Gov. Jerry Brown has seized uncommon influence over the political watchdog agency he helped create almost four decades ago as an independent body.

The Democratic governor's appointees control the five-member Fair Political Practices Commission because of a quirk in the law. And Brown recently shifted the high-level position of general counsel from a civil service post outside his purview to a political appointment he has now made.

The appointment of Department of Justice lawyer Zackery Morazzini to be the commission's chief lawyer, announced Monday, was met by criticism that it could further politicize the agency.

"The FPPC is designed to be more of an independent watchdog," said Derek Cressman, Western regional director of Common Cause, the government watchdog group. "That's not necessarily something where you want to see someone putting their allies."

Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel said Wednesday that Brown only confirmed her selection of Morazzini, a Republican. She said Brown, the former attorney general, neither suggested Morazzini nor advocated for him, and she said she – not Brown – asked the administration to reclassify the open position so she could interview candidates from outside state employment.

"I had no candidate in mind," Ravel said. "But I wanted to make sure that there was broad recruitment done."

Ravel said of Brown's involvement with the FPPC, "In my tenure, and with respect to this governor, there is no indication whatsoever of any influence, either to me or to the general counsel."

Brown helped create the Fair Political Practices Commission when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983. The commission, which oversees campaign finance and ethics laws, became increasingly aggressive in recent years, and in returning to the Capitol for a third term Brown recast it. Ravel, his appointee, criticized what she called "unprofessional" practices, removing from the commission website a list of open investigations, among other measures.

By law, the commission includes two members appointed by the governor, currently Ravel and lawyer Sean Eskovitz. But Brown also made an appointment before becoming governor, when he was attorney general. That commissioner, Lynn Montgomery, is not scheduled to go off the commission until January 2013.

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles and a former co-author of the state's Political Reform Act, said the commission was meant to be composed of a diverse group of appointees and that Brown's three allows the governor too much influence.

"I think we probably made a mistake on that, and that should not be permitted," Stern said.

Brown's appointment of Morazzini did not concern Stern, however. As long as the commission recruited and selected Morazzini, Stern said, his appointment was appropriate.

State law allows governors to exempt positions from civil service in some cases, and the action is not without precedent at the FPPC. Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 2007 reclassified two lower-level civil service positions within the agency, appointing a communications director, now-Executive Director Roman Porter, and an assistant chief counsel of the agency's enforcement division, Porter said.

The positions went vacant and were left unfilled during budget reductions last year, he said.

Morazzini was previously a supervising deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice's government law section. As a state employee, Ravel could have hired him without Brown converting the position from civil service, but Ravel said she did not know when she started the recruitment that she would select a candidate from inside government.

Morazzini is to be paid $135,888 a year, Porter said.

Dan Schnur, the commission chairman who preceded Ravel, said that if Morazzini's appointment itself is not problematic, the perception could be.

"Any appointee is going to have to go the extra mile and then some to demonstrate that they're just as far removed from political pressures as the civil servants who work there," Schnur said. "You do want an FPPC staff that is above the partisan fray to the greatest extent possible, not only in reality, but in perception as well."

Brown spokesman Gil Duran said in an e-mail that Brown "expects appointees to act according to their best judgment" and trusts those on the commission to "carry out their appointed duties."

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter, @davidsiders.

• Read more articles by David Siders