Council committee sends Article 1-12 amendment on campaign finance reports to full council after 5-0 vote

Councilmember Michael Colon proposed amending Article 1-12 of the city code on campaign finance reporting to stop duplicative posting of campaign finance reports on the city website and instead link directly to the Northampton County Elections Office; the committee voted 5-0 to send the amendment to full council for consideration.

Colon told the committee the county now publishes campaign finance reports online and that transferring the county reports to a city landing page link would reduce clerks’ duplicate work without reducing transparency. "I just think it's a cleaner way of the clerks managing their time," Colon said during his presentation.

The proposed amendment would rename the ordinance from "campaign finance" to "statements of financial interest" and would limit the city's active posting duties to annual statements of financial interest for elected officials and certain city employees. Colon said clerks would continue to collect those annual statements and post them, but the clerk's routine duty to notify candidates of county filing requirements would be removed. The amendment also would remove the ordinance's existing penalty language; Colon said the county already maintains filing and enforcement mechanisms and that penalties in practice were difficult to apply when the city could not reliably contact candidates.

City Solicitor Stewart told the committee that the state statutory section requiring filing and maintenance of campaign finance reports by the county elections office "does not contain a reduction," noting statutory filing obligations remain with the county. Committee members discussed differences in how Northampton County lists committees online — by alphabetical committee name rather than by municipality or race — and asked Colon to work with clerks on landing-page language that directs residents to the correct county pages.

Committee members also raised privacy and access questions. Councilmember Callahan and others noted Northampton County's pages include street addresses; Callahan observed the city's current practice redacts addresses on its posted forms. Colon said the city would continue to redact signatures and that the clerks would coordinate language and links with the administration and county. Councilmember Wilhelm asked the administration to provide web-traffic figures for the city page so the committee can weigh how often residents use the city's current postings versus being redirected to the county site.

After discussion, Councilmember Callahan moved to send the amendment to full council for two readings; Councilmember Leon seconded. The committee approved the referral on a recorded voice vote: Callahan, Kwiatak, Leon, Wilhelm and Colon voted yes; the motion passed 5-0.

During the public-comment portion, a resident identified in the record as Mr. Schott urged the council to consider local limits on campaign contributions and provided a speaker calculation suggesting a $350 cap for city council races based on scaled federal limits. Colon thanked the clerks and the solicitor at the conclusion of the meeting.

The amendment will appear on a future full-council agenda for two readings, and Colon said the council would finish the current election cycle before changing the city's posting practice so there is no interruption during an active election.

Votes at a glance - Motion: Send amended Article 1-12 (campaign finance/statement of financial interest change) to full council for consideration (two readings). Moved by Councilmember Callahan; seconded by Councilmember Leon. Outcome: Passed 5-0 (Callahan, Kwiatak, Leon, Wilhelm, Colon voting yes).