Kunec

Good fences not only make good neighbors, but good politicians too. So reasons the Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA), Government Code section 81000 et seq., an initiative measure that erects barriers to public decisionmaking by officials who might otherwise govern in a financially self-interested manner. To implement these goals, the PRA calls for public disclosure and disqualification in appropriate circumstances.

This appeal involves politicians whose conflicts of interest arose because they were neighbors. Because two of five council members had property or financial interests immediately adjacent to a massive redevelopment project, a city council acting as a redevelopment agency invoked the so-called “rule of necessity” in Government Code section 87101 to allow one of them to participate in a condemnation decision requiring four affirmative votes. The trial court issued an injunction to invalidate the government decision, holding the agency fatally erred in its rationale and methodology.

We affirm the injunction on the latter ground. Public disclosure is a critical weapon in the fight against government corruption. Whether there is a real impropriety or merely the…