Galen Kusic

Editor

At the Jan. 15 Benicia City Council meeting, an important discussion took place on the consideration of updating the City’s campaign ordinances at the request of Councilmember Tom Campbell. Following a discussion led by Campbell, the council provided direction to staff to study the Santa Clara campaign ordinance model dealing with dark money.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, the council and City Attorney Heather McLaughlin came to consensus that an ad-hoc committee should be created through the Open Government Commission to study and work on updating the City’s campaign ordinance. This would be executed through ample opportunities for public engagement and input.

“Most of it involves trying to improve transparency,” said Campbell.

Campbell cited that campaign forums should take place prior to the last weekend before the election. He noted that 68 percent of ballots were cast absentee in 2018, citing that by the second week in October, the election may already be decided. By including more candidate forums earlier in the election process, it would allow citizens a better opportunity to make informed choices.

Campbell called for these forums to be announced within 24 hours on the city website unlike in the Nov. election, when the forum was not advertised in a timely manner. He also called for requiring PAC’s that get involved in a Benicia election to list their top three donors when they hit a certain expenditure. His ideas included that the party responsible for conducting a poll should be required to identify who is conducting that poll.

“Once you start doing polls, even if they’re a neutral poll, someone has decided to get involved in Benicia’s elections, and you’d like to know who that is,” he said. “The small donor’s voice in politics is being washed away by PAC’s.”

Campbell noted that 24-48 hours after a poll is conducted, it should be made public who was behind the poll.

Campbell also suggested setting aside public finances from the City to the tune of around $20,000 to ensure that these guidelines are followed. Requiring those that conduct polls to produce a script of the questions asked is part of his proposal.

“I don’t think anybody was happy with how the last election went down in terms of financing,” said Councilmember Steve Young. “The spending by the outside PAC was over the top, it was negative in the extreme and in many cases it was not truthful.”

Young called for any endorsement from an organization to be required to first gain approval from its members. He feels this should apply to unions, police, fire, chamber of commerce or any organization.

“Anyone who endorses should at least ask its members, not just leave it up to leadership,” he said.

Councilmember Lionel Largaespada stated that he is for complete disclosure of all monies and agrees with the Santa Clara ordinance. He called on McLaughlin to help ensure that these ordinances are enforceable.

Largaespada brought up concern about independent expenditures and how it had a major influence in the last election. Vice Mayor Christina Strawbridge brought up that Citizens United seems to have thrown a monkey wrench into oversight of independent expenditures.

“Citizen’s United is playing havoc with every city’s attempt to control their own elections and negative campaigning,” said Young. “It will take some creativity to try and come up with something that would try and rein in outside spending. But it is definitely worth the effort. With all four candidates denouncing the spending by the Valero/unions PAC, I think that there is consensus in the community to tighten up our ordinance.”

Strawbridge also called for holding candidate forums in a more timely manner, while having a committee look at the parameters of discussions taking place at the forums.

“I do believe our campaign finance ordinances are really, really good,” said Strawbridge. “I don’t think that was the issue in this election.”

She noted that there is a lot of misinformation about independent expenditures, and that education needs to be provided to the public to better understand them. She reminded the public that candidates do not have control of independent expenditures and are outside the candidate’s purview.

She then explained that the most recent election and future elections are vastly different from the past, due to social media’s influence and other contributing factors.

“We have a lack of the ability to get the message out there,” she said. “The Benicia Herald is pretty much gone as far as coverage. The Times Herald is not covering Benicia. That really just leaves social media to get the information out there, and a lot of it is not correct.”

It was suggested to make a fail-proof system that guarantees messages about forums and other critical campaign information will be distributed to the public in a more concise and timely manner.

In public comment, Martin Apple applauded the idea of the City providing public financing. He called on the city to work together, hear each other and figure out ways to make this ordinance work as intended.

Benicia resident Terry Mulloch addressed the issue of push polls and recommended that all polls be required to disclose the content of the questions being asked. By strengthening the ordinance to prohibit push polls, he was adamant that any PAC conducting a poll should provide full disclosure to residents before a polling interview takes place.

The next steps in the effort to update the campaign ordinance will take place at the Open Government Commission meeting on Monday, Jan. 28 at 5 p.m. in the Commission Room at City Hall.

Benicia leaders; students to take on Great Kindness Challenge

Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson gave a Proclamation for the Benicia Great Kindness Challenge, spanning from Jan. 28 – Feb. 1. Originated at a school in Carlsbad, Calif. eight years ago, over 10 million students now participate in the Great Kindness Challenge nationwide.

Mary Farmar Special Education teacher Tammy Harley explained that several activities will be held at the school, including a kickoff assembly. The hope is that the Kindness Challenge will improve school climate and increase student engagement.

Harley noted that several activities will take place at the kickoff assembly at Mary Farmar Elementary with motivational cheers and high-energy activities. The assembly is expected to draw a large group of community leaders on the morning of Jan. 28.

“There is no better time than the present to show these students at Mary Farmar that our city leaders are kind and accepting,” said Harley.

The council had a lengthy discussion about amending the Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan to amend regulation for accessory dwelling units (ADU’s).  Several state laws have changed regarding ADU’s, and Benicia’s ordinance was not in compliance with those laws.

“Let’s do it right the first time and not have to make changes down the road,” said Councilmember Steve Young.

After a two-hour discussion mired in minutiae, the council unanimously approved the ordinance and sent it back to staff for recommendations for a second reading to be brought back to council. The current ADU ordinance will take effect on Feb. 14, but staff was instructed to consider incorporating a local architect’s suggestions for the improvement of living space requirements for ADU’s.