COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, June 15, 2000 11:15 a.m. - - - BILL NO. 000356 - Amending Title of the 10 Philadelphia Code entitled "Officers and Employees" 11 RES. NO. 000380 - Proposing amendment to Home Rule Charter to establish a Campaign Finance Board 12 - - - 13 PRESENT: 14 COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN, Chair 15 COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ, Vice-Chair 16 COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER 17 COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOOD, JR. COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO 18 - - - 19 20 VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center Plaza, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 PUBLIC MEETING
The Committee on Law and Government will resume its meeting that had been called for o'clock and recessed until 11:15. 5 If you look at the clock, we are almost on time. 6 Would the committee please come 7 forward. 8 Councilman Nutter is present, 9 Councilman Ortiz, Councilman Goode, Councilman Rizzo, Councilman Cohen. That constitutes a quorum. There are two matters before the committee. The first matter I will dispose of very quickly. I do not have prepared for today the report on the NTBE. I hope to get it prepared during the week. It is in preparation now. I will circulate it to all members of the committee, I hope by early next week, and hope to get it to the rest of the members of City Council during the week so we can act on the report finally at next Thursday's meeting. But that's all that we are going to be able to do on the NTBE. With respect to campaign finance, that's now before the committee. 3 PUBLIC MEETING I understand that Councilman Ortiz and Councilman Kenney have a series of amendments to the bill. And I would ask Councilman Ortiz to read into the record the amendments that he is offering to the bill on his and Councilman Kenney's behalf.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On Article 13, Campaign Finance Reform, Chapter 1, Campaign Finance Board and Fund. " In Section 13-103, Campaign Finance 4 PUBLIC MEETING Fund, Section 2, Parenthesis 2: "An amount at least equal to $1 million shall be appropriated annually to the Campaign Finance Fund for the work of the Campaign Finance Board. Furthermore, Council and the Mayor shall assure that sufficient funds are available at all times," brand new wording, "in the Campaign Finance Fund, and are appropriated annually from the Fund, to enable the Board to perform its dues and to disperse public financing to municipal candidates to the extent, and in the manner, prescribed by ordinance. " I will read the proposed amendment to Bill No. 000356, An Ordinance. Chapter 20-800, Campaign Finance, Section 20-801, Definitions. In Parenthesis 2, the line after, "a person becomes a candidate by," "any action taken for the purpose of gaining election including but not limited to," that is taken out. That will be eliminated. Section 2, Parenthesis 2, will read, "Candidate. Any person running for election to municipal office in the City of Philadelphia, including those affected officials running for reelection, with the exception of judicial candidates. " Parenthesis 3, "Contribution. Money, gifts," and we add, "forgiveness of debts, loans, with the exception of loans to offset reimbursable expenses from public campaign financing, property, 6 PUBLIC MEETING or things having a monetary value incurred or received by a candidate or his/her agent for use in advocating or influencing the election of the candidate," period. "Contributions shall also include the purchase of tickets for events such as dinners, luncheons, rallies and all other fund-raising events, the granting of discounts or rebates not available to the general public, the granting of discounts or rebates by the media not extended on an equal basis to all candidates for the same office, and any payment for the services of any person serving as an agent of a candidate or his/her political committee by a person other than the actual candidate or his/her authorized political committee. " In Parenthesis 7, we will eliminate "Register of Wills," that being a State office. " We have now Section 20-802, Mandatory Campaign Contribution Limitation. " Section 20-803, Campaign Accounts. " We will then have the section read as 8 PUBLIC MEETING follows: "A candidate for City office shall have no 3 more than one campaign committee and one checking account for the city office being sought, out of which all campaign expenditures for that office shall be made. " Section 20-804, Voluntary Expenditure Limitations, Campaign Contract. Section 1, smaller A, parenthesis, we will add in the smaller A parenthesis, "Effective for the elections for Mayor and City Council in the Year 2003 and thereafter," added. " Section 20-805, Eligibility for Public Financing. " Small letter A, we will change the following: "For the office of Mayor, raise $20,000 with contributions of no more than $100 from no less than 200 contributors;" B, "For the office of City Council Members-at-Large, $5,000, with contributions of no more than $100 from no less than 100 10 PUBLIC MEETING contributors; for the Office of District City Council Member, raise $5,000, with contributions of no more than $100 from no less than 50 contributors; agree to participate in at least two pre-election debates as delineated," that remains the same. Section 2, we will eliminate in Section 2 the following sentence: "For City wide municipal office," and the last sentence, in that section, "For the purpose of establishing eligibility for public financing of candidates for each District Council office, only those contributions received from individual residents of such Council district shall be counted," that's eliminated. Public Funding Formula. No.
