We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for:

Tempe, Arizona

Evansville, Indiana

South Bend, Indiana

Flint, Michigan

North Las Vegas, Nevada

Reno, Nevada

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

The Georgia General Assembly, in special session since August 15, 2011, adjourned on August 31, 2011.

The adjournment comes after reaching agreements concerning legislative redistricting.

Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law blog pointed to a press release today, in which Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that information connecting lobbyists’ activities, their compensation, and expenses with each of their clients would now be provided on the city’s lobbyist disclosure database.

Regarding the new data that is now going to be released, Mayor Emanuel said,

“Today I am delivering on a promise to make more lobbyist data available as part of my administration’s commitment to transparency. For the first time ever, we are making city lobbyist data available online that isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. This new data ties information together in a way that shows the connection between client, lobbyist and city hall.”

This information is available through the City of Chicago Data Portal. The lobbyist databases include the Lobbyist Agency Report, Lobbyist Gift Report, Lobbyist Categorized Expenditures Report, Lobbyist Major Expenditures Report, and Lobbyist Registry.

In fact, it was so fabulous, I sent apologies to all of our previous interns for not spending time with them.

Earlier this summer I told you about Emily Kesler from Northwestern, Cristina Dickos from The Ohio State University, and Zachary Koozer from the University of Akron. They were each hired for a specific job:

Emily assisted Joe May, Social Media Coordinator, to review sites and wrote some excellent posts for our blog.

Cristina worked directly for me to manage my overwhelming American Express bill and to help with many administrative duties. I have to say Cristina was amazing. She was far more professional than four temps we had in that same position over the last 12 months.

Zachary helped Ken Kelewae update our computers in the office to Microsoft 7. He also learned that many of us use our keyboard as a placemat. He cleaned out all of our keyboards.

In addition, they joined me at meetings for the United Way of Summit County Board, Social Services Advisory Board, and the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce. They met Mayor Don Plusquellic at a great event at Firestone Country Club before the Bridgestone Tournament. The Chamber had small group meetings to discuss internships in the city and my team joined the presidents of Akron hospitals, banks, and companies to share their experiences.

They also helped with some local service programs. We worked with Good Samaritans to help distribute food to 150 families. One day this summer, they joined several on staff in the United Way Day of Action cleaning and painting the Edgerton House in Akron.

And, we also had fun. One field trip was to a building where the owner keeps antique cars, many of them used in local parades, in his basement.

Yes, it was a great summer. It was also very financially beneficial to them. Each worked more than 300 hours and received a bonus of $3 for every hour worked. We ended the summer with our annual United Way campaign kickoff lunch and wished them all well when they go to school.

Until next month, think about an internship program at your organization. Give me a call if you have any questions.

A report by state Auditor Thomas Schweich found that the Missouri Ethics Commission is underfunded and understaffed.

The ethics commission was given new responsibilities in 2010, including additional abilities to initiate investigations and enforce new campaign finance laws.

The commission had been seeking seven new employees to address the new responsibilities, but budgetary constraints led to only two new hires.

The auditor’s report suggests raising lobbyist registration fees to increase revenue.

The report notes, “According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Missouri’s current lobbyist registration fee of $10 per year is one of the five lowest registration fees in the nation.”

The Mississippi State Legislature will convene in special session at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September 2, 2011.

Governor Haley Barbour called the special session on Monday in order to consider a state bond issue. Other projects may be undertaken as well, but details about these projects have not yet been released.

The session is expected to last one day.

Photo of the Mississippi State Capitol by Shawn Lea (Szlea) on Wikipedia.

The Borough Council of New Milford, New Jersey has adopted a new pay-to-play ordinance.

Ordinance #2011:17 prohibits any business entity who submits a proposal for, enters into negotiations for, or agrees to any contract or agreement with the borough, from knowingly making any contribution to local candidates, candidate committee or joint candidates committees, PACs, or to holders of public office having ultimate responsibility for the award of a contract or agreement.

Certain threshold amounts apply to this prohibition, such as a maximum of $300 per calendar year for any purpose to any candidate or candidate committee for mayor or a governing body. In order to cure any violations in excess of the limits, a reimbursement of contributions is allowed if made within 30 days. The new ordinance also applies to renewal and material modifications of existing contracts. Prior to the awarding of a contract, vendors will be required to submit sworn statements attesting to compliance with the regulations.

Vendors found in violation could face disqualification from eligibility for future contracts with the Borough for four years from the date of the violation.

Some exceptions to the new ordinance are allowed, including contracts awarded in the case of emergencies

The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission voted unanimously Friday to stop enforcement of a 1992 law aimed at leveling the playing field in state political races. This decision stems from the recent United States Supreme Court decision concerning the state of Arizona where a similar law was deemed unconstitutional.

