San Clemente City Council members are considering new rules tonight, June 7, that could make campaign contributions more transparent and easier for the public to track, and would set limits on the amount that could be contributed to a council candidate.

Mayor Gene James said he is proposing the urgency ordinance as a way to see where large, out-of-area donations originate.

“There’s a lot of money in our elections coming from outside sources going to an individual candidate,” James said. “Then you see the same donors giving money to a PAC, and you add up the money, and you see the donor is spending $60,000, and you wonder why he’s involved? If there’s outside involvement, there will be transparency.”

In May, the rest of the City Council agreed to put the ordinance on the agenda and then asked city staffers to prepare a report that will be presented during tonight’s meeting.

The ordinance, if approved, would establish a contribution limit of $500 per source per election. And if the council approves them, the new rules would be in place before the November election.

Contribution limits would not apply to independent expenditures, ballot measure committees or committees seeking an officer recall.

The ordinance would also include a city policy requiring contractors – independent of state reporting requirements – to make public political contributions to City Council candidates made during the 12 months preceding a bid or proposal. Receipt of contributions would not disqualify local officials from making a decision related to the source who made the contributions, James said.

But, the new policy would require contractors submitting their bids or proposals to the city to include any contributions made to a City Council member before submitting their proposal. By doing this, the public would have an opportunity to see who donated what to whom, he said.

Councilman Steve Knoblock said Monday he was perplexed why the proposed changes are being considered as an urgency ordinance, adding that when the council agreed for the ordinance to go onto the agenda, it was not done with an intent to set it into an “urgent mode.”

“This isn’t urgent,” he said. “There is no reason for it to be an urgency ordinance.”

Knoblock said he wasn’t sure some of the changes would make that much of a difference, pointing out campaign contributions already have to be reported and the system already has transparency with what’s available online.

“I don’t know why it’s difficult to find things,” he said. “You can go online and find the information in 30 seconds. I don’t know why it’s needed in the first place.”

San Clemente City Attorney Scott Smith said the decision to treat an ordinance as urgent or non-urgent is left up to the City Council.

“Council expressed concern at its last meeting about getting this on the books so that all contributions for the 2022 election cycle fall under the same limits and disclosure requirements for the entire season,” he said, adding that if it were a non-urgency ordinance it wouldn’t go to a second reading until June 20 and wouldn’t become law until 30 days later.

“There was a concern about the confusion to candidates and to voters about having the earlier part of the election cycle under the old higher limits and the later part under the new lower limits,” he said.

Tonight, council members will also take a second look at regulating bicycle repairs in public to address bike thefts and growing homeless encampments with reported chop shops. The council will also hear a report from the community development director on seizing flammable items from the town’s open space and continue the discussion of pickleball at San Gorgonio Park. And there will be a discussion to consider a revision to the November ballot by writing ballot measures that would make the city treasurer and city clerk appointed positions.

The first part of the council meeting begins at 5 p.m. and then after a 6 p.m. closed session, the public meeting will open again at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at the San Clemente Community Center, 100 N.Calle Seville.

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