APPENDIX C: Motions to recommend campaign finance regulation
The following is a list of the motions made to recommend campaign finance regulation as documented by minutes of CFRAB meetings. The meeting date is followed by each item within the minutes of that meeting in which one of these motions was documented.
April 18, 2002
10. Mr. Kalivoda requested a motion be made for one way or the other. Mr. Austin moved to make a filing deadline Thursday at 5:00 p.m. with no provision for postmarks and make the contribution deposit deadline noon the same Thursday. Mr. Budd seconded. Discussion followed. Ms. Wright didn't support the noon deposit deadline because it did not leave enough time to handle electronic conversions or discrepancies. Ms. Wright moved to amend the motion to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Mr. Cuevas seconded. Discussion on the amendment followed. Mr. Austin said he could accept the amendment. Mr. Kalivoda called the vote. The motion and amendment passed. Ms. Bauer voted no.
11. Ms. Wright proposed electronic filing be required and that all candidates turn in their reports on a disk with a hard copy attached. The candidates that are not able to submit electronically will be assisted buy the Supervisor of Elections Office and must come back to the Supervisor's Office to certify that their reports are correct. Ms. Bauer stated that she could not support the taxpayers paying for candidates filing. Ms. Wright stated that the research she had done suggested that it would cost no more that $80/day to hire a temporary typist to convert the data to electronic medium. Ms. Bauer stated that there was no disincentive to the candidate if those services were provided. Ms. Wright made the motion that electronic filing be mandatory with reports be filed with the Supervisor of Elections Office on disk with an attached hard copy and those candidates not able to file electronically will be assisted by the Supervisor's Office but must come back to certify that their reports have been converted correctly. Discussion followed. Mr. Austin stated that he was against the mandatory filing because it takes time away from the campaigning and allows the bureaucracy to micro-manage the campaign and their reports. Mr. Kalivoda called the vote. The motion passed with Mr. Austin voting against.
12. Ms. Wright distributed a list of information that the county and/or state required on the campaign finance reports. Mr. Kalivoda asked that a motion be made. Ms. Wright moved that the fields identified in #1d including "contributor type' and "total amount" and "county" be required. Ms. Dilcher seconded. Mr. Austin moved a friendly amendment to delete the inclusion of the "county" field. Ms. Wright said she could support that. Ms. Bauer indicated that she wanted the occupation regardless of the amount. Mr. Kalivoda stated that there are numerous checks written by contributions that are less than $100 and that it would be very difficult to track down the person writing the check and get their occupation. Ms. Wright accepted the amendment to drop "county" requirement and stated that she would defer to CFRAB for their consensus of a total dollar amount. Mr. Austin stated that electronic filing may take care of the "total amount" field anyway and that there is already a requirement to report this. Ms. Wright stated that she wanted to keep the "total amount" field in the motion. Mr. Kalivoda called the vote. Motion passed 5-2.
April 25, 2002
5. Ms. Wright made a motion: For all elections, Political Committees, Parties, and Candidates shall be required to file reports at the same time during the candidate elections. Political Committees which are allowed to film their organization papers at the Division of Elections shall be required to file copies of their reports with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office. Discussion followed regarding the local ability to regulate Political Committees. A friendly amendment was made to the motion by Mr. Delaney and was accepted by Ms. Wright. The amendment changed the motion to: For election of the Alachua County Constitutional Officers; Political Committees, Parties, and Candidates shall be required to file reports at the same time and date. Political Committees which are allowed to file their organization papers at the Division of Elections shall be required to file copies of their reports with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections at the same time and date as the candidates. Motion passed unanimously.
7. The CFRAB discussed contributions. Mr. Budd moved a $250 mandatory contribution cap (50% of the existing cap). Ms. Wright seconded for discussion purposes. Ms. Wright stated that she was looking for a way to index the contribution cap so that it was not stagnated in future years by inflation and that leveling the playing field is a good thing to do. Mr. Kalivoda was scheduled to leave the meeting and prior to his departure, the meeting of May 2, 2002 was cancelled. Time 7:35 p.m. Discussion followed regarding the merits of limiting contributions and what the cap would be or could be. Ms. Wright withdrew her second to the motion to propose a different cap amount. Ms. Chestnut seconded the original motion. Vice-Chair Delaney called for the vote. The motion failed. Ms. Bauer motioned for a $200 contribution cap. Mr. Cuervas seconded the motion. Vice-Chair Delaney called the question. The motion passed 5-3.
