Ex-Alameda Supervisor Nabs Lobbying gig for Mega-project he Spearheaded
Former Alameda County supervisor, Scott Haggerty, accepted a $197,000 lobbying contract to oversee a multi-billion dollar rail project that he was responsible for championing while in office.
John Pelissero, a government ethics expert at Santa Clara University, said even if both parties stuck to the letter of the law, the arrangement raises valid ethical concerns from the public.
“There’s no arm’s length distance between his former roles and now being hired by the agency that he formerly chaired,” said Pelissero, senior scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “The shorter the distance, the more the perception is going to be that a lot of the public policy actions that were taken . . . was laying the groundwork to eventually be hired as a private lobbyist.”
John Pelissero, senior scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, quoted by The Mercury News.