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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-16-01 ECRC Minutes MINUTES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2001 - NOON COUNCIL HEARING ROOM 990 PALM STREET - SAN LUIS OBISPO 1. CALL TO ORDER: 12:15 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL: Present: Trish Avery, John Spatafore, Chuck Stevenson, Sandi Sigurdson, Amy Shore Staff: Lee Price, Jeff Jorgensen, Diane Reynolds City Clerk Price provided additional agenda materials to Committee Members: Revised Summary of Campaigns, Tentative Election Calendar for 2002 and the updated Committee roster. 3. MINUTES: Action: Moved by Stevenson/Avery to approve the Minutes for Thursday, November 1, 2001; motion carried 5:0. 4. City Attorney Jorgensen responded to Committee Member’s questions regarding his memo that addressed the issues of Contribution limits, Disclosure limits, Signs, Aggregation of contributions. 5. City Clerk Price reviewed the Summary of Campaigns and requested that Ken Schwartz’s name be struck from the 1998 list as he was appointed, not elected. 6. Contribution Limits: The Committee discussed the cost to run a campaign and the importance of candidate name recognition in an election. Action: The Committee agreed to not make any changes to the contribution limits set forth in the ordinance with the exception of adding the language “name, address, occupation and name of employer” under Section 2.40.050. C. 4. Disclosure Limits: The Committee discussed a suggestion to raise the disclosure limit to $35. Public Comment: Marc Brazil spoke in opposition to raising the limit because he believes it would potentially lead to less public disclosure of the names of contributors. ELECTION CAMPAIGN REGULATIONS COMMITTEE Page 2 Election Campaign Regulations Committee Minutes--November 16, 2001 He urged the Committee to maintain the current limit of $25. Signs: The Committee discussed the pros and cons of removing the 30-day sign posting limit wording stated in Sign Regulations Municipal Code Section 15.40.280 and adding a time limit for removing the campaign signs. Vice Chair Stevenson argued against eliminating the requirement that signs cannot be posted sooner than 30 days before the election. Other committee members felt that because name recognition appears to be important to small, local “grass roots” campaigns, candidates would be better served by removing the restriction. Action: Moved by Spatafore/Avery to eliminate the 30 day limitation from this section and add language requiring that campaign signs be removed within 10 days following the election; motion carried 4:1 (Stevenson). Action: The Committee agreed to recommend that Section 2.40.050 regarding political campaign signs will be removed from the City’s Sign Ordinance and included in the revised Election Campaign Regulations Ordinance. City Clerk Price will look into adding language encouraging the voluntary use of recycled materials in campaigns to the Election Handbook. She will enlist the help of Solid Waste Coordinator Munds in developing appropriate language. Aggregation of Contributions: The Committee requested that City Clerk Price in consultation with City Attorney Jorgensen add examples of aggregations of contributions to the Election Handbook. 5. PUBLIC COMMENT: None. 6. NEXT MEETING: Friday, December 7, 2001 at Noon. 7. ADJOURNED: 1:25 p.m.