Published: Friday, August 9, 2002 Setting an ethical tone EDITORIAL Long Beach: Questions about political malfeasance are about to be answered. The efforts of Long Beach's Ethics Review Task Force already have begun to improve the openness of local electioneering. The need is certainly evident. The panel's report will be submerged in the City Council's political process for awhile, but one of its recommendations, the posting of campaign finance reports, won't have long to wait. The council ordered that candidate statements be put online as soon as feasible. The City Clerk's Office plans to put the statements on the city's web site for public access in time for the next election filing deadline Jan. 31. The information will include campaign donors' names, addresses and occupations; the amounts of contributions; how much money the candidates have collected, and how much money they have spent. Voters have access to that information now, but they have to trek down to the clerk's office and pay 10 cents a page for copies. For 100-page documents, that adds up. By the 2006 elections, the city plans to provide a more sophisticated, searchable computerized system that will enable candidates to file reports electronically, and provide access to the data by typing in key words or names. The council also, at Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal's request, has asked the City Attorney's Office to compile an ethics handbook of existing rules. That's pretty basic, but some local politicians have not been adhering to the basics. Also coming soon from the City Attorney's Office are some promised depositions, in which campaign operatives of Councilman Dan Baker will be asked to give sworn testimony about who did what illicitly in his failed campaign for mayor. Unless the targets of the investigation manage somehow to wiggle off the hook, the depositions could begin within a week or so. In the mayoral campaign, the city's police union made a contribution that exceeded the city's limits by a factor of about 25, and others, including the Lambda Democratic Club, also broke the rules. But nobody will 'fess up to the details, such as exactly who solicited these excesses. That sort of thing isn't covered in an ethics manual or in online campaign statements. But it is covered in local ordinances and state law. The task force has set the right tone for the city. Now the city attorney can help set the campaign wrongs aright.