The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to hold a special election March 7, 2017, for voters to consider a quarter-cent sales tax to fund efforts to reduce homelessness.

It has yet to be officially announced, but other city and district elections might be consolidated on the March 7 countywide ballot. A consolidated election would allow the county to split the election costs with the other involved jurisdictions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a special election for Assembly District 54. The primary will be held on December 3, 2013.

If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a special general election will be held on February 4, 2014. The vacancy occurred following the resignation by Assembly Member Holly Mitchell.

Assembly District 54 is wholly contained in Los Angeles County.

Treasurer Mark J. Saladino announced his office will no longer do business with securities brokers making political contributions to school bond campaigns. The pay-to-play policy is an attempt to prevent campaign donations from influencing the hiring of underwriters by school districts. The policy is also expected to increase competition between dealers and save taxpayer dollars.

Under the new policy, underwriters must not donate to school bond measures if they want to qualify for the treasurer’s list of investment banks and securities dealers eligible to sell county bonds. The restriction applies to monetary donations, non-monetary contributions, and pre-election services.

In statewide surveys, virtually every securities broker hired by a school district contributed to the district’s bond campaign and was retained without competitive bidding. A recent study focusing on California school bond issues found post-election fees paid to underwriters making contributions were on average $27,576 more than those paid to brokers not contributing.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto is preparing legislation in response to the alleged pay-to-play scandal at the Los Angeles County Assessor’s office. The bill, AB 404, would require tax agents to register as lobbyists in counties already regulating lobbying.

Tax agents are hired by property owners to persuade appraisers and the assessor that property values are lower than listed. While the bill leaves it up to the counties to craft specific regulations, the draft regulations would require tax agents to register as lobbyists with the county, would forbid them from making campaign contributions to any county elected official, and would also bar them from giving gifts worth more than $50 to county employees.

The district attorney’s office is investigating allegations that one tax agent, Ramin Salari, used contributions to obtain favorable treatment from Assessor John Noguez. A former appraiser, Scott Schenter, claimed to have cut roll values with the expectation that affected property owners would be more likely to donate to Noguez’s campaign.