Incredibly, there’s currently no way for citizens to know who’s being paid to lobby their elected officials. Although county, state, and federal lobbyists are required to register with those jurisdictions, lobbyists that seek to influence city legislation have for decades operated in complete darkness.

Tomorrow afternoon at 2:00, the City Council’s Culture, Civil Rights, Health and Personnel Committee will take up long-pending legislation that would remedy that oversight, requiring lobbyists to register with the city’s ethics and elections commission. The legislation, sponsored by council member Nick Licata, would require paid lobbyists to file quarterly reports saying who they work for, how much they got paid, what they lobbied about, and how much they spent, including campaign contributions. (Unpaid citizen lobbyists and those who visit the council or mayor fewer than four times a quarter would be exempt.)

Licata and other council members didn’t know precisely how many lobbyists would fall under the new regulations, but they estimate it would be between 15 and 20; King County’s lobbyist directory includes 24. Given that there are so few lobbyists who actually deal with the City Council, the surprising thing is that this legislation (which Mayor Nickels also supports) didn’t pass years ago.

Based on the council’s sign-in sheets, conversations with council members, and King County’s lobbyist directory, here are a few of the folks who might have to register under the new proposal, some of their clients, and a few of their bigger political donations.

Randy Bannecker, a lobbyist for the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors and for Arena Sports, which is trying to convince the council to give it exclusive use of a large hangar at Magnusson Park that is currently used by several smaller nonprofit groups. Individually and through his company, Bannecker & Associates, Bannecker gave $2,300 to city council candidates in 2007—all but $300 of it to incumbents.

Desiree Leigh, lobbyist for Children’s Hospital, which is petititoning the city to expand its facility in Laurelhurst. Laurelhurst residents’ groups oppose the expansion, saying it would make traffic worse. Leigh gave council candidates a total of $1,250 in 2007, all but $350 to incumbents.

Tim Hatley, a music-industry lobbyist who has lobbied against council and mayoral proposals placing new restrictions on nightlife. Hatley and his wife Rachel Bianchi, with whom he shares a consulting firm, gave council candidates $1,900 in 2007, including $550 to Tim Burgess’s bid to unseat David Della.

Carla Okigwe, executive director of the Housing Development Consortium. Okigwe has not been a big spender on local campaigns, although she did give Sally Clark $50 in 2006.

UPDATE: A spokeswoman for the Port of Seattle says that Bob Minnot does not, contrary to what I wrote earlier, lobby for the Port. I apologize for the error.

Lynn Claudon, whose clients include Waste Management, Inc., which just signed a new solid waste collection contract with the city, the Woodland Park Zoo, which is in ongoing discussions with the council over a planned six-story parking garage, and Nitze-Stagen & Co., a major Seattle developer. Claudon maxed out to Jean Godden, Tom Rasmussen, and Tim Burgess in 2007, and gave a total of $3,600.

Various employees of One Reel, which runs Bumbershoot and is involved in ongoing discussions over what should be included in a potential Seattle Center levy and how Seattle Center should be redeveloped. One Reel employees contributed $860 to then-parks committee chair David Della in 2007; the parks committee oversees Seattle Center.

Vulcan lobbyists Dan McGrady and Lyn Tangen. Tangen gave $2,900 to council candidates in 2007, maxing out to Bruce Harrell and Tim Burgess; McGrady gave $300 total to several of the same candidates.