June 13, 2002
7. ...Ms. Wright motioned to recommend a voluntary $200 cap at the same amount of the mandatory cap(200) and five times that be the cap for the candidate ($1,000) as part of the voluntary program. Mr. Dalaney seconded. Discussion followed on the cost of qualifying and its approximate cost in Alachua County of $3,600. Motion made by Ms. Wright to list total campaign spending to one year of County Commission salary per election cycle. Motion seconded by Ms. Bauer. Mr. Brinkman asked if a friendly amendment would be accepted by the marker to limit spending to ½ of County Commission salary per election cycle. Mr. Austin asked if a friendly amendment would be accepted to delete the motion because it micro-manages campaigns and disadvantages third parties. Ms. Dilcher requested the question be called. Mr. Kalivoda stopped debate and called the vote. Motion passed. Mr. Kalivoda called a vote on Mr. Brinkman's friendly amendment. Mr. Brinkman and Mr. Bauer voted affirmative. All others against. Motion failed.
8. Motion by Ms. Wright to set an individual contribution cap equal to the mandatory contribution cap for anyone except the candidate per election cycle. Seconded by Mr. Budd. Discussion followed. Mr. Kalivoda called the vote. Motion passed. Ms. Chestnut and Mr. Austin voting against.
9. Motion by Ms. Wright to place voluntary caps on candidates own self funding set at $2,000 in addition to any qualifying fees the candidate pays. Motion seconded by Mr. Delaney. Discussion followed. Ms. Chestnut stated that this was a deterrent and Mr. Brinkman stated he disagreed with that because a candidate could agree to voluntary contribution limits but then fund the campaign with all their own money. Mr. Austin agreed with Ms. Chestnut and Mr. Budd and wants people to have freedom to do what they want with their own money, to not micro-manage campaigns, and to trust the intelligence of the candidates and the voters. Ms. Wright stated that there were fundamental reasons for reform and they were prefaced on removing the unfair advantages when someone has greater financial access and then to equalize the access to money. Mr. Budd called the question. Mr. Kalivoda called the vote. Motion passed with Mr. Brinkman, Ms. Wright, Mr. Delaney, Ms. Bauer, and Ms. Dilcher voting for. Mr. Budd, Ms. Chestnut, Mr. Kalivoda, and Mr. Austin voting against.
July 2, 2002
5. ...Motion made by Mr. Brinkman to recommend that the best campaign practices require further study and the CFRAB requests that the County Commission extend the life of the CFRAB through the end of the year to further address this issue. Motion seconded by ms. Wright and approved unanimously.
8. Discussion followed on the candidates forums and a request the CFRAB wished to make of the County Commission to provide funding to sponsor candidate forums later this year. Motion by Ms. Wright to broadcast on Channel 12, taped candidate forums run by independent group such as the League of Woman Voters for each Constitutional officer seat. The independent group must meet the following criteria: doesn't support of endorse candidates, minimum existence (10 years), minimum membership (25). The candidates will have 2-minute opening and closing statements, and the forum will be run on cable channel 12 and made available to any other media group. The estimated cost is $3,000 every other year and is based on sponsoring five forums conducted once per election cycle at a cost of approximately $200 per forum. Motion seconded by ms. Bauer. Motion passed unanimously.
10. Ms. Wright discussed including the candidate information/profile in the Supervisor of Election's mailout of the sample ballot each election. She indicated that there were 79,000 ballots printed and 77,000 were mailed. The approximate costs of printing was $4,500 and the postage was $7,200. She stated that the mailing/printing size could be increased 5x without having an impact on the postage cost and that for an incremental cost (approximately $900), the Supervisor could change to a larger sheet of paper allowing for more information to be published with the ballot. Motion by Ms. Wright that as a part of the candidate assistance program, the Supervisor of Elections be required to include on the sample ballots mailouts: candidate contact information including a website address and home address/telephone, a record of compliance with applicable election laws, and a description of the best campaign practices if adopted, and compliance with best campaign practices if adopted. Ms. Dilcher seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.
11. Motion by Ms. Wright for the Supervisor of Elections to include links from the Office of the Supervisor's website to each candidate's website when the candidate has one. Motion seconded by Ms. Dilcher. The motion passed unanimously.
