BURBANK BACKS CAMPAIGN-DONATION CAP.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer The Burbank City Council gave tentative tentative, adj not final or definite, such as an experimental or clinical finding that has not been validated. approval Tuesday to a new ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been that would limit campaign contributions to candidates seeking city or school district elected office to $250. ``We're trying to prevent people from buying an election,'' said Councilman Bob Kramer. ``This will even the playing field.'' Currently there are no limits in place on the amount people can contribute to local campaigns. If the new regulations receive final approval from the council, they would apply in the April 1997 elections for the City Council, the school board, the city clerk In the United States, a City Clerk is an elected or appointed official who is responsible as the official keeper of the municipal records. In some places, the Clerk may be known as the "Village Clerk" or "Town Clerk". and the city treasurer. The new regulations were drafted by a special campaign finance reform Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns. committee impaneled in October at the suggestion of Councilman Ted McConkey. ``It was anything goes,'' McConkey said of the old system. ``Over the years I've been concerned about the escalating cost of local campaigns. We're concerned that a lot of people have been left out of the process.'' Burbank is trying to create its own rules because there are no federal or state laws that provide for any limitations on campaign contributions or expenditures for local election. A 1988 initiative, Proposition 73, placed limits on campaign contributions, but did not impact California charter cities, including Burbank, and was later ruled unconstitutional unconstitutional adj. referring to a statute, governmental conduct, court decision or private contract (such as a covenant which purports to limit transfer of real property only to Caucasians) which violate one or more provisions of the U. S. Constitution. . McConkey said he hopes the new rules will bring an end to big contributions from large corporations. Under the new regulations, a big corporation and its subsidiaries would only be able to give one $250 contribution to a candidate. ``Typically the studios and Lockheed have contributed as much as $5,000 to candidates,'' McConkey said. The council gave tentative approval to the new ordinance Tuesday. It will come back to the council twice before it is up for final approval, McConkey said. Carolyn Jackson, vice chairwoman of the campaign finance committee, said that in reviewing contributions to candidates from 1989 through 1995 committee members were concerned about the large contributions coming in from the local studios and businesses. Jackson said the committee wanted council members and school board members to be able to run ``without selling themselves or hamstringing Hamstringing is a method of crippling a person so he or she cannot walk properly, by cutting the tendons in the back of the leg. A victim of this cannot run, or walk fast, once the hamstring tendons have been cut. themselves.'' Besides the $250 limit on contributions, the new regulations set forth: An election fund-raising fund-raising, large-scale soliciting of voluntary contributions, especially in the United States. Fund-raising is widely undertaken by charitable organizations, educational institutions, and political groups to acquire sufficient funds to support their activities. cycle that runs from six months before the April municipal election and ends the June 30 after the election. Contributors giving more than $50 will have to disclose their name, address, occupation and employer. No candidate can loan himself more than $10,000 during an election cycle. Each candidate will have to file a financing disclosure statement the Friday before the election. Candidates can be prosecuted on misdemeanor misdemeanor, in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony. At common law a misdemeanor was a crime other than treason or a felony. Although it might be a grave offense, it did not affect the feudal bond or take away the offender's property. By the 19th cent. charges for violating the ordinance. |
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