The city of Portland adopted new and amended Auditor Administrative Rules (ARAs) following a public comment period.

The administrative rule changes are a result of previous litigation and court cases; a need for updating certain dollar amounts to comply with the City Charter’s inflation updates; and from a year of experience implementing the relatively new regulations.

The changes add guidance for social media communications and provide guidance on when and what information may be required in political campaign disclosures.

The New York City Council passed legislation establishing a Charter Revision Commission (Commission) to draft a new or revised City Charter in April 2018.

On September 4, the Commission approved three ballot questions to be approved by voters in November.

One ballot measure would reduce contribution limits for all candidates and amend public matching funds for candidates participating in the public financing program.

The other ballot measures involve civic engagement and community boards.

New York City voters supported, by a vote of 83 percent to 17 percent with 87 percent of precincts reporting, a referendum item which called for several changes to the city charter.  The changes include requiring disclosure of campaign contributions by independent groups and raising the maximum fine for violating conflicts of interest law.  Currently, people and organizations that spend money independently of any candidate to support or oppose political candidates or to influence votes in a referendum are not required to report those expenditures publicly.

The new voter approved law requires any individual or group that spends $1,000 or more to support or oppose a candidate or referendum to disclose the expenditure to the city’s Campaign Finance Board and include in any literature the name of any individual or organization that paid for it.  The law also requires any group spending $5,000 or more to support or oppose a candidate to disclose any organizations that made contributions to that group and any individual who contributed $1,000 or more during the 12-month period preceding the election.

Photo of the New York City Municipal Building by Momos on Wikipedia.

City council now has 90 days to pass a new ordinance which will implement the charter amendment language. Campaign finance contribution limits will increase to $200 for ward candidates and $450 for city-wide candidates. It is anticipated the new legislation will require council to review, and if necessary, amend, the city’s campaign finance legislation every two years beginning in 2012.

A provision is also expected to be made which will allow for public comment on any proposed changes to the city’s campaign finance rules. Finally, the legislation is expected to remove the city’s campaign finance language from the city charter itself. Going forward, campaign finance regulations will be authorized by ordinance.