BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1226
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 10, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
SB 1226 (Correa) - As Amended: May 13, 2014
SENATE VOTE : 34-0
SUBJECT : Political Reform Act of 1974: local campaign finance
reform.
SUMMARY : Authorizes the Fair Political Practices Commission
(FPPC) to administer and enforce a local campaign finance
ordinance upon mutual agreement between the FPPC and a city or
county, as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Expands provisions of law that authorize the FPPC and San
Bernardino County and to enter into an agreement for the FPPC
to enforce the County's local campaign finance ordinance by
permitting the FPPC to enter into a mutual agreement with any
city or county to enforce a local campaign finance ordinance.
Provides that the FPPC, upon mutual agreement between the FPPC
and the city council or board of supervisors of a
participating city or county, is authorized to assume primary
responsibility for the impartial, effective administration,
implementation, and enforcement of a local campaign finance
ordinance.
2)Defines a "participating city or county," for the purposes of
this bill, to mean any city or county that enters into a
mutual agreement described above.
3)Provides that the FPPC shall be the civil prosecutor
responsible for the civil enforcement of every local campaign
finance ordinance that it enforces pursuant to this bill.
Provides that the FPPC, as the civil prosecutor of the
participating city's or county's local campaign finance
ordinance, is not required to seek authorization from the city
attorney or district attorney of a participating city or
county to bring a civil or administrative action to enforce
the ordinance.
4)Permits the FPPC to provide advice and guidance regarding the
local campaign finance ordinance and bring civil actions to
enforce the civil penalties and remedies of the local campaign
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finance ordinance that it enforces pursuant to this bill.
5)Repeals the January 1, 2018 sunset date on the provision of
law that permits the FPPC to enforce San Bernardino County's
campaign ordinance, and extends these provisions of law
indefinitely.
6)Makes other conforming changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Creates the FPPC, and makes it responsible for the impartial,
effective administration and implementation of the Political
Reform Act (PRA).
2)Requires a local government agency that adopts or amends a
local campaign finance ordinance to file a copy of the
ordinance with the FPPC.
3)Prohibits a local government agency from enacting a campaign
finance ordinance that imposes campaign reporting requirements
that are additional to or different from those set forth in
the PRA for elections held in its jurisdiction unless the
additional or different requirements apply only to the
candidates seeking election in that jurisdiction, their
controlled committees or committees formed or existing
primarily to support or oppose their candidacies, and to
committees formed or existing primarily to support or oppose a
candidate or to support or oppose the qualification or passage
of a local ballot measure which is being voted on only in that
jurisdiction, and to city or county general purpose committees
active only in that city or county, respectively.
4)Authorizes the FPPC, until January 1, 2018, upon mutual
agreement between the FPPC and the San Bernardino County Board
of Supervisors, to have primary responsibility for the
impartial, effective administration, implementation, and
enforcement of a local San Bernardino County campaign finance
reform ordinance. Requires the San Bernardino County Board of
Supervisors to consult with the FPPC prior to adopting and
amending any local campaign finance reform ordinance that is
subsequently enforced by the FPPC.
5)Authorizes the FPPC, pursuant to the aforementioned agreement,
to investigate possible violations of the San Bernardino
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County campaign finance reform ordinance and bring
administrative actions against persons who violate the
ordinance, as specified.
6)Permits the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and the
FPPC to enter into any agreements necessary and appropriate
for the operation of these provisions, including agreements
for reimbursement of state costs with county funds, as
specified. Permits the San Bernardino County Board of
Supervisors or the FPPC, at any time, by ordinance or
resolution, to terminate any agreement for the FPPC to
administer, implement, or enforce the local campaign finance
reform ordinance or any provision thereof.
7)Requires the FPPC to report to the Legislature with specified
information on or before January 1, 2017, if the FPPC enters
into such an agreement with the San Bernardino County Board of
Supervisors.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, all costs to the FPPC will be reimbursed by the city
or county that opts to enter into the mutual agreement.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
The Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA) allows local
government agencies to adopt campaign finance ordinances
that apply to elections within their jurisdictions. These
ordinances may be more stringent than the local
restrictions that the PRA imposes. While the Fair Political
Practices Commission (FPPC) has broad investigative and
administrative authority across the state, it does not
assume primary responsibility for local campaign finance
ordinances. A county board of supervisors or a city council
must monitor these ordinances or create an Ethics
Commission with this authority.