5, small letter A, "For all contributions of $100 or less, eligible candidates running in a covered election from residents of the city, the candidate shall be entitled to receive $4 for every dollar donated, but not in a total amount exceeding 80 percent of the applicable expenditure ceiling set forth in Section 23 20-804(3)(a). " Parenthesis C, eliminate, "Shall no 6 longer apply," begin at, "For the targeted candidate, shall be raised by the amount of the expenditures made in said independent expenditure campaign," eliminate the rest of the sentence as following that. Permitted Use of Public Matching Funds, Parenthesis 6. " That is eliminated, and the rest remains the same. 12 PUBLIC MEETING Section B, small letter I, Composition and Appointment. " The rest remains the same. Small letter ii, parenthesis, we change and we begin after, "in the appointment of the member to be replaced. " Parenthesis iii, "The Mayor and the City Council shall make their initial appointments within 45 days, and the Controller shall make his or her initial appointment within 60 days of the effective date of this section. " We eliminate small letter iii. We eliminate Section 8 altogether. " Eliminate the sentence that follows that. " Section 20-806, Administration. " No. " No. " Section F. A new Section 10, "The Board shall conduct such investigations and hearings 15 PUBLIC MEETING as it deems appropriate relating to compliance by any individual candidate or entity or any class of individual candidates or entities with the provisions of this section or regulations promulgated thereunder. " Section 20-807, Penalties. " In Chapter 20-600, Standards of Conduct and Ethics, in the part of Section 20-601, Definitions, Section 9, Parenthesis 12, Immediate Family. "A spouse," the next words after that are eliminated, and it begins, "A spouse residing in the individual's household and minor dependent children. " 20-604, Gifts, Loans and Favors to 16 PUBLIC MEETING City Personnel. " And eliminate Section 4 in that section. Composition for Members of Boards, Commissions, Committees and Councils, and Section 16 5 -- this terminates all of the amendments, Mr. Chairman.
Councilman Ortiz, I understand these amendments resulted from testimony given at the hearing, plus consultation with Council members following the hearing?
Is there any way you can describe simply the thrust of these amendments? 17 PUBLIC MEETING
The thrust of the amendments were to, in essence, raise the amount of monies that were going to be spent, raise the contribution limits, change some eligibility guidelines, change effect on match of independent expenditures. We eliminated the Register of Will because it has a State office. We liberalized certain geographic restrictions and fundraising for District Council members, made financial reporting schedules consistent with State law, and enabled third parties to be appointed to independent campaign Boards, mandated $1 million, as in LA and in New York City, the amount of funding is mandated within the law. We made it very similar to the New York City and LA financing contribution laws that they have, and the later provision for contribution by city utility ratepayers that gave forth the auditing and subpoena powers.
I make a motion for the adoption of the amendment. 18 PUBLIC MEETING
The motion having been made and seconded, is there any discussion on the amendments?
Then we move the question. All those in favor of the amendments please say aye. Those opposed say nay.
It seems to me the ayes have it. But in view of the division, let me call the roll.
It's three-two, Councilman. It fails. Goode, me, and Rizzo are nay. You and Ortiz --
Councilman Cohen 19 PUBLIC MEETING votes aye. Councilman Nutter.
It is a three-to-three vote. The amendment fails. All right? Is there any further business to come before the committee today? Hearing none, the Law and Government Committee is recessed indefinitely to the call of the Chair. Next meeting will be the meeting of the Committee on Finance. (Public Meeting adjourned at 11:50 a.m.) - - - 20 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, June 15, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COMMITTEE ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT _____________________________________ DEBRA A. WHITEHEAD, RPR