The city of Los Angeles will pay for legal services to fend off litigation filed by its own city councilmember against the LA Ethics Commission.
The LA City Council Wednesday approved the proposal to hire outside counsel after Councilmember John Lee sued the Ethics Commission, which had found Lee violated ethics law in December 2025 for accepting lavish gifts without reporting them.
The independent government agency had concluded that Lee, who was a chief of staff for the disgraced Councilman Mitch Englander, did not disclose when the pair went to Las Vegas in 2017, a trip paid for by businesspeople. Lee was also accused of accepting free food, drinks, club access and gambling perks without reporting them.
The commission had also decided to impose a maximum penalty of $138,124 for all 10 counts against Lee, including two counts for allegedly accepting gifts that exceeded a limit, three counts for allegedly failing to disclose those gifts, four counts for allegedly misusing his position and one count for allegedly helping Englander misuse his position.
To defend the Ethics Commissions, the council Wednesday approved a contract with Heckner Fink LLP for advice and legal representation with the initial cost of $120,000.
Lee, who represents 12th Council District in the northwest San Fernando Valley, has denied the allegations in a statement.
“The Commission rubber-stamped a biased investigation and blatantly ignored all relevant facts, including that the FBI never charged me for backdating any checks or aiding Mitchell Englander’s 2017 illegal activities,” Lee said.
“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. The only thing I’m guilty of is being honest and transparent in the face of an utterly dishonest process.”
The Ethics Commission has insisted that its decision was “based on the facts” without passing judgment on Lee.
Following a federal corruption investigation, ex-Councilmember Englander admitted lying to investigators and was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison.
Lee was not charged by federal prosecutors nor named during Englander’s federal indictment, but he was referred to as “City Staffer B.”
The city of LA requires city officials to report gifts, travel or payments to ensure their jobs are not benefiting themselves, friends or donors while preventing “pay-to-play” schemes.