SB 1226 enables cities and counties to contract with the
FPPC for the administration and enforcement of local
campaign finance ordinance. This gives cities and counties
the ability to bring in an experienced, independent, and
impartial entity to investigate possible local campaign
finance violations and bring administrative action against
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these violators. This bill allows participating entities to
eliminate the potential for bias, favoritism, or
conflicting interests by authorizing the FPPC to assume
primary responsibility for the administration and
enforcement of local campaign finance ordinance.
2)San Bernardino County : In 2012, the Legislature passed and
the Governor signed AB 2146 (Cook), Chapter 169, Statutes of
2012, which permitted San Bernardino County and the FPPC to
enter into an agreement that provides for the FPPC to enforce
the County's local campaign finance reform ordinance. Prior
to this the FPPC did not enforce any local campaign finance
ordinances. According to previous analyses, the County of San
Bernardino, which had been the subject of several high-profile
corruption cases, was in the process of developing a campaign
finance ordinance. Rather than appoint an ethics commission,
which could present financial as well as conflict of interest
challenges, the County proposed to contract with the FPPC to
enforce their local campaign finance ordinance. Moreover, the
County determined that it was in the best interest of the
County to retain the services of the FPPC to provide for the
enforcement and interpretation of San Bernardino County's
local campaign finance ordinance as the FPPC has special
skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise in the area of
enforcement and interpretation of campaign laws necessary to
effectively advise, assist, litigate, and otherwise represent
the County on such matters. As a result, the FPPC and San
Bernardino County entered into a mutual agreement, from
January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014, for the FPPC to
provide the County campaign enforcement and interpretation
services for the impartial, effective administration,
implementation, and enforcement of the San Bernardino's
campaign finance reform ordinance.
3)Local Campaign Ordinances and the PRA : Under existing law,
local government agencies have the ability to adopt campaign
ordinances that apply to elections within their jurisdictions,
though the PRA imposes certain limited restrictions on those
local ordinances. For instance, SB 726 (McCorquodale),
Chapter 1456, Statutes of 1985, limited the ability of local
jurisdictions to impose campaign filing requirements that
differed from those in the PRA, permitting such requirements
only when they applied solely to candidates and committees
whose activity is restricted primarily to the jurisdiction in
question. This provision sought to avoid the necessity of a
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candidate or committee active over a wider area being required
to adhere to several different campaign filing schedules.
Similarly, AB 1430 (Garrick), Chapter 708, Statutes of 2007,
prohibited local governments from adopting rules governing
member communications that are different than the rules that
govern member communications at the state level.
Aside from these restrictions, however, local government
agencies generally have a significant amount of latitude when
developing local campaign finance ordinances that apply to
elections in those agencies' jurisdictions. Any jurisdiction
that adopts or amends a local campaign finance ordinance is
required to file a copy of that ordinance with the FPPC, and
the FPPC has begun posting those ordinances on its website.
Several cities and counties have adopted campaign finance
ordinances, some of which are very extensive. In some cases,
those ordinances include campaign contribution limits,
reporting and disclosure requirements that supplement the
requirements of the PRA, temporal restrictions on when
campaign funds may be raised, and voluntary public financing
of local campaigns, among other provisions. In many cases,
local campaign finance ordinances are enforced by the district
attorney of the county or by the city attorney. In at least a
few cases, however, local jurisdictions have set up
independent boards or commissions to enforce the local
campaign finance laws.
The FPPC does not currently enforce any local campaign finance
ordinances other than San Bernardino County's. The FPPC can
and does, however, bring enforcement actions in response to
violations of the PRA that occur in campaigns for local
office, even in cases where the local jurisdiction brings
separate enforcement actions for violations of a local
campaign finance ordinance.
