A coalition of business groups have filed a lawsuit against the Fair Political Practices Commission, seeking to stop enforcement of new pay-to-play restrictions in Senate Bill 1439.

The new law removed the exception for locally elected officials and extended the restricted period from three to 12 months.

The lawsuit seeks to throw out the new law, claiming the bill is unconstitutional, both in the manner it altered the Political Reform Act and in practice.

Plaintiffs allege Senate Bill 1439 does not further the original purpose of the Political Reform Act, but directly conflicts with the original provisions regulating certain financial conflicts of interest of public officials.

Additionally, the plaintiffs claim the bill is unconstitutional on freedom of speech grounds, stating the bill significantly restricts the making and receiving of campaign contributions to local elected officials throughout the state.

No trial date has been set at this time.

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to amend the city’s gift ordinance.

The new law struck the city’s exceptions for allowable gifts and incorporated the exceptions for allowable gifts under the state’s Political Reform Act while maintaining a $50 gift limit.

Under the new ordinance, tickets to certain events are no longer considered an exception to the gift rule. Instead, San Jose will follow a framework similar to the Political Reform Act.

San Jose will consider tickets to civic, cultural, or community functions as permissible gifts, so long as they do not exceed the $50 limit.

The ordinance is effective on December 8, 2017.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 867 into law, recasting various provisions of the Political Reform Act regarding the definition of the term contribution.

The law moves the behested payment reporting requirements out of the definition of contribution, and instead places those requirements in the part of the campaign disclosure sections of the act.

Additionally, the law provides specific definitions for terms related to behested payments and the reporting of such payments.  The law is effective January 1, 2018.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed four bills into law – three amending the Political Reform Act and one amending post employment restrictions.

Assembly Bill 867 states behested payments are not contributions and recasts the provisions defining the term “contribution.”

Senate Bill 45 prohibits sending mass mailings within the 60 days before an election by or on behalf of a candidate on the ballot.

Senate Bill 226 requires slate mailer organizations to disclose on any mailing whether the organization represents public safety personnel.

Assembly Bill 1620 extends the time frame a member of the Legislature can lobby after resignation from one year after leaving office to one year after the adjournment sine die of the session in which the resignation occurred.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 249 on October 7, which amends the Political Reform Act.

The bill requires campaign advertisements to identify the name of the committee paying for the advertisement, as well as clearly displaying the top three contributors to that committee.

The bill also expands disclosure requirements for mass electronic mailings and telephone calls. The bill is effective immediately.

San Jose City Council approved an ordinance amending the definition of “committee” to increase the qualifying threshold for the receipt of contributions from $1,000 to $2,000 to be consistent with the Political Reform Act. The ordinance will go into effect July 28, 2016.