If anyone is looking for evidence that city hall’s current lobbying regulations aren’t strict enough, today’s release of 2nd quarter lobbying reports should provide all the proof you need.

There are currently only 19 registered lobbying entities on the books—and of those, only six lobbied for more than 16 hours during the quarter, the minimum threshold for the reporting requirement. In other words, if a lobbyist spends 14 hours during the quarter, they simply declare themselves exempt.

Here’s who actually had to report who they were lobbying and what they were lobbying about: Bicycle Transportation Alliance, League of Women Voters, Polaris Energy, Port of Portland, Portland Business Alliance, and the Portland Streetcar Advisory Committee.

You only have to spend a small amount of time at city hall to know that these six organizations are not the only groups—or businesses—trying to influence city hall. But the rules as currently written allow countless numbers of lobbyists to skate right under the radar.

Last month, city council accepted a report on recommendations to improve the lobbying regulations, and one of the suggestions was to lower the minimum hours to eight—or even four. Adams says he’s supportive of the idea, but doesn’t think he has enough votes on council to lower the minimum.

But as the rules currently stand, it’s yet another example of local politicians claiming to support transparency, yet doing as little as possible to actually achieve it.

There wasn’t much in the way of excitement with the rest of the lobbying and gift reports (nothing like Potter’s famous pearl necklace), but you can check them out for yourself here.

Little addendum: If you open the master list of lobbyist contacts (requires Excel), you’ll see that Mayor Potter doesn’t really meet in person with many people. In fact, the list only shows him in two personal meetings—both with the Portland Business Alliance. All other contacts appear to be with his staff.