Council Hot Over Ethics Program

The Gilroy City Council took on a number of issues during , including a funding request for phase two of the High Speed Rail (HSR) and a vote to continue public hearings regarding delinquent property liens.

The council sailed through most of the meeting, approving the request for HSR funding unanimously, as well as continuing lien hearings.

Things turned heated, however, when the council took up their first item of unfinished business, a recommendation by the Open Government Commission  for an .

Among their recommendations, the commission asked for full disclosure of all campaign finance contributions of any amount. The commission also asked for a 10 cent increase to the existing expenditure ceiling, which would add a $5,000 increase to what can be spent in a campaign per candidate, or about 60 cents per resident.

When the issue was opened to the public, Paul Kloecker, a former city council member and prospective 2012 council candidate, spoke against the commission’s recommendations.

“I have several concerns regarding the proposed changes to this ordinance,” Kloecker said. “But the primary one is the one affecting the donations of less than $100.”

Currently, personal information, such as the name, address and telephone number, of individuals who wish to donate less than $99 to a candidate don’t need to be listed. However, under the commission’s recommendation, donors of any amount would have to be disclosed.

Kloecker said he’s spoken to about 30 people regarding the changes. The primary issue they raise, he said, is that the disclosure of campaign donors’ information is a matter of personal privacy.

Mayor Al Pinheiro opened the council discussion by addressing the claims council member Perry Woodward said in The Gilroy Dispatch.

Woodward reportedly told the Dispatch that the commission, on which Pinheiro and council members Dion Bracco and Peter Leroe-Munoz sit, wants to raise local campaign expenditures to assist in council member Bracco’s bid for mayor in 2012.

“When I see one of our own in the newspaper, pointing fingers to a commission, I take that to heart,” Pinheiro said. “I don’t believe that any of us would stoop so low as to start making rules, regulations or recommendations to this body in order to help another council member become elected.”

“I think it questions the integrity of not only myself, but of my two council members, that we would ever do such a thing,” he continued. “I really take offense when one of our own points fingers to where we’re doing something unethical.”

He ended by admonishing Woodward that unless he had proof that the commission brought the changes forward to help Bracco win in 2012, that Woodward needed to apologize before the council.

Woodward, who smiled through most of Pinheiro’s statements, countered by asking what raising the spending limit by $5,000 has to do with open government.

“You bring up things to the Open Government Commission that have nothing to do with open government, eight months before an election—where you’re supporting my opposition. I see politics in that,” said Woodward, who has announced his intention to run for mayor.

Pinheiro reiterated that his issue is with Woodward’s statements regarding the commission, not his stance on open government.

He and Woodward duked it out for several minutes, prompting council member Bob Dillon to ask for a 10-minute recess to allow the two to step outside and argue, although no recess was taken.

The council voted on the various aspects of the Election Focused Ethics Program as follows:

• 4-3 in favor of fully disclosing any campaign donation amount.
• 4-3 in favor of requiring one additional pre-election campaign filling. Candidates would have to disclose campaign donations and expenditures up to one week before election day. 
• 3-4 against raising the expenditure ceiling to 60 cents per resident. 
• 7-0 to hear additional enforcement measures at a later date. 
• 4-3 to take no action on the commission‘s additional recommendations to hold an election-eve candidates forum, to send out two direct-mailing pieces to registered voters’ households, to provide consistent outreach on the Gilroy Election Ethic Program, and bring in a college intern in the summer of 2012 to assist with outreach.

Other highlights from the meeting include:

• In the same motion that approved the HSR funding request, the council approved a five-year extension contract between the City of Gilroy and the (CMAP).
• The council carried a motion 7-0 to reauthorize the $100,000 State Law Enforcement Block Grant for various projects and programs brought forward by the . 
• The council will take up the issue of decommissioning the Gilroy Police Department’s surplus firearms during their second January session, according to City Clerk Shawna Freels.