The Los Angeles City Council could soon require companies to disclose whether they have any ties to the U.S.-Mexico border wall project before attempting to do business with the city.
Depending on who you ask, the motion introduced by Councilman Gil Cedillo is either a move toward greater transparency or a recipe for political extortion and company blacklists.
“We want the city to know, the citizens of the city and the residents of the city to know where their resources are going. And we think that it’s imperative, it’s our duty, particularly given the folly of this [border wall] proposal,” Cedillo said.
That’s all fine and dandy. But does it mean that companies who wish to bid on the project would be prevented from doing business with the city? Cedillo insists that’s not the case. This is simply about openness, he says, and companies would not be denied contracts based on their desire to bid on the wall.
Color the skeptics skeptical.
Cedillo’s proposal comes at a time when officials in San Francisco and the California Legislature are proposing legislation to ban to work with any company that bids on Trump’s border wall. Cedillo says he was warned by the city attorney not to go that route.