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Adjust Municipal Campaign Contributions and Disclosure Limits as Required by Ordinance.
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Staff:
Department:
Roger L. Stancil
Town Manager
Ralph D. Karpinos
Town Attorney
Overview: The Town established campaign contribution limits in 1999 pursuant to special legislation enacted by the General Assembly. Chapter 2, Article IV, of the Town Code of Ordinances limits the amount of money that an individual or a political committee can contribute to a Mayor or Town Council candidate's campaign. The Ordinance also establishes a maximum contribution that can be made without disclosing the contributor's name in municipal campaign reports. Ordinance Section 2-73 requires that these amounts be adjusted during even-numbered years and provides criteria for making these adjustments based on the number of Town of Chapel Hill registered voters and changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since January 1st of the prior even-numbered year. The adjustments proposed for tonight, if enacted, will apply to the 2019 municipal campaigns.
Recommendation(s):
That the Council enact the attached ordinance to increase the municipal campaign maximum contribution to $361.00 and the contribution disclosure exemption to $37.00 as required by ordinance.
Background:
* In 2017, the maximum amount that an individual or political committee could donate to a municipal candidate's campaign was $353.00 and the names of contributors donating $36.00 or less were exempt from disclosure in campaign reports.
* The 2017 amounts were established on October 26, 2016 using the criteria that were in place at that time.
* On February 27, 2017, the Council made a technical correction to the ordinance to eliminate language that had resulted in increases greater than those which otherwise would have occurred had calculations used only the changes to the CPI since the previous adjustment.
* Staff of the Town Attorney's Office and Business Management Department collaborated to incorporate the adjustm...
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