CC Minutes - 02/25/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Bettman noted that the reason the action was proposed as a resolution rather than an ordinance was so it could be modified as experience dictated. She added that most of the provisions were borrowed from other jurisdictions so that there was no ground breaking legislation being done. She stressed that the beauty of the proposed resolution was its voluntary nature. Councilor Taylor raised concern that the process was moving too quickly. She called for more discussion of the issue before taking action. She also opined that personal donations from candidates to their own campaigns needed to be limited as well. Councilor Taylor suggested that the voluntary limit for donations to a council campaign be raised to $100. Councilor Taylor reiterated Councilor Nathanson's concern over candidates who made the voluntary pledge while their competitors did not. Councilor Pap~ also reiterated the concern raised by Councilor Nathanson. He also raised concern that the council was rushing through the process without enough discussion. He suggested implementing the resolution on the November ballot. In response to a question from Councilor Pap~ regarding in-kind contributions and fair market value and how to dispute reported figures, City Attorney Glenn Klein said the City would use the same criteria used by the State for reporting in-kind contributions. In response to a question from Councilor Pap~ regarding how the voluntary limit figures were set, Ms. Walston said she had used an average of the costs from the last two council campaigns and had gathered information on the number of registered voters in each ward, which was around 8,000, and set a number that was easy to remember and communicate to the public that the mayoral limit was eight times that amount. Councilor Pap~ noted that a hotly contested council race would have higher spending. In response to a question from Councilor Pap~ regarding whether other city jurisdictions in the state had enacted similar voluntary limits, Ms. Walston said that her research, in conversations with the 10 largest cities in Oregon, yielded that no other city in the state was enacting similar voluntary limits. Councilor Pap~ raised concern that the issue was being pushed along too fast. He remarked that he had heard no real groundswell of public support for local campaign finance reform. Mayor Torrey said that a candidate should be able to loan his/her campaign front money to get it moving as long as the money was paid back in a specifically defined time. Mayor Torrey also raised a concern that the program would give incumbents the advantage in any election. He said if the program was not adjusted, he would do everything he could to convince non-incumbents to not participate in the voluntary program and to clearly state that they were not participating because the pledge gave an unfair advantage to incumbents. He stressed that non- incumbents needed to spend more money to achieve the same level of name familiarity. He said that incumbents did not need to spend as much money as non-incumbents. He urged the council to make the voluntary program fair. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 25, 2002 Page 5 Regular Session