Letter: Foust vs. FPPC, Round 2

Editor's Note: The original letter to the editor included an inaccurate statement about the FPPC's warning against Councilmember Foust "multiple times." It has been corrected: Councilmember Foust was in violation of conflict of interest laws only once in 2010.

This is the letter from the FPPC: http://www.fppc.ca.gov/enf_letter/08-12-10/ENF035.pdf

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Dear Editor,

With all due respect to Councilmember Ian Bain, but that to point out the ongoing conflict of interest his colleague Rosanne Foust has on the Cargill bay fill plan is "politics of personal destruction" is way off base.

Councilmember Foust is on notice that the Fair Political Practices Commission determined that she was in violation of state laws on conflict of interest in 2010. With respect to the massively controversial bay fill plan, Foust was warned by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) not to use her official position "in any way."

At the , Councilmember Foust defiantly thumbed her nose at the FPPC, again intervening directly into the debate over the project, singing Cargill’s praises, even claiming that she is recused on this issue merely because “I’ve been dinged.”

State conflict of interest laws are not something to make light of; our public officials do need to obey the law. I am grateful that there are residents with the courage to call it like they see it, because the violation here again is clear. Foust was warned in 2010, and so I'll be surprised if she isn't fined this time in what looks like politics of personal self-destruction.

--Adrian Brandt

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