Committee To Take Another Look At Plan
A proposal to rewrite San Diego's 30-year-old campaign fund-raising law will get a further look this month from a City Council committee.
The city's Ethics Commission spent nine months reviewing the law before recommending revisions to the council in June. Since then, one council hearing has been held on the proposal, which is not intended to apply to this year's city elections.
Some of the people who run political campaigns say the council should scrap the local law, including the commission's proposal, and use the state law after tweaking it to fit San Diego's needs.
"We simply have an antiquated ordinance," said April Boling, a campaign treasurer for many local candidates, including Mayor Dick Murphy.
"Trying to fix it around the edges, I just don't see how it's going to work," said Boling, who advocates adopting the state law with minor changes.
Significant differences between the city and state laws include the city's restricting contributions to $250 per donor each election and banning contributions by corporations or groups. Only individuals can contribute under city law.
State law allows corporate and group contributions and donations of as much as $5,300 per person for some offices.
The proposal by the Ethics Commission would keep the contribution cap at $250 per donor each election for council campaigns, but raise it to $300 for the mayoral and city attorney races. Council candidates run in districts, but the mayoral and city attorney races are citywide.
The commission's proposal also would provide for voluntary public financing of campaigns, using taxpayer money to match contributions raised by candidates. Spending would be capped for candidates who chose public financing at $75,000 for City Council races and $200,000 in citywide races for mayor and city attorney. There would be no cap for those who do not use public financing.
The state law has no public financing provision.
Ethics Commissioner Dorothy Leonard, who was chair woman during much of the commission's review of the current law, said San Diego's local law is essentially sound and the city would be better off amending it.
Some provisions of the local law are more restrictive than state law, such as requiring candidates pay their debts within 90 days, and that is good, Leonard said.
"Our commission feels very strongly about those particular provisions," she said. "Very few people said they should change."
The California Political Treasurers Association in June passed a resolution urging the city to adopt the state law rather than amending the city law.
Two people who have worked as campaign treasurers elsewhere in the state, David Gould of Los Angeles and Mary Ellen Padilla of Beverly Hills, sent letters last month to the City Council, saying more people would work as treasurers for San Diego candidates if the city's campaign laws were simplified. Along with Boling, they said the council should adopt a modified version of the state law.
Boling said she is one of the few professional treasurers willing to work on San Diego campaigns.
If the council were to adopt the state law, Boling said she would recommend modifying it to impose lower caps on contributions. She suggested limiting local contributions at 10 percent of what the state allows, which in 2004 would mean caps of $320 in council races and $520 for mayor and city attorney.
Council review of the campaign financing law comes amid re-election campaigns for Mayor Dick Murphy and four council members â€" Scott Peters, Toni Atkins, Brian Maienschein and Jim Madaffer. The primary election is March 2, with a runoff in November should no one get more than 50 percent of the primary vote.
Three other council members â€" Michael Zucchet, Charles Lewis and Ralph Inzunza â€" are under federal indictment. They are accused of joining in a scheme to repeal no-touch rules at strip clubs in exchange for money and favors from Cheetahs owner Michael Galardi and two of his employees. The accused council members have said they did nothing wrong and accepted only legally reported campaign contributions.
Review of the Ethics Commission proposals was delayed for several months until the state Fair Political Practices Commission issued an opinion saying the indictments would not preclude the council from acting on the ethics matter.
The council's Rules, Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee briefly reviewed the Ethics Commission's proposal last month, but Murphy said a more detailed examination was needed. The committee, which Murphy chairs, is tentatively scheduled to continue its review Jan. 21.
At the December meeting of the committee, Madaffer said he was ready to junk the local law in favor of a modified version of the state law, as Boling suggested. He did not say which modifications he preferred.
Madaffer said he opposes any public financing of campaigns because the city can't afford it. In adopting this year's budget, the council had to cut nearly $30 million in services. Then it had to absorb a $12.6 million cut in state funding.
Atkins, in a later interview, said the council should let voters decide in November whether they want some form of public financing.
"I think it's a hard sell to convince the general public. I don't think that means we toss it out without determining if it has merit or if the citizens want it," Atkins said. "I know it's difficult financial times, but we can always talk about how to phase something like that in."
Advocates of public financing include two citizen groups â€" the San Diego chapter of Common Cause and the San Diego Alliance for Clean Elections. Opponents include the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, a budget watchdog group.
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