CC Minutes - 04/10/02 Work Session

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Responding to a question from Ms. Nathanson, Ms. Young said that through the administrative rules, the haulers were required to provide educational materials to customers on a quarterly basis. Staff had discussed the idea of preparing that information and providing it to the haulers, but had not had time to do so. B.WORK SESSION: A Resolution Establishing a Voluntary Campaign Finance Program for City Elections Mary Walston of the City Manager's Office joined the council for the item. She noted the distribution of a revised resolution that deleted subsection (c), which was related to the contributions a candidate could make to his or her own campaign. Mr. Pap8 joined the council meeting. Mayor Torrey solicited a first round of council comments. Mr. Kelly believed the resolution being considered would help to control campaign spending and reduce the influence of money and the media in local politics. He stressed the voluntary nature of the program. He noted his interest in amending the limits being proposed. He also noted interest in a suggestion to include a provision allowing a candidate to loan the campaign start-up funds. Ms. Taylor wanted to ensure that the candidates could not contribute more to his or her own campaign than others, and wanted to raise the the limit to $100 instead of $75. She asked what would happen if one candidate agreed to participate in the program and another did not; was the one who agreed to participate "helpless to compete"? Ms. Walston reiterated the voluntary nature of the program. Ms. Taylor asked if the use of yard signs from a previous campaign would be counted toward the spending limit, adding that would give an additional advantage to the incumbent candidate. Ms. Walston indicated that if no money was spent, there would be no expenditure to count. Mayor Torrey asked if leftover campaign funds would count toward the spending limit. Ms. Walston said yes, it would be determined by the contributions and expense reports filed by the candidates; this would be the source of the date for each campaign, be in primary or general. Ms. Bettman supported reducing the per-person contribution for mayoral races from $600 to $200. She was unsure that Section 3 carried forward her intent to ensure that reporting on the second filing occurred before the election. She asked that the text be revised to make it more clear as to that intent. Mr. Meisner observed that the spending limit for mayoral races, which initially seemed high to him, was merely eight times the spending limit for council races. Given that the mayor had to run in eight wards, he believed that made sense. He supported an increase in the per-person contribution for council races from $75 to $100. He asked if the resolution would exempt a candidate from filing C&E (Contribution and Expense) reports. He was concerned about the interplay between State and local law. Mr. Lidz responded that he would rewrite the ordinance to ensure that it did not provide an exemption. He believed that State law permitted the City to take that approach. Mr. Meisner agreed, but said that it was not clear to him that reporting was required by the resolution before the council. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2002 Page 4 Work Session