Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-09-25 CRC MINS , MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION September 25, 2000 City Attorney' s Conference Room 4 : 30 p.m. ------------------------------------------------------------------- MEMBERS PRESENT: John Dorso, Harriet Acton, Deric Prescott, Mark Croshier, and Sergio Feria MEMBERS ABSENT: Barbara McAllister and David Potter STAFF PRESENT: City Attorney John M. Kaheny The meeting was called to order at 4 : 38 p.m. . 1 . Roll Call . The roll was called and all members were present except Members McAllister and Potter who asked to be excused. New members Croshier and Feria introduced themselves and indicated - they look forward to working with the Charter- Review Commission. `- 2 . Approval of Minutes . MSUC .(Acton/Prescott) to approve the minutes of July 17, 2000 as presented. 3 . Election of Officers for FY 00/01 . The Chair asked the City Attorney to conduct the election. Attorney Kaheny asked for nominations for the office of Chairman. MSUC (Acton/Prescott) to elect John Dorso as Chair. Attorney Kaheny asked for nominations for the office of Vice-Chair. MSUC (Dorso/Prescott) to elect Harriet Acton as Vice-Chair. 4 . Campaign Financing Referral . As part of the discussion on term limits, the issue of campaign financing was referred to the Charter Review Commission for consideration. Attorney Kaheny gave a brief history on campaign financing in Chula Vista starting with the late 1980 ' s when the Charter was amended to mandate that the Council have a reasonable campaign finance ordinance. The provisions contained enabling language because -at that time campaign finance law was complicated. The subsequent ordinance was amended twice and the final ordinance was distributed to the members for. review. That ordinance sets a campaign contribution limit of $250 per election. An election is defined as one separate election not primary and general combined. It sets forth maximum limitations over a four-year period for Charter Review Commission Minutes September 25, 2000 Page 3 He also did legal research and could not find anything linking the two. By preventing someone from running for office unless they voluntarily agree to something would be difficult to enforce . He believes we should try to reform the ordinance itself . If you have an incumbent councilmember running against someone with unlimited resources,. you have a real unfairness issue . He found a website dealing with recent developments in campaign finance regulation. He noted two items of interest : (1) in the State of Oregon, there is an initiative on the November ballot that will provide public funds to candidates who would agree to forego private contributions and abide by established spending limits in exchange for receiving public funds . (2) Chula Vista has a $250 limit, and the City of New York has a $4, 500 limit . The City Attorney indicated he did not have any solutions for the members today. Chair Dorso asked the commissioners to digest the material and discuss it further at the next meeting. 5 . Report by City Attorney. Mr. Kaheny noted we need to clean up the oath provision in the - Charter because it is in conflict with the California Constitution. Currently, the City Clerk is following the California Constitution. 6 . Public Comments . - None 7 . Members ' Comments . - None 8 . Adjournment . MSUC (Prescott/Acton) to adjourn the meeting at 5 : 15 p.m. to the next meeting scheduled for October 16, 2000 at 4 : 30 p.m. Lorraine Kraker, Secretary H:\home\lorraine\crc\minute\9-25-00 l Charter Review Commission Minutes September 25 , 2000 Page 2 individuals and has a disclosure requirement for those who contribute more than $1, 000 . The ordinance was prepared with the concept that appointed City Attorneys ought not be in the position of investigating their bosses . Therefore, there is a provision that the City Attorney may not investigate nor enforce any violations of the campaign ordinance . In order to enforce it, the Attorney must get the District Attorney, the Attorney General and/or the FPPC to investigate violations . Out of courtesy, these offices normally look at violations, but unless a more serious violation has been found, eventually would tell the City they were not interested in enforcing our local ordinance . Council has never appropriated money for outside counsel to investigate campaign violations . None of the violations have been serious enough so far. The big problem with the ordinance is that it has gapping holes because of overriding constitutional issues and other areas are pre-empted by state law and issues addressed under Proposition 208 (which is now at the federal court level on a trial on the merits) . That court indicated a decision is not expected until after the November election. Therefore, California campaign law is in a several layered morass . The U. S . Supreme Court has held in Buckley v. Valeo that individuals can spend money as they wish and if a candidate is wealthy, no campaign limitation applies to them. They have held the same for "independent committees" that spend their own money independently. Because of these constitutional limits, several jurisdictions around the United States have come up with "voluntary limits" . The discussion at Council centered around some way to link the campaign reform to term limits . After extensive research, the City Attorney could find no jurisdictions that have linked re-election to voluntary compliance . Attorney Kaheny noted a Charter amendment is the best way to go and it would be good to come up with a mechanism that does not, require change because of the effect of inflation on dollar amounts . John Dorso expressed concern if we do something that could be rendered moot when a decision comes down from the court . If this will be on a voluntary basis, Harriet Acton questioned who, how, when and by whom would it be enforced. Deric Prescott noted you would be going up against a person' s fundamental right to run for re-election if they would only be allowed another term if they agree to limit what they will spend.