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March 07, 2007
Sweet Revenge
|
| At Tuesday night's City Council meeting
the Council asked the City Attorney to provide an opinion on a change
in annual allocations of discretionary general funds. No timetable was placed on the attorney's
response. The possible change would prevent discretionary
funds from going to any organization that took part in political
speech. By the way, political speech is also known as "free speech"(even
though it is often associated with money). These funds are typically doled out annually to a couple of dozen local non-profit organizations which include CARD, DCBA, Chamber of Commerce, Chico Cat Coalition, and a slew of others (here is a May '06 post on last year's spending). This was pretty funny to watch because although nobody would say it outright, this had the appearance of "pay-back" for the Chico Chamber of Commerce (who endorsed only conservative candidates in the last election). Councilor Steve Bertagna asked who the policy was directed at, and none of the other councilors wanted to give a specific example. I posted in December the fact that the firefighters union takes general fund money and supports a PAC that engages in political speech. The police union does the same. I also posted that the Chico Chamber raises private funds for its PAC (it does not use city funds). The Chamber also submits to audits to ensure general funds are not used for political purposes. With no complaints or examples of wrong-doing, and with other organizations supporting PACs while accepting City money, this looks to be a political pot-shot. |
| Even if a new policy is
enacted it won't work. The Chamber received $122,000 from the City for
'06-'07 (this is much more
than the private money its PAC raised). If a rule change occurs the Chamber
should just close doors on its PAC and continue to receive City money.
And then members of the Chamber should form a new PAC called the "Chico
Chamber of Businesses PAC". They could adopt a cool moniker like "The
Chamber" or "The Chico Chamber" for advertisements. The City Council should not try to control private money raised and spent on private political free speech. They look vindictive when they do, and it won't prevent people from supporting candidates that they identify with. |
Posted by Lon at March 7, 2007 12:00 AM