Santa Rosa council shines light on campaign donors
Published: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 9:25 p.m.
Santa Rosa's City Council agreed Tuesday to move forward with a new law that will require independent campaign committees to publicly disclose their major financial backers.
But the council postponed taking action on two other campaign-reform laws — one that will require paid consultants to file as lobbyists and another dealing with campaign debt — pending further review.
The push for the trio of laws was initiated nearly a year ago by Mayor Susan Gorin “to increase transparency in government.”
The sometimes philosophically-divided council, however, was in unanimous agreement with the proposal to shine more light on the workings of independent expenditure committees. These groups, largely under a veil of anonymity, can spend large sums of money to support or oppose city council candidates or city measures.
The law endorsed by the council will now require those groups to publicly identify their donors by name, address, phone number and employer and they must include on all types of campaign material the names of the group's three top contributors.
It also will require the group to alert the city when it spends $500 or more on any campaign expense and identify that expense.
The council postponed action on a law that would require people paid to influence the council, board and commission members and city staff on administrative and legislative matters to file as lobbyists, identify their client and pay a $120 annual fee.
The main sticking point the council faced was determining who would qualify as a lobbyist, whether it is a spokesperson for a business, a nonprofit group or an interest group with no paid representative.
“I don't think what I do is lobbying,” longtime planning consultant Jean Kapolchok said.
She argued that what she does is no different than an attorney or an engineer, licensed professionals who are exempted from the law even though they often appear before the council to represent the interests of businesses and individual clients.
Representatives of nonprofits — the Climate Protection Campaign and the Accountable Development Coalition — said they acted more as interest groups than paid representatives for special interests. They suggested it would be fairer simply to ask them to register but not require them to pay the $120 annual fee.
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