City Council OKs Pay-to-Play Ordinance After Residents Back Mandate

Erika Key said she wanted to take a more active role in creating a "positive" change for Newark. So, when the West Ward resident heard about Citizens' Campaign's pay-to-play ordinance in 2009, she jumped on the opportunity to be the voice of the people.

Two years later, the Newark City Council heard her voice: The nine-member body unanimously OK'd the pay-to-play ordinance May 4, which significantly limits political contributions by developers seeking redevelopment contracts.

"It gives me hope because this means something can change ... and we can have outcomes across the board as a community," she said.

The ordinance, sponsored by West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice, will limit developers of city redevelopment projects to political contributions of $300 per individual and will cap total contributions of all individuals from a firm or its commitments to no more than $3,000 during a four-year election cycle.

Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker signed the ordinance into law May 10.

"We're the 'Sopranos' state for a lot of local governments," said Rice. "It's an attempt at the local level to really clean up government and take out bad money that influences politics."

Rice said a similar ordinance was introduced in 2006, but was voted down that year.

"When you look back at folks who have been mayor and city council members, you see people who have gone to jail and they've been associated with redevelopers," he said. "They can still give, but the days of them having unmitigated gifts have now been curtailed."

Heather Taylor is the communications director for Citizens' Campaign, a non-partisan, statewide group created to empower citizens to take leadership roles in communities. She said her organization's legal task force first drafted the pay-to-play ordinance in 2005, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court case of Kelo v. New London, which gives states and local governments discretion in condemning properties through eminent domain.

Citizens' Campaign then offered it to Newark citizens to propose to city council. That's when Key, who is a working single mom, took action. 

"I just decided to be more politically engaged and a part of the process," she said.

Rice, whose re-election campaign included the promise of passing the pay-to-play ordinance, said the ordinance will make sure redevelopment deals are done right.

"I think it's critical for the economics of the city that redevelopment deals are passed on what's good for the residents," he said. "We have to make a statement that we want to do business in the city and that the mayor's office and the city council are not for sale."

Key said the residents of Newark are grateful for the ordinance.

"As a community, we have to get to the basics to know we're all in this together," she said. "It gives me hope we're going in the right direction."