Turlock passes voluntary Tin Cup reforms

A measure to keep city campaigns clean, civil and transparent passed in a split vote by the Turlock City Council after mandatory limits sought by political veterans failed to garner the votes.

Measure sponsors Mayor Gary Soiseth and Councilman Bill DeHart immediately set up a table in the City Council chambers and signed the voluntary pledges during a planned break in the meeting. Councilwoman Amy Bublak, who cast the pivotal third vote via speakerphone, said she would sign the so-called Tin Cup (Time Is Now, Clean Up Politics) ordinance when she returned.

Councilmen Matthew Jacob and Steven Nascimento voted against the pledge, but both said they would sign it. Jacob said he wanted to incorporate elements of the rejected proposal, such as considering the $1,000 individual donation limit to include funding from companies controlled by the same person.

“I see pieces of both we can blend together,” Jacob said before the vote, calling the ordinance’s requirement to list major donors to council members on every meeting agenda “overkill.”

Nascimento backed the competing proposal brought forward by former Mayor Brad Bates and City Council members Mary Jackson and Ron Hillberg. That nine-page measure had mandatory individual campaign contribution limits of $1,000 for council member races and $2,000 for the citywide mayor’s race. It used a percentage of ownership to figure in contributions by an individual’s companies, but would not have consolidated donations of relatives or union members.

Nascimento signed the pledge Wednesday morning. He and Bublak are the only council members up for re-election. Both residents of northeast Turlock, they are expected to run against each other and Donald Babadalir in the city’s first district elections in November. Babadalir did not immediately return Modesto Bee emails seeking comment.

The filing period opens July 18 for the November election that will decide two seats on the council. Gil Esquer and Jaime Franco are the only other candidates to have filed early interest papers in the race. They will vie for the west side district seat where no incumbent lives.

After the meeting, Esquer said he agreed with Jacob that a melding of the two proposals would have been better.

“I was in the middle. I thought they were kind of rushing through,” he said, adding he would probably sign the voluntary pledge.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Franco said he had not heard about the pledge, but after hearing its provisions said he agreed with the message.

“We should have a mutual respect. It shouldn’t be a negative campaign. Let the people decide,” he said. “In all honesty, I have to say we all need money (to run),” he added, “But it should be more about voting and not about money and economic benefit. We’re supposed to be a public service.”

The campaign finance reform measure passed was one of four up for discussion Tuesday. The first two focused on disqualifying sitting council members from voting on issues that might benefit their major donors, modeled after the city of Modesto ordinance. City attorney Phaedra Norton said such limitations could be found to violate the First Amendment rights of donors.

That left two competing proposals, the mandatory limits measure, backed by Nascimento, Bates, Jackson and Hillberg, and the ultimately successful ordinance of voluntary limits proposed by Soiseth and DeHart.

In an at-times personal and passionate debate, Turlock’s former city leaders pointed with fury to the 2008 council election, tainted by $25,000 donations and dirty tricks. Jackson held onto her seat in that election, but felt attacked by negative ads and a phony “robo call” pretending to be from her.

“We’ve had some rather staggering contributions over the last decade and we don’t need them,” said Hillberg, adding that his father, Carl Hillberg, was elected to eight terms as city treasurer “and never spent a penny.” Now 93, the retired city official took a dim view of the mayor’s measure, Ron Hillberg said, calling it unenforceable.

“Somebody could play so many games with this. It’s crazy,” he said.

Nascimento said the simple by-person $1,000 figure of the voluntary pledge failed to account for wealthy individuals who could disguise donations through their companies, calling it “a fatal flaw.”

Soiseth countered, saying percentage ownership can be difficult to assess for each donation.

“There’s no way you can figure that out. That’s where it trips individuals up who are trying to do the right thing, trying to be on the up and up,” he said.

DeHart said the proposal worked out with Soiseth came out of four sparsely attended meetings around campaign finance reform held in June, one in each of the city voting districts. Residents who spoke at the meetings wanted clean elections and an ethical government, “and this was birthed out of that reality,” he said, adding that they made it voluntary to limit legal challenges.

“They want candidates that hold themselves accountable,” DeHart said, adding that he had concerns about the complexities of the competing proposal for mandated limits. “For new people to face layer upon layer of legal terms, that’s of concern to me. Let’s keep it simple,” he said.

The push to adopt campaign finance reform follows a controversy over two farmers markets that both wanted to operate on Main Street on Saturday mornings. Charges of conflict of interest were leveled at Soiseth during the months-long battle, though he had received contributions from both sides of the issue.

All council members counted donors among the extended family of the eventual winner, a for-profit company. Had a Modesto-style ordinance been in place, it is not clear who could have voted on the topic. The longtime operator, a community nonprofit, moved to a shadier spot at the Turlock Fairgrounds.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Turlock passes voluntary Tin Cup reforms."