4)Criminal, Civil, and Administrative Enforcement of the PRA and
Local Campaign Ordinances : Violations of the PRA are subject
to administrative, civil, and criminal penalties. Generally,
the Attorney General (AG) and district attorneys have
responsibility for enforcing the criminal provisions of the
PRA, though any elected city attorney of a charter city also
has the authority to act as the criminal prosecutor for
violations of the PRA that occur within the city. The FPPC,
the AG, district attorneys, and elected city attorneys of
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charter cities all have responsibility for enforcement of the
civil penalties and remedies provided under the PRA, depending
on the nature and location of the violation, while any member
of the public also has the ability to file a civil action to
enforce the civil provisions of the PRA, subject to certain
restrictions. The FPPC has the sole authority to bring
administrative proceedings for enforcement of the PRA. When
the FPPC determines on the basis of such a proceeding that a
violation of the PRA has occurred, it can impose monetary
penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, in addition to
ordering the violator to cease and desist violation of the PRA
and to file any reports, statements, or other documents or
information required by the PRA.
In the case of local campaign ordinances, there is no single
approach as to the types of penalties that are available for
the violations of those ordinances. Many local ordinances
provide for misdemeanor or civil penalties for violations,
while some ordinances do not establish any penalties for
violations. In some local jurisdictions that have independent
boards or commissions to enforce the local campaign finance
ordinances, those boards or commissions have the authority to
bring administrative enforcement proceedings, similar to the
authority the FPPC has under the PRA.
5)Is Expansion of the Law to Soon? As mentioned above, last
session AB 2146 (Cook), Chapter 169, Statutes of 2012, was
implemented into law and permitted San Bernardino County and
the FPPC to enter into an agreement for the FPPC to enforce
the County's local campaign finance reform ordinance. Among
other provisions, AB 2146 also required the FPPC, if it
entered into an agreement with the San Bernardino County Board
of Supervisors, to report to the Legislature with specified
information on or before January 1, 2017. Current law
requires the report to include, but not be limited to, the
status of the agreement, the estimated annual cost savings, if
any, for the County of San Bernardino, a summary of relevant
annual performance metrics, as specified, any public comments
submitted relative to the operation of the agreement, and any
legislative recommendations. The committee is not aware that
any report has been submitted from the FPPC to the
Legislature. Because this law has only been effect since last
year and the FPPC and San Bernardino County have only been in
contract for a little over a year, the committee may wish to
consider whether it is prudent to expand the law to allow more
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participating cities or counties to authorize the FPPC to
administer and enforce their local campaign finance
ordinances. Would it be premature to expand current law when
the Legislature has not received a report detailing the
effectiveness of the current agreement between the FPPC and
San Bernardino County?
Furthermore, the committee may wish to consider whether such an
expansion of the FPPC's workload could negatively impact the
ongoing enforcement of the PRA. Because there is no guarantee
that local campaign finance ordinances will be consistent with
the general framework of the PRA, each additional local
ordinance that the FPPC is asked to enforce could add
complexity to the FPPCs' work. Moreover, while the added
complexity of a single ordinance and a single jurisdiction
likely can be handled by the FPPC without much difficulty,
this bill allows for the FPPC to enter into similar
arrangements with other jurisdictions, adding complexity of
tracking and enforcing multiple (potentially inconsistent)
ordinances in multiple jurisdictions, which could harm the
FPPC's ability to focus on its primary responsibility of
enforcing the PRA.
On the other hand, this bill does require a mutual agreement be
made between the city council or board of supervisors of the
participating city or county and the FPPC. Moreover, this
bill gives the FPPC discretion on whether or not they will
choose to enter into an agreement with a city or county to
administer and enforce its local campaign finance ordinance.
6)Political Reform Act of 1974 : California voters passed an
initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974 that created the FPPC and
codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on
candidates, officeholders, and lobbyists. That initiative is
commonly known as the PRA. Amendments to the PRA that are not
submitted to the voters, such as those contained in this bill,
must further the purposes of the proposition and require a
two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature.
7)Double-Referral : After this bill was referred to this
committee by the Assembly Rules Committee, the Assembly Rules
Committee instructed that this bill should be referred to the
Assembly Local Government Committee upon approval by this
committee. Accordingly, any motion to approve this bill should
provide for the bill to be re-referred to the Assembly Local
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Government Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
County of Orange Board of Supervisors (co-sponsor)
Urban Counties Caucus (co-sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094