Op-ed guest column published in the Press Democrat, April 11, 2003

Campaign Finance Ordinance
and Out-of-Town Developer Interests

by Bill Phillips

How would you feel if you found out that over half of the campaign contributions that were paid to get our votes came from outside Petaluma! Unfortunately, it's true. But there's more to this story. We all write political campaign contribution checks to : "Friends of (Candidates Name)." Certainly as residents we support our candidate friends who we feel have the best interests of our city at heart; but, who are these friends from out-of-town that provide more than half of the money candidates spend to get our votes?

Take a minute to guess for yourself who and why out-of-towners spend money to get certain candidates elected. If you guessed that most money comes from out-of-town building developers and related businesses, you're right! These interests are big time "candidate friends". Do these new found "friends"- wealthy backers of big spending candidates get deserted when their projects come before the Council for approval? Is the public interest protected or do they get red carpet treatment?

Here is an imbalance our Campaign Finance Ordinance needs to address. How can resident voters be assured that this City's best interests are impartially served when their elected officials are beholden to out-of-town interests? State Government Codes administered by the Fair Political Practices Commission require disclosure of contributors in detail of Name, Address Enterprise, Occupation and Employer, as well as Amount Contributed. Our City Campaign Finance Ordinance requires every amount contributed be reported and sets a top contribution limit of $200. This limit should be reduced to $100 or less! Why isn't $200 a low enough limit on contributions? Because large out-of-town developers arrange for a number of their employees and suppliers to contribute so as to circumvent the $200 limit. Lowering the limit makes the task of recruiting contributors more difficult and makes this morally indefensible tactic less effective. If on the other hand, Petaluma's campaign limit is actually raised, as one heavily Developer financed Council Member has suggested, then out-of-town Developers will have even more control of our City Council. Our Council Majority is planning to undermine our Campaign Finance Ordinance very soon. While we know influence peddling is a problem at all levels of government, in Petaluma we can control it. Petaluma Tomorrow urges you to contact your City Council members today and let them know that this out-of-town vote buying is not acceptable. We need the contribution limit reduced to $100 or less.

The following tabulation shows the radical upward trend of contributions of out-of-town developer interests over the last four elections. The 10 % to 30% range of '96 and '98 has skyrocketed to the 60% range in the '02 election! It is time for voter residents to regain control of our Council.

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Trend For Out-of-Town Campaign Contributions

Bill Phillips is a member of Petaluma Tomorrow