Committee to discuss 'pay for play' in Aurora
By the end of today, Aurora aldermen hope to have hashed out a new series of campaign finance rules.
The only questions left are whether a $20,000 cap will be placed on how much each candidate can contribute to their own campaign funds and whether the new rules will go into effect Aug. 1 or in 2011.
Frustrated that no decisions have been made since campaign finance became a hot topic in May, Seventh Ward Alderman Scheketa Hart-Burns, chairwoman of the city's government operations committee, has called for a special meeting of the panel at 2:30 p.m. in the aldermen's office, 60 E Downer Place.
"The fact is, we've been hollering about campaign finance in this committee for months," Hart-Burns said Thursday. "If there's a need for campaign finance reform, and there is, let's get it on."
Aldermen will be hashing out Mayor Tom Weisner's proposal to cap contributions from businesses with or seeking city contracts, at $3,000 each. His proposal also calls for a $20,000 limit on how much an individual candidate can spend on their own campaign.
Assistant chief of staff Carrie Anne Ergo, however, said aldermen also will need to discuss how and when the rules would go into effect.
Most changes to rules and pay for aldermen usually go into effect at the next election, but Ergo said aldermen likely will be asked to sign a pledge stating they will follow the rules "from this point on" in order for the rules to have an impact on the April 2009 election.
Fourth Ward Alderman Rick Lawrence, who also is a candidate for mayor, pitched a similar proposal in May but without the individual spending clause. He said Weisner's addendum is a way around the legislation.
According to the proposal, if any of the three candidates decline to promise to spend less than $20,000, the amount allowed by business donors increases five times, to $15,000 each.
"That's just malarkey and it's a blatant attempt to bypass what we're trying do here," Lawrence said. "All it takes is one person to not sign and then everything else goes out the window. But it allows (Weisner) to stamp his feet and look like he's actually doing something and it's a farce."
If a proposal is selected, it would be allowed onto Tuesday's committee of the whole agenda and likely would be voted on by the city council on July 22, one day after the 2008 first-half disclosures are due to the state board of elections.
Third Ward Alderman Stephanie Kifowit, also a mayoral candidate, said she wishes her fellow aldermen would slow down and "give the issue our due diligence before rushing around with special meetings."
She has fought for months to create a permanent, third-party ethics board to oversee finance laws. But that idea has lacked support from nearly everyone but Lawrence who called her idea "right on" saying he wishes an impartial panel was involved in the discussions.