Under Nebraska’s law, candidates could qualify for “fair fight” money from the state if they adhered to voluntary spending limits and their opponent had exceeded such limits.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who had recently opined the law would be found unconstitutional if challenged in court, will have 10 days to file suit once the Commission officially notifies his office of the refusal to enforce the law, as is required in Nebraska any time a state agency refuses to enforce a law.

Photo of the Nebraska State Capitol by Decumanus on Wikipedia.

The Fair Political Practices Commission will hold an interested persons’ meeting on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the proposed text message contribution regulation.  The commission has also issued a notice to adopt the text message regulation at a public hearing to be held on or after October 13, 2011.

The proposed regulation permits candidates and committees to raise funds through low-dollar text message contributions. For the purposes of the regulation, contributions are deemed to be received on the date that a mobile fundraising vendor, acting as an agent of the candidate or committee, obtains possession and control of the funds. Once received by the mobile fundraising vendor, contributions must be promptly reported to the candidate or committee’s treasurer or a designated agent thereof no later than the closing date of any campaign statement the candidate or committee is required to file.

For text message contributions of less than $25, candidates and committees will be required to maintain the dates and daily totals of contributions. For contributions exceeding $25 but less than $100, the proposed regulation requires that candidates and committees record the full name and street address of the contributor, the cumulative amount received from each contribution, and any information regarding an intermediary where applicable. When a contribution exceeding $100 is received, the regulation requires that the candidate or committee maintain a record of the contributor’s name and address, occupation, employer, the cumulative amount received from the contributor, and any information regarding an intermediary where applicable.

Under the proposed regulation, a contribution made by text message will be attributed to the person who is subscribed to the cell phone number from which the contribution is received.

On Ohio.com, the Associated Press report that Ohio Republican state Rep. Marlene Anielski of Cleveland is beginning a contest she named “There Ought to Be a Law” where constituents from her district will be competing for a free lunch provided by none other than Rep. Anielski.

Participants will enter their proposals for possible legislation by September 30th, and whoever provides the proposal Rep. Anielski deems the best will get a free lunch, as well as the satisfaction of their proposal possibly being drafted into a bill.

Read the press release here.

While social media has offered a new medium for constituents to interact with their legislators, it is very rare to receive a detailed, satisfying response from their representatives.

OpenCongress.org added a new feature to their website about a month ago that allows users to send letters to their representatives. While it is definitely not guaranteed that you will receive a response, a blog post by Donny Shaw shows 9 examples of the 1,500+ letter submissions made on the new feature, 2 of which received responses.

While this does not prove that this platform is the key to easy communication between the public and their representatives, it is yet another step taken in response to the Open Government Initiative that is making interaction between every day citizens and law-makers a possibility.

To learn more about this new feature, read “In Search of a Citizen-Congress Feedback Loop” on TechPresident.com

National:

National Organization for Marriage Repeatedly Rebuked For Disclosure Violations

Federal:

Super Committee and K St. Creativity

From the States and Municipalities:

California

California Lawmakers-Turned-Lobbyists Cultivate Relationships under the Dome

Florida

Firefighters’ Fundraiser Gets Ethics OK, with Difficult Restrictions

Georgia

State Utility Commissioner’s Pursuit of Masters Tickets Improper, Critics Say

Nebraska

In-Session Fundraisers Questioned

Nevada

Fake Twitter Accounts Force Their Way onto Political Landscape

New Jersey

How an Irate Response to a Carl Lewis E-Mail Cost an N.J. Assemblyman His Job

New Jersey

Union Sidestep Donation Limits

Pennsylvania

Experts Question Use of $400,000 in Private, Anonymous Funds to Buy out Philadelphia Superintendent

Texas

Perry’s Fundraising for Governors Group Draws Scrutiny

Washington

Longtime Government Worker Now PDC Director

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

Disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that U.S. House and Senate candidates set a new record in campaign fundraising for the first half of 2011. The total was more than $285 million dollars.

Here is the Federal Election Commission’s news release from August 24. The FEC also has great interactive campaign finance maps for both Presidential Campaigns as well as House and Senate Elections. The maps offer campaign finance information down to the zip code level for the current and previous election cycles.

You can read Emily Goodin’s story “House and Senate candidates raise $285.2 million in first half of 2011” from The Hill.

Alex Knott offers “Election Fundraising Sets Records in First Half of 2011” in Roll Call.

A new 311 smart phone app for Salt Lake City, Utah allows a citizen to take a geo-coded picture with his or her smartphone and enter more detailed information about the problem. In response to the citizen’s entry, a real-time case is created that’s sent directly to the staff person who will handle the situation.

According to this article on GovTech, the app called Salt Lake City 311 transmits the request to the city’s GIS database, which then provides an address match for the city responder to answer the notification personally, with no middleman in between.

This app streamlines the process of fieldworkers responding to calls, as well as creating a convenient and easy way for everyday citizens to report problems.

This kind of 311 app is something that is likely to be seen in many other municipalities across the nation in the near future.