Thursday, August 18, 2011
All Eight Ogden Mayoral Candidates to Participate in August 24 Forum
Monday, August 15, 2011
Ogden Candidates Weigh in on Ethics
- Accepting contributions from political action committees only if they are in compliance with all laws and are not being used to circumvent contribution limits or disclosure requirements;
- Not accepting contributions made indirectly through third parties;
- Not encouraging others to make independent expenditures, bypassing their campaign treasury, on their behalf or in opposition to any opponent.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Eleven years of Ogden City Council minutes now online
The archive dates from January 2000 through early 2011, and is organized chronologically. It includes minutes of all public city council meetings including work sessions, study sessions, and meetings where the council was acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board or Municipal Building Authority. Only closed executive sessions are omitted.
Although the Ogden Ethics Project web site does not have custom search capability, the archive has been indexed by Google and will presumably be indexed by other major search engines in the near future. Thus, the public can now look up city council actions and discussions on any topic of interest over the last eleven years.
Minutes of selected city council meetings since 2008 can also be found on the Ogden City web site. However, the collection posted there is incomplete and its content is not accessible to search engines.
The Ogden Ethics Project would like to thank the Ogden City Recorder’s office for providing the electronic files that make up the newly posted archive.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Candidates asked to accept voluntary campaign finance limitations
This new press release describes our latest initiative...
ETHICS GROUP ASKS CANDIDATES TO ADOPT VOLUNTARY CAMPAIGN FINANCE LIMITATIONS
The Ogden Ethics Project, a nonpartisan organization formed in May, is asking all Ogden City municipal election candidates to adopt a set of voluntary campaign contribution limitations.
The limitations will close loopholes in Ogden’s existing campaign finance disclosure law, ensure that voters know the sources of candidates’ funds, and encourage all candidates to represent a broad spectrum of citizens rather than just a few special interests. By city ordinance, campaign contributions are already limited to $5000 for mayoral candidates and $1500 for city council candidates.
In brief, the voluntary limitations would:
- Prohibit campaign contributions from corporations, business entities, and unions;
- Allow contributions from registered political action committees, but only if they are not being used to circumvent contribution limits or disclosure requirements;
- Prohibit contributions that are made indirectly, through third parties;
- Prohibit any coordination between a candidate’s campaign and anyone making independent political expenditures that bypass the campaign treasury;
- Require individuals contributing $250 or more to report their employers’ names.
Restrictions such as these are already mandated in many states and at the federal level. The Ogden Ethics Project is asking candidates to voluntarily accept these limitations only if their opponents also agree to do so.
In past elections, contributions from business interests have dominated some of Ogden’s campaigns, and several candidates have accepted contributions from organizations that were used to avoid contribution limits and disclosure requirements.
The checklist of voluntary campaign contribution restrictions is being mailed today to all known candidates for mayor and city council, and will be mailed to newly declared candidates soon after they register with the city. The checklist can also be downloaded from http://ogdenethics.org/resources.html.
After all candidates have had an opportunity to respond, a summary of their responses will be posted at http://ogdenethics.org.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Conflict of interest laws in Utah, Nevada, and the Supreme Court
- Require elected officials and appropriate employees to disclose all ownership of, or financial interest in, real property in Weber County, as well as any financial interest in companies doing business in Weber County.
- Establish a process whereby the city council can investigate allegations of conflict of interest involving the mayor.
- Post all conflict of interest disclosure statements on the city’s web site.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Gondola records lawsuit shows policy reforms needed
- Broaden the representation on the city’s Records Review Board to include citizen and media advocates—not just government insiders.
- Allow denied GRAMA requests to be appealed to the State Records Committee.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Can corporate campaign contributions be banned?
- These entities don’t contribute out of mere generosity or public spirit. As organizations they expect something tangible in return for their contributions, and that makes their contributions hard to distinguish from bribes.
- Contributors can use business entities to avoid disclosing their names or to evade contribution limits, either contributing through entities that they already control or setting up sham entities that merely launder contributions for this purpose.