12. Ms. Wright discussed Mr. Budd's earlier proposal to include an area on the sample mailouts from the Supervisor's Office where donations can be requested to fund the candidate assistance program. It was discussed that the Supervisor's Office already handles the intake of money for other purposes. Mr. Brinkman motioned that the sample ballot mailout include a request for donations to fund the candidate assistance program. Ms. Dilcher seconded. The motion approved unanimously.
July 23, 2002
12. Ms. Wright discussed Mr. Hornbeck's recommendation at the public forum. If corporate contributions are allowed, then at least get the owner, president, or CEO's name as an additional disclosure requirement. Discussion followed. Ms. Bauer made a motion that "for corporate contributions, the president of the corporation be disclosed on the campaign contribution form". Seconded by Mr. Budd. Motion passed unanimously.
13. Mr. Brinkman made a motion to change adopted motion #6 regarding the time limits for public forums. He moved that the time limits be struck and that it simply state that each candidate have a short opening and closing statement. Motion seconded by Mr. Budd. Motion passed unanimously.
August 8, 2002
10. Discussion followed on crafting a motion on public disclosure. The following motion was crafted. It moved by Mr. Budd and seconded by Ms. Dilcher. Motion: The Supervisor of Elections shall cause to be published withing 2-5 days prior to each election in a major daily newspaper of local circulation, a web site and government access channel, the campaign contribution information and any known existing violations of election law by each contribution amount, the contribution type and the contributor city and a reference to the full report on the Supervisor of Election's website. Motion passed unanimously.
August 22, 2002
6. Chair Kalivoda arrived. Discussion followed regarding the draft report "item #5 - report deadlines" and "item #6 filing copies of finance reports locally". Mr. Wagner advised CFRAB that these regulatory proposals could not be extended by local home rule authority to PACs and political parties. Mr. Wagner advised that these issues were not within the purview of home rule authority. Motion by Mr. Brinkman to reverse adoption of the items that were listed in the draft partial report as items #5 and #6 because that were outside the purview of the CFRAB and home rule authority and were better addressed by the legislative delegation. Seconded by Ms. Wright. Discussion followed. Ms. Wright stated that she wanted to further discuss the issue with the Supervisor of Elections and Mr. Wagner. She indicated that she clearly understood Mr. Wagner's ruling that CFRAB couldn't mandate a PAC or political party to report on a certain schedule . She also understood that there are conservative and liberal interpretations of law. Ms. Wright questioned whether their may be certain areas of financial reporting that could be required of PACs and political parties under home rule authority. Ms. Wright said for example candidate campaign promotion expenditures by PAC's and political parties are classified and reported as independent expenditures. She indicated that these expenditures never show up in the candidate finance report as income and it wasn't included in CFRAB's contribution reporting recommendations, that it would just be another loophole. Ms. Wright asked if it was worthwhile for CFRAB to ask for additional clarification from the attorney and Supervisor of Election's before the action is fully reversed. Mr. Austin asked upon what basis this could be included in CFRAB's recommendations and stated that the Supreme Court ruled that these were independent expenditures and did not specifically belong to a particular candidate. Ms. Wright asked if this issue were worthy of asking for clarification to see if there was home rule authority to sync the independent expenditure/disclosure form with the candidate campaigns. Ms. Wright suggested that the CFRAB ask for clarification. Ms. Dilcher suggested that the recommendation be reversed. Mr. Casey suggested that the CFRAB keep it simple to avoid over-complicating the issue so people could understand it. He suggested that the CFRAB stick to the simple reforms and then move forward with the more complicated issues once the public is better educated with easier issues. Ms. Chestnut agreed. Motion approved unanimously as stated above to reverse adoption of the items that wee listed in the draft partial report as items #5 and #6 because they were outside the purview of the CFRAB and home rule authority and were better addressed by the legislative delegation.
7. Motion by Mr. Brinkman to rescind item #6 that requested PACs political parties to file copies of their reports locally. Motion seconded by Ms. Wright. Discussion followed. Motion passed unanimously.
8. Motion by Ms. Chestnut to rescind the request to the County Commission to extend CFRAB's sunset date of September 30th, 2002. Motion seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Approves unanimously.
9. Motion by Mr. Brinkman to include in the CFRAB final report a request to the County Commission that the CFRAB Sunset date of September 30th, 2002 be extended. Motion seconded by Ms. Chestnut. Approved unanimously.
