April 21, 2006


San Jose set to study sunshine law and publicly funded campaigns

Two proposals could change the way the city does business

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

The city council voted unanimously Tues-day night to pursue the study of a bold new proposal to publicly fund election campaigns in San Jose. It also approved the process for selecting a task force to study a sunshine law allowing increased scrutiny of city politics.

The Almaden Valley Women’s Club is given a commendation by Mayor Ron Gonzales and Councilmember Nancy Pyle. Pictured is Cindy Griffeth, a board member of the women’s club. The group was given a commendation for serving their community and the residents of Almaden Valley in San Jose for over 40 years, planning the Almaden Valley Art and Wine Festival to raise funds for the community and “inspiring interest in the social, civic and cultural improvement.”

Like the new city council chambers, which elevates the people above the city council, Mayor Ron Gonzales made his proposal for a law designed to take elections away from special interests and give them back to the people.

“I think this is a big day for the city of San Jose,” Gonzales said before the council vote. “These are very bold moves for a city our size, but we are a city known for bold moves.”

The major concern among council members was how to make sure people didn’t take advantage of a taxpayer funded campaign system to waste taxpayer money to run a “negative campaign” that would “dilute the issues.” Or by spending money in a frivolous way while running a campaign.

Following other states
Before these concerns were raised, Gonzales presented the idea as something groups are pursuing in 30 states and that have already been implemented successfully in Maine, New Jersey, Arizona and Portland, Ore. The first Latina governor in Arizona was elected this way, Gonzales said, because taxpayer funded campaigns have proven to allow a more diverse field of candidates. Candidates currently are expected to raise half a million dollars in $500 increments to win a mayoral race in San Jose.

District 4 City Councilman Chuck Reed raised the concern that funding elections when the city is in a budget crisis could cost the city as much as $3.6 million dollars. Gonzales said his intent was not to implement a new tax. The money will likely come from reserves in the city’s general fund.

“I would hope that there would be some minimum qualifications (for candidates),” added District 10 Councilwoman Nancy Pyle.

City staff said other districts have required candidates to acquire a few thousand dollars in increments from over 100 contributors to prove they are serious candidates.

“That’s not what I had in mind,” Pyle said. “I was thinking of some kind of educational requirements.”

”That’s not permissible under the charter,” Gonzales said. “We’re not suggesting any changes to the charter.”

It was also suggested that run-off elections could be used to narrow the field during an election.

Changes to the charter require voter approval and are difficult to accomplish. Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez said the law will need public “buy-in” and will need to be brought to voters for approval.

Most in favor
As the council made closing comments before voting, most expressed support of the law or at least support in discussing its possibility. Public comments also supported the proposal with two speakers concerned about where the money would come from and others troubled by the thresholds for qualifying candidates, issues the election commission will look into.

“It’s important we “craft it in a way public will support it,” Reed said. “It could become a ‘law of unintended consequences’. Every law begets other uses and problems.”

“Great cities, big cities, should stop at a time like this and study this,” said District 8 Councilman Dave Cortese.

District 2 Council member Forest Williams wanted to see some data that proved publicly funded campaigns increased the likelihood of a minority candidate winning an election.

A concern was raised by District 5 Council member Nora Campos that the group studying the law should reflect the diversity of San Jose. She also voiced concerns about the election commission doing this instead of a task force.

Reed asked if more funds should be made available to conduct the study, or if it would be piled on top of the election commission’s current workload. Gonzales said the commission currently has a light workload and many of them are knowledgeable and interested in this part of the law.

But an election commission representative said that if a complaint is filed during the June 6 election, work on publicly funded campaign issues would be affected.

The commission is expected to come back with their recommendations to the council this summer and the law could go into effect as soon as 2008.

Sunshine ordinance task force
The council voted unanimously to pick a sunshine ordinance task force, but not without considerable discussion about how the task force would look.

Before the vote Reed said he hoped the council wasn’t going to “reinvent the wheel” because there are already sunshine laws in effect in other cities to use as a model, such as San Francisco and Oakland.

Chavez said she wanted to be cautious about following the lead of those cities because she had never heard anyone say how wonderful it is to do business there.

The most well known proposals for a sunshine law come from the Mercury News and from a proposal made by Chavez, Pyle and council members Judy Chirco (District 9) and Linda LeZotte (District 1). It originated at a meeting Chavez held with the three council women and community leaders, which was criticized for not encouraging public input.

The lawyer for the “Mercury News” criticized the council’s goal of having two representatives on the council, saying one was enough. The council voted for two, including a council member and a former mayor.

Cortese asked the council if the goal of the task force meetings was to include the public as much as possible. The response from city staff was that the meetings would be held in compliance with the Brown Act, and an effort would be made to get the public's issues onto the meeting agendas.

Task force composition
Among the seats on the task force there would be four from neighborhood associations, and one from the Chamber of Commerce, labor, the League of Women 9uM6rs, an academic, a technology person, a citizen at large, a former mayor and a current city council member.

Gonzales said he wanted all the members to be registered voters. Those who had worked on city council candidate campaigns would be excluded. Campos wondered if the exclusion extended to someone who walked a precinct for a campaign, which is being looked into. Council members and the public objected to the voter registration requirement.

How Sunshine Task Force members would be nominated was a concern for LeZotte and Cortese, who both wanted to insure “geographic equity” in the selection. LeZotte amended the proposal before the vote so that those nominated for different positions be allowed only one position.

City manager Les White asked for more flexibility in selecting the academic member, looking to universities outside the city including those in Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

The council is expected to form the task force in four to six weeks. This may delay the initial goal of completing a Sunshine Ordinance by next fall.

Guadalupe Mines Road update
The city council unanimously approved the 15.85 acre development that caused a stir among neighbors in Almaden who criticized the density of the residential development to be built across from their homes on Guadalupe Mines Road 1800 feet south of Camden Road in a lush green canyon with character worth preserving.

The final plan for housing is to build 1 to 8 houses per acre. Almaden neighbor Bob Beveridge, who was a vocal critic of high-density housing being built onto the site had this to say in response to the vote, “I am encouraged that the developers listened to us. We said if it was less than eight units per acre we wouldn’t fight that. We were very concerned and not at all happy with up to sixteen units. We’re not against development per se. There are still issues to be resolved involving redwood trees, riparian setback and a nature trail. We’re going to make sure these other issues are taken care of when they file a subdivision plan.”

There were 70-80 residents at previous hearings for the development, but none showed up to make public comment before the plan was approved, proof that the community was happy with the project, according to Leland C. Wilcox, Nancy Pyle’s chief of staff.

District 10 representative council woman Nancy Pyle thanked those involved.

“A great deal of time and effort has been put into this,” Pyle said. “I want to congratulate the property owners. They have been extremely willing to listen to hearings. I am very, very appreciative of that and so are people in the community.”

The development is aimed for industrial land used by a few businesses including Federal Express. The lease isn’t up for two years for these businesses, and construction may be as far off as five to six years, Wilcox said.