The author of a bill to ban behind-the-scenes communications at the California Coastal Commission said Thursday that she will seek to revise amendments an Assembly committee recently made to moderate the reform measure. Ex-partes are private communications between a commissioner and an interested party that could influence a decision. Jackson’s bill emerged Thursday from the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which finalized the language of several amendments that were announced late last week. Another amendment would require the commission to provide telephone and video access to its public meetings so that members of the public could testify about a matter. Ex-parte communications became controversial in February when commissioners fired Charles Lester, the agency’s executive director, with little public explanation.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 19, 2016 00:33 UTC