11. Motion by Mr. Brinkman to require publishing of the president's name for corporate contributions be published and publically disclosed. Seconded by Ms. Wright. Discussion followed. Motion passed 3-2.
September 12, 2002
3. Section 10 of the report was reviewed. Motion by Mr. Brinkman to include "and closing" statements to paragraph #4. Seconded by Mr. Budd. Approved unanimously.
4. Mr. Kalivoda asked if CFRAB was prepared to adopt paragraph #4 as amended. Mr. Budd asked if paragraph #4 should include time constraints and indicated that he could not support paragraph #4 in its entirety. Mr. Austin indicated that paragraph #4 was to dictating and prescriptive. Mr Budd indicated that he wold support the original language. Motion passed 3-2. Mr. Delaney and Mr. Austin voting against.
9. In paragraph #5 of the problem addressed area, Mr. Brinkman requested on revision, insert "cable channel" in second sentence after "television access". Also, insert "radio and" after "access to" in the first sentence. Both revisions were approved without objection.
September 19, 2002
8. Motion by Mr. Austin to change the title of Recommendation 9 to 'Voter Information - Candidate Assistance Program' or 'VICAP'. Seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Adopted unanimously.
17. In recommendation number eight, Mr. Austin motioned that contributions for County offices that are $25 and above be published. Seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Approved unanimously.
19. In recommendation number nine, Ms. Wright described that the recommendation as worded deviated from the motion that was originally passed by CFRAB. Motion by Mr. Delaney, to include with the criteria for the sponsorship of candidate forums, 1) has been in existence for a minimum of ten years, 2) has never endorsed a candidate, and 3) membership of at least twenty-five Alachua County residents. Seconded by Mr. Budd. Approved 6-0. Mr. Austin abstaining.
20. In recommendation number ten, Mr. Delaney motioned to adopt the language as presented in the report by Ms. Wright - 'For example, the contributor name for the XYZ Corporation whose president is Jane Doe will be reported as 'XYZ Corp./Jane Doe, Pres.'. Seconded by Mr. Budd. Approved unanimously.
22. In recommendation number eleven, Mr. Delaney suggested that the name be changed to 'Voluntary Campaign Practices Program'. Without objection, CFRAB agreed to the name change.
September 26, 2002
4. Motion by Mr. Delaney to adopt Recommendation #1: Earlier filing date for last period reports. Seconded by Ms. Wright. Approved unanimously 8-0.
5. Motion by Mr. Budd to adopt Recommendation #2: Electronic filing. Seconded by Mr. Delaney. Approved 7-1. Mr. Austin dissenting.
6. Motion by Ms. Dilcher to adopt Recommendation #3: Last date for accepting contributions. Seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Approved unanimously 8-0.
7. Motion by Ms. Chestnut to adopt Recommendation #4: Synchronize report deadlines for committees and parties with candidates. Seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Approved 7-1. Mr. Austin dissenting.
8. Motion by Ms. Chestnut to adopt Recommendation #5: Requirement to file copies of reports locally. Seconded by Ms. Dilcher. Approved unanimously 8-0.
9. Motion by Mr. Delaney to adopt Recommendation #6: Limitation on contribution amount. Seconded by Mr. Brinkman. Approved 6-2. Mr. Austin and Ms. Chestnut dissenting.
10.Motion by Ms. Wright to adopt Recommendation #7: Publication of finance and compliance information. Seconded by Mr. Budd. Approved 7-1. Mr. Austin dissenting.
11.Motion by Mr. Brinkman to adopt Recommendation #8: Voter Information and Candidate Assistance Program (VICAP). Seconded by Ms. Dilcher. Approved 7-1. Mr. Austin dissenting.
12.Motion by Mr. Delaney to adopt Recommendation #9: Reporting of additional information. Seconded by Ms. Wright. Approved 6-2. Mr. Austin and Ms. Chestnut dissenting.
13.Motion by Ms. Wright to adopt Recommendation #10: Voluntary Campaign Practices Program. Seconded by Mr. Delaney. Approved 5-3. Mr. Austin, Ms. Chestnut, and Mr. Budd dissenting.
15.Motion by Mr. Delaney to forward the report which documents the work of CFRAB to the County Commission noting that each recommendation was voted on separately. Seconded by Ms. Chestnut. Approved unanimously 8-0.