Columbia Mayor Bob Coble has toughened a proposed ordinance to regulate people who lobby the city.

Registered lobbyists would be prohibited from providing council members and city staff with gifts, campaign contributions or anything of value under the proposal.

City Council is expected to discuss the ordinance at its meeting today.

Open government advocates called the proposal a good step, but not perfect.

Coble initially offered a lobbying ordinance in September. Council endorsed the idea but said the definition of a lobbyist was too broad. Other critics said the proposal would have little effect if it did not restrict lobbyists’ activities.

The definition of a lobbyist would have included executive directors and other employees of organizations who regularly appear before council to request funding.

Coble amended the proposal to exclude full-time, permanent employees of organizations who lobby the city on behalf of their employers.

“If you are hired to lobby City Council, you’re a lobbyist,” Coble said, describing the intent behind the definition.

Lobbyists would have to register with the city. There would be no fee, but refusal to register would be a misdemeanor.

“Most people don’t realize that lobbying goes on everywhere,” said Laurel Suggs, president of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. “We really should focus on making the General Assembly make that a requirement for all local governments.”

John Crangle, executive director of the government watchdog group S.C. Common Cause, said the proposal’s definition of a lobbyist should not have been scaled back, but he was pleased to see Coble add the provisions limiting lobbyist activity.

“The public has a right to know who’s soliciting funds from the city of Columbia,” Crangle said. “It’s not a burdensome requirement to register, and it’s not burdensome to be limited by these restrictions.

“There’s no real justification for excluding full-time employees of nonprofits.”

A third change to the proposed ordinance is for the city to retain an attorney who would serve as an ethics advisory officer.

Now, ethical issues are directed to city attorney Jim Meggs, who seeks an opinion from the State Ethics Commission. The mayor proposes finding an outside attorney with experience in ethics issues to offer advice when it is needed.

Coble said retaining the attorney would require “a relatively modest cost.” He pointed out that this year, there were only two or three questions that would have been referred to the adviser, whom the city would pay at an hourly rate.

The lobbying ordinance would be the third in a series of changes in how City Council does business. Previously passed ordinances dealt with how the city handles land deals and openness in City Council meetings.

City Council still is working out proposed changes in the structure and role of the city’s quasi-private development corporations.

Reach Drake at (803) 771-8692 or jdrake@thestate.com.