On July 28, 2011 the Chicago City Council passed a new ethics reform ordinance. The ordinance is part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to provide more government transparency.

The new ordinance includes five key provisions. First, it creates a searchable online system for lobbyist registration and reporting. Second, it adds the term “lobbyist” to the group of people subject to the $50 gift restriction per single non-cash gift and $100 aggregated gift limit per each calendar year. Third, the new ordinance prohibits city employees, officials, or their businesses from applying for or receiving loans from lobbyists.

Fourth, the ordinance amends the semi-annual lobbyist activity report form to require lobbyists to disclose all campaign contributions to city elected officials and city employees running for office. Lastly, the ordinance codifies the revolving door provision created by Mayor Emanuel’s May 16, 2011 executive order.

Photo of the Chicago River by Robert S. Donovan on Wikipedia.

Twitter “Office Hours” is the newest addition to the White House’s recent utilization of social media in order to connect to the public.

Similar to President Obama’s Twitter town hall, participants can ask a question by including the hashtag #WHChat with their tweets. Replies to questions will come from the @whitehouse Twitter account.

The first of 6 planned sessions was Tuesday, July 26 at 5 PM EDT. After each session, the White House will post a “transcript” of the chat on its blog.

As could be expected, most questions asked were relating to the budget and raising the debt ceiling.

Read the full article titled “White House staff holds Twitter ‘Office Hours’” on NextGov.com.

U.S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo has sent a letter to President Obama in support of a proposed executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political expenditures. The letter was signed by more than sixty members of the House.

In part the letter reads, “[D]isclosure will not politicize the procurement process–it will improve it. Political expenditures are already well-known to those that make them and to the officials who benefit. With disclosure, the public will have access to this information as well, allowing them to judge whether contracts were awarded based on merit.”

The proposed executive order has received both support and opposition since its leak in the spring, and even sparked a house committee hearing in May.

For previous articles on Lobby Comply by George Ticoras on this topic, you can read posts from June 1, May 20, May 12, and May 10.

The office of the Secretary of State has released an amended version of the Rules Concerning Campaign and Political Finance, 8 CCR 1505-6.

Rule 5.13 now requires reports of contributions and expenditures to be filed on a monthly basis leading up to the state’s primary election in June and continuing until reports are required to be filed on a biweekly basis beginning in September.

The rule was necessitated by the enactment of Senate Bill 11-189, which changed the date of the state’s primary from August to June. Thus, the requirement to begin filing biweekly reports in July prior to the now vacated primary election date in August was rendered infeasible.

We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for Gilbert, Arizona; Savannah, Georgia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Springfield, Missouri; and Syracuse, New York on our website.

The image of North America by Bosonic dressing on Wikipedia.

The Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to convene in special session on Monday, August 15, 2011.

The primary topic of discussion is to be redistricting.

Photo of the Georgia State Capitol dome by Connor.carey on Wikipedia.

West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has called a special legislative session.

It will begin at noon on August 1, 2011.

Here is the press release on the Office of the Governor website and a link to the West Virginia Legislature website.

Amendments to the Los Angeles County campaign finance laws are expected to be introduced at the July 26, 2011 meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The current campaign finance ordinance prohibits PACs and political parties from making contributions to county candidates and prohibits inter- and intra-candidate transfers of funds.

The proposed campaign finance amendments would increase individual campaign contribution limits as well as permit contributions from PACs and political parties.

Under the proposed amendments, inter-candidate transfers would be treated as individual contributions.

Intra-candidate transfers between a prior and current campaign account would be permissible and subject to regulatory measures.

The Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene the recessed special session on Friday, July 29, 2011.

The session is scheduled to take up the issue of judicial vacancies in the state.

Photo of the Virginia State Capitol by Amadeust on Wikipedia.

Attorneys for the Indiana Election Division have opined that a proposed local ban on political contributions from city contractors violates state law.

The proposed Fort Wayne, Indiana ordinance prohibits companies, including subcontractors and family members, from doing business with the city if political donations were made to candidates or officials during the previous year. If a violation were not remedied by having the contributions returned, the company would be banned for three years from contracting with the city.

As quoted by The Journal Gazette, the authors of the opinion, Dale Simmons and Leslie Barnes, co-counsels at the Indiana Election Division, write “We believe the proposed ordinance unlawfully attempts to exercise the ‘power to conduct elections,’ which is a power expressly withheld from municipalities by the General Assembly. If this were not so, it would be easy to anticipate the confusion wrought in the administration of elections by numerous and conflicting local campaign finance regulations.”

The campaign finance practices of Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee have come under fire as his campaign has asked supporters of his past congressional campaigns to roll their donations forward to his current campaign, regardless of contribution limits.

Inslee could then ask those donors for additional money that would be subject to the state’s campaign finance limits for the 2012 election cycle.

Republican candidate Rob McKenna’s campaign, characterized the money as “illegal.”

The Washington Public Disclosure Commission staff has stated that Inslee’s interpretations of campaign finance regulations are correct.

McKenna’s campaign pointed to federal election documents that show Inslee never declared the cash as surplus money, meaning it cannot be transferred, and also questioned whether a federal candidate could ever move money to a state campaign because the cash was raised under different election rules.

Amid declining web traffic and engagement, Cuyahoga County Council has turned to social media as a way to better engage its constituents.

Today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer features “Cuyahoga County Council streams meetings, turns to social media” by Harlan Spector. The article reveals that the Cuyahoga County Council is now on Facebook, has a Twitter account, and offers live video streaming of council meetings.

I also found a county government YouTube channel and separate Facebook.

The Congressional Management Foundation has released a new report about the use of social media on Capitol Hill.

The 16-page document says congressional offices are using social media as a way to monitor public opinion, as a tool to get the word out about lawmakers’ messages and activities, and as another way to communicate with constituents.

The study says younger staffers see more value in the use of social media than older staffers.

You can read the Congressional Management Foundation’s article, “Social Media Used Extensively by Congress,” which was posted today. Here is the pdf of the report.

Ginny Looney, the Ethics Officer for the city of Atlanta Ethics Office, has announced she will be leaving the position in order to work as a clerk for the Georgia Supreme Court.

Looney, who was the first appointee to the position in 2003, made the announcement at the most recent Atlanta City Council meeting.

Among her accomplishments during her time holding the position, Looney developed the city’s electronic disclosure system, helped to craft city ethics laws, and established the city’s 24/7 ethics hotline.

Looney’s final day is set to be September 30, 2011.

Photo of the Atlanta City Hall doors by Jeff Clemmons on Wikipedia.