The Emerald City Council Considers Campaign Finance Disclosure Amendments

An invitation to our gentle readers to examine a new proposed ordinance amendment, and to offer their own comments, plaudits and critiques

Earlier this morning, Gentle Reader Dan Schroeder provided a helpful heads up on an item which is set for the city council's upcoming Tuesday agenda. Specifically, the council will be considering a newly-drafted campaign finance disclosure ordinance, clearly designed to address some of the problems arising from the recent Envision Ogden Money Laundering Scandal:

a. Campaign Finance Disclosure. Proposed Ordinance 2009-39 amending the Ogden Municipal Code by amending Chapter 8 of Title 1 to revise Campaign Financing Disclosure requirements. (Set/not set public input for June 2, 2009)

In connection with this, we'll post in raw form a pair of documents we received yesterday from Amy Sue Heaton, Communications Specialist for the Ogden City Council:

• Press Release - City Council Considers Campaign Finance Changes
• Proposed Ordinance Amending Chapter 8 Of Title 1

We're pressed this morning with real-life business, and thus don't have the time to subject these documents to our usual micro-analysis. We have taken the time nevertheless, to give the new proposed ordinance amendment at least a quick once over; and we thus offer (just to get the discussion going) our quick first-glance impressions of a few of the strengths and weaknesses of the current draft of the new proposed ordinance.

Here's a provision we liked a lot:

Paragraph 1-8-3 F. [Personal Use; Prohibition:] A contribution shall not be converted by any person to personal use. For purposes of this subsection, a contribution or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or donation is used in a manner that would cause the candidate or former candidate to recognize the monies as taxable income under federal tax law.

Enacting this provision would be a positive change, we believe. Campaign contributions should not be morphed into a candidate's personal windfall.

We were positively impressed with the revisions of the newly renumbered Paragraph 1-8-6. These reworked provisions would distinguish between inaccurate disclosure statements which are filed wilfully, and those that that have occurred through mere inadvertence. No "quick cures" would be available henceforth under these provisions for disclosure statements which are fraudulently filed.

And here's a change in an existing provision that we don't like very much at all:

1-8-7 A. It shall be an infraction, punishable as provided by Section 1-4A-1 of this code, or its successor, for any person to violate any provision of this Chapter or to fail to file when due any required campaign finance statement or report specified in this Chapter or to 10 knowingly or willfully falsify or omit any information required by any of the provisions of this Chapter. [Emphasis added].

Currently, violations of Ogden's election ordinances are proscribed as misdemeanors, with existing penalties which allow violators to be removed from office, with the additional sanction of barring such violators from holding office in the future. We believe a softening of penalties would send the wrong message to potential violators. Election law violations ought to be considered serious offenses against the body politic, and such violations, if proven, should be punished with appropriate severity. This one, in our mind at least, ought to be a deal killer, at first glance at least.

That's it from us on this topic for now folks. We're pressed for time, as we said.

We're hoping that our tight schedule won't inhibit our gentle readers from devoting their own time toward offering their own comments, plaudits and critiques, however.

Don't let the cat get your tongues.