Council Debates Election-Focused Ethics Program

City Hall was full of business Monday evening, as Gilroy City Council discussed an election-focused ethics program and revisited the long-standing issue of finalizing the .

The Open Government Commission, which oversees the ethics program, is comprised of Mayor Al Pinheiro and councilmen Dion Bracco and Peter Leroe-Muñoz. They spent the last few months studying the program before recommending it to the council.

The program would mimic similar ones in neighboring cities, such as Santa Clara and Riverside, by ending anonymous campaign donations and requiring candidates to file pre-election campaign finance statements.

The draft ordinance also included recommendations for holding forums the night before elections that would be led by the League of Women Voters, allowing candidates one final say before residents head to the polls. Other recommendations include raising the candidate expenditure ceiling from 50 to 70 cents per resident, which would allow candidates to raise $25,000-$35,000 in campaign funds.

The commission’s recommendations can be seen in the packet to the right and under item X.

“I agree with 90 percent of what’s in here, but that part of it alone is a reason for me to vote no,” Councilman Perry Woodward said, in regard to raising the candidate expenditure ceiling to 70 cents. “If you’re over here running against people spending $35,000, then that’s going to put a damper on things.”

Councilman Bracco shot back in defense of raising the ceiling, reasoning that election costs have become more expensive over the years.

“When we talk about raising from 50 to 70 cents, the thought there was that things have gotten a lot more expensive the past few years,” Bracco said. “It’s not really fair to penalize a candidate who is popular and can raise a lot of money, to a candidate who can’t raise a lot of money. A campaign is really expensive and is getting more and more expensive, and we just thought the time came to raise the costs.”

Woodward requested an analysis of the costs of the ethics program, which should be available at the next meeting. Council members unanimously voted to send the ordinance back to the commission for revisions.

The council also reviewed revisions to the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan, which included downsizing the budget from $942 million to $660 million, and detailed ways to exclude some privately developed lands. Leroe-Muñoz expressed concern over decreased property values, but staff said that reports surveyed from around the San Francisco Peninsula have shown that areas of land next to reserves often have an increased property value.

The revisions presented are listed in the document attachment made by Stan Ketchum, the city's senior planner.

The council will review the habitat plan again and decide whether to move forward with it at its next meeting on Oct. 3.