while serving as Englander’s chief of staff — finding that he accepted and failed to disclose gifts and misused his position. Commissioners imposed a $138,124.32 maximum penalty, siding with city investigators and rejecting a lower penalty recommended by an administrative law judge.
Lee, in a statement, framed the decision as political retribution and vowed to fight.
The commission, he said, “rubber-stamped a biased investigation,” ignored that federal authorities never charged him, and imposed what he called an “absurd fine,” including penalties tied to counts he argued were not proven in the administrative hearing.
“I have cooperated with this process at every step. I voluntarily turned over every document asked of me, cooperated with both federal and commission investigators, and testified numerous times on this matter under oath,” Lee said. “The only thing I’m guilty of is being honest and transparent in the face of an utterly dishonest process.”
Reform advocates, however, said the decision is less about rehashing an old scandal than about what it signals now — whether City Hall’s ethics rules carry real weight, or whether violations are too often met with penalties that fail to meaningfully deter misconduct.
“This ruling sends a message that ethics laws matter. That accountability matters,” said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics, and accountability program manager for California Common Cause.
McMorris said ethics laws “are not ‘less-than’ laws that politicians can ignore,, but rules meant to “buttress our democratic institutions” and protect public trust.
“Too often, those who willfully violate ethics laws get off with a slap on the wrist years after the violation occurred,” he said. “I think the substantial fine in this case represents the magnitude of the violations and their potential harm to the public’s trust in the L.A. government. It sends a message that those at City Hall who abuse the power of their position and flout ethics laws will be held accountable for their actions.”
In a statement following the vote, Ethics Commission President Manjusha Kulkarni emphasized the importance of ethics and transparency in public service.
“It is essential to a properly functioning democracy that those who serve in positions of leadership and influence act in the best interests of the public, with the highest level of integrity, and not in ways that are designed to deceive and promote self-interests,” Kulkarni said.
The case stems from allegations that Lee accepted gifts including meals, wine, hotel stays, transportation and gambling chips from individuals with business interests before the city, including businessman Andy Wang, lobbyist Michael Bai and developer Chris Pak, and failed to properly disclose them on required financial filings known as Statements of Economic Interests, or Form 700s.
The gifts were connected to the same circle of donors and business figures tied to Englander, whose Las Vegas trip became a flashpoint in the federal corruption investigation that ultimately ended his political career. Englander was sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to obstructing the investigation and lying to federal agents.
Lee was referred to as “City Staffer B” in court filings but was never charged. The Ethics Commission’s ruling underscores the difference between criminal prosecution and civil ethics enforcement: while federal investigators pursue crimes, the city’s ethics watchdog evaluates whether officials complied with disclosure rules and gift limits designed to prevent conflicts of interest and inform voters.
Lee, who represents the 12th Council District in the northwest San Fernando Valley, has survived multiple elections while the ethics case remained unresolved. He was first elected to the council in 2019 during a special election after succeeding Englander, and reelected to a full term in 2020 and 2024.
The Lee ruling arrives as Los Angeles continues to grapple with the fallout from a series of ethics and corruption cases involving current and former city leaders, including former Councilmember Jose Huizar and former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas.
At the neighborhood level, the case has reinforced skepticism about whether City Hall meaningfully reforms itself. Mihran Kalaydjian, president of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, said the Lee case reflects a familiar pattern in city government, where violations are identified and penalties imposed, but broader accountability often feels elusive.
“Violations are acknowledged, fines are paid, and business resumes as usual, without meaningful accountability, transparency, or reform,” Kalaydjian said, arguing that such outcomes fall short of meaningful transparency or reform.
When elected officials violate ethics laws, he said, the harm extends beyond disclosure forms or campaign filings. “It erodes public confidence in a system already struggling with low trust, voter disengagement and widespread skepticism,” he said, particularly when residents perceive that City Council is not held to the same standards it sets for others.
Kalaydjian said the issue is not limited to any one councilmember, but reflects a broader culture in which ethics violations are often resolved through settlements that can feel like “a cost of doing business.”
He added that residents rarely see a clear public accounting of how violations occurred or what safeguards are put in place to prevent them from happening again. As a result, he said, enforcement can feel procedural rather than corrective.
Kalaydjian said cases like Lee’s should serve as a wake-up call for the public. He urged residents to more closely scrutinize their elected officials and called for greater transparency around ethics violations — including more clear explanations of misconduct and stronger penalties that deter repeat behavior.