Rules Committee forwards campaign-finance ordinance to full Board after debate on fund size and notice timing

The Rules Committee considered an ordinance to amend the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code and the Municipal Elections Code to modify the city—s public financing program. John St. Croix, director of the Ethics Commission, told the panel the ethics commission supports the legislation.

"The legislation before you has the full support of the ethics commission," St. Croix said while summarizing the changes, which include fixing the mayoral spending ceiling and reducing the campaign fund cap to $7,000,000.

Public commenters and experts urged caution. Stephen Hill, an advocate involved with prior public-finance efforts, said his "biggest concern is that we are reducing the amount that can be in the public fund from 13 and a half million dollars down to $7,000,000. Nobody knows if that's enough money." David Pilpow raised a related procedural concern, arguing some amendments may not have been available for the full 30 days prior to committee consideration, a notice requirement in the city—s campaign code.

Deputy City Attorney Andrew Shen replied that several amendments had been circulating for 30 days and clarified which parts of the package are in the municipal elections code (and thus outside the ethics commission—s special amendment rules). Supervisors discussed differences in fund-calculation language the Ethics Commission reinstated and whether the changes adequately addressed past overfunding of the public fund.

After debate, the committee voted to send the ordinance to the full Board as a committee report (supervisors recorded support and said they would vote for it at the full Board). The motion was recorded as moving the item forward with no committee opposition.

The ordinance will next be considered by the full Board of Supervisors; the committee record indicates the item will be on a future full-Board agenda.