Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Referendum Communications topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Staff member outlines limits on referendum communications and committee use of staff time
Summary
A staff member briefed attendees on what committees and staff may and may not say about a local referendum, warning against direct advocacy, noting an unclear $2,500 reference, and advising that committee work should use personal rather than specific staff members' time.
A staff member advised participants that committees and staff must take care when communicating about an upcoming referendum, emphasizing they could not direct or encourage people to vote a particular way.
The presenter said the group should not attempt to "talk about this referendum and what it will do" on behalf of organizers and warned that pre-written messages from others "may not be the message that you wanna get out." The staff member added, "You cannot influence them in any way to go the certain way," to underline legal limits on advocacy.
The briefing included a brief reference to a monetary figure—"$2,500"—in the phrase "Credit until they spend, that means, like, $2,500," but the speaker did not specify what rule or threshold that amount referred to. The transcript did not clarify whether the number described a reporting threshold, contribution limit, or another compliance metric.
The staff member also walked through practical committee considerations, saying any committee that is established should gather accurate information about prior elections and context. The speaker suggested reviewing data from the "last general election" and looking back over windows such as four or eight years to inform planning.
On staffing and logistics, the presenter cautioned that staff participation on committees should not be billed to or rely on a particular employee's time: "make sure that it is on their own time, not on Molly Austin's." The session then moved to a question-and-answer period; the speaker framed the next portion as Q&A and urged attendees to be strategic when asking questions.
No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript provided. The presentation closed with the staff member acknowledging a two-part question and preparing to answer attendee queries.
