Why cities, counties may turn to the state political watchdog to enforce local campaign finance issues

Cities and counties across California are reaching out to the state’s political watchdog about possibly enforcing their campaign finance and ethics ordinances under a new law that took effect on Jan. 1.

The law, modeled after an arrangement San Bernardino County has had with the California Fair Political Practices Commission since 2013, essentially allows local agencies to draw on the state’s experience and expertise in dealing with such issues — for a price.

The FPPC could not say Wednesday how many inquires it has fielded or from which agencies — beyond the city of San Jose — but interest apparently has been brisk.

“In the last two months, staff have received multiple inquiries and interests from local government agencies on contracting with the Commission for the administration, implementation and enforcement of local campaign finance or government ethics laws,” FPPC Executive Director Loressa Hon wrote in a report that will be presented to the commission on Thursday, Feb. 21.

Among other things, Hon is seeking guidance on staffing needs and budget adjustments that might be necessary to meet a possible influx of requests from cities and counties.

San Jose reached out to the FPPC in January about possibly contracting with the commission to enforce its longstanding campaign finance and ethics ordinance after its seven-member ethics committee dwindled to three members and lacked a quorum to vote on enforcement matters, San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle said Wednesday.

But things quickly turned around, and San Jose’s ethics committee began receiving applications from several people who now are interviewing to fill the vacant seats. Therefore, the city is no longer considering a contract with the FPPC to enforce its ordinance, Doyle said.

“At this point it is not an option,” Doyle said.

San Bernardino County first in state

San Bernardino County became the first in the state to enter into such an agreement with the FPPC after it adopted an ordinance in August 2012.

Since the passage of legislation allowing San Bernardino County to contract with the FPPC, similar laws were passed allowing Stockton and Sacramento to do the same. Subsequently, the state passed a law last year allowing all cities and counties to contract with the FPPC.

“I think people see that it was a practical and financially elegant solution to a politically intractable problem,” San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford said Wednesday. “It’s worked very smoothly. I think the FPPC has had a positive experience with it as well, and the opportunity to take their highly professional and politically neutral oversight abilities anywhere in the state is going to be a great benefit.”

Under its contract with the FPPC, San Bernardino County pays the agency a flat fee of $55,000 annually, and is billed at preapproved hourly rates, for any work exceeding the flat amount. To date, the county had not exceeded its flat rate.

In return, the FPPC audits the campaign accounts of all county elected officials each election cycle, investigates complaints, provides written and verbal guidance to elected officials and their donors regarding the county’s campaign finance and ethics ordinance, and serves as the “civil and administrative prosecutor for violations of the ordinance,” according to a December staff report prepared for the Board of Supervisors.

While there have been some campaign slips since passage of the county’s ordinance, Rutherford said it has all been relatively minor.

“There have been a couple of campaigns that have received notice they need to do something better, but I’m not aware of any huge issues,” she said.

The ordinance has another benefit, Rutherford said.

“We haven’t had to spend four-plus-times the amount of money to create a local (ethics) commission with staff and the political gamesmanship that comes with it,” she said. “The fact that we were able to basically hire a nonpartisan, apolitical, central organization to enforce our ordinance has just made it much more credible, smoother, and less expensive.”

FPPC looks for wider reach

The commission on Thursday also will consider sending out letters to the Legislature proposing a law that would allow the FPPC’s Enforcement Division to investigate and prosecute public agencies for the suspected illegal use of public resources for campaign activities.

A commission staff report noted that, since 2015, the FPPC’s Enforcement Division investigated 34 cases involving allegations of a public agency spending public funds for campaign purposes. To date, 18 of those cases have closed and 16 remain open. Of the closed cases, three resulted in stipulated settlements, two cases were closed and six remain open, according to the report.

“Public agencies spending taxpayer dollars on campaign activity is a serious misuse of public funds,” says a draft letter to legislative leaders in both the Assembly and Senate. “Further, the Legislature has passed multiple laws prohibiting public officials from using public resources for campaign activity.”

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said in an email Wednesday he hopes such a law would not preempt the ability of local district attorneys’ offices and city attorneys from pursuing FPPC violations.

“If they wanted to do it on their own or separate or they bring those cases into court with their own prosecutors, I don’t have any problem with that,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t want to see our hands tied and inability to go forward, but it doesn’t sound like that exists. If their goal is to ensure that there’s compliance and there’s transparency, then obviously I would support that.”

FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga the proposed legislation seeks only to bring current law on the misuse of public funds into the realm of the Political Reform Act so that the FPPC can take administrative or civil action against violators.

“D.A.s would maintain any and all current ability to do the same in any civil or criminal prosecution it deems necessary,” he said.