That’s O.K., in principle, but unfortunately the ordinance is inspired by Mayor Jim Wood’s irrational and intense dislike and/or distrust of lobbyists in general, and of me especially. I might add that the Mayor seems to hold the news media in low regard as well. Consider the section of the ordinance which seems to exclude members of the news media:

In addition to excluding public employee labor union lobbyists from registration and reporting requirements, Sec. 16C.6 (b) provides the following so called exclusion for the news media:

"Any newspaper or other periodical of general circulation, book publisher, radio or television station (including any individual who owns, publishes, or is employed by any such newspaper or periodical, radio or television station) which in the ordinary course of business publishes news items, editorials, or other comments, or paid advertisements, which directly or indirectly urge legislative action if such newspaper, periodical, book publisher, radio or television station or individual, engages in NO FURTHER OR OTHER ACTIVITIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE URGING OF LEGISLATIVE ACTION OTHER THAN TO APPEAR BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OR ANY COMMISSION, BODY, OR BOARD IN SUPPORT OF OR IN OPPOSITION TO SUCH ACTION."

In other words, it would seem that if a news media representative does anything other than "appear" before the City Council to urge legislative action, e.g. write an opinion column, publish or air an editorial, the exemption would no longer apply, and the offending news media representatives would have to register as lobbyists, or face a criminal investigation by the Oceanside Police Department.

In other words, parsing the section suggests that the news media is not actually fully excluded. This has to be a clear infringement on freedom of the press.

In over thirty years working in government and politics, I have only seldom seen legislation so poorly drafted.