Task Force to Probe City Campaign Laws

By LANIE JONES

March 5, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

By a 7-0 vote Monday, the San Diego City Council set in motion a sweeping examination of city campaign laws.

The council approved an 18-member task force--a mix of lawyers, lobbyists and political fund-raisers as well as the local director of Common Cause--to meet in the next two weeks, produce a first report in 60 days and write a final report recommending campaign reforms by November or December.

Councilman William Jones, who proposed the task force in December, said he wanted the fact-finding group to suggest ways to close campaign loopholes.

“I do not believe that campaign financing is the most important issue to the average citizen,” he said after the meeting. “But if we have questions raised about candidates or about committees that sponsor causes, that does not do much to strengthen public confidence in the system.”

Representatives of Common Cause contend that existing laws are poorly enforced, as too many candidates fail to disclose their contributors and city attorneys frequently ignore violations.

Other critics, Jones among them, argue that current laws unfairly favor rich candidates over poor ones.

In the 1983 and 1984 mayoral elections, for instance, lawyer Roger Hedgecock faced millionaire opponents who legally poured millions of dollars in family money into their campaigns. Hedgecock, who is not independently wealthy, was limited under city law to receiving a maximum of $250 per person from contributors.

Although Hedgecock won both elections, he faces felony charges for allegedly funneling tens of thousands of dollars--much of it from the now-bankrupt financial empire of J. David (Jerry) Dominelli--into his 1983 mayoral race.

Hedgecock’s situation was not discussed at Monday’s council meeting and he abstained from voting. (Councilman Bill Cleator was absent from the session.)

Named as chairman of the new task force was Mark Nelson, the 29-year-old executive director of the San Diego Taxpayers Assn., a private government watchdog group.

“I don’t believe the taxpayers association has an ax to grind,” Jones said as he urged Nelson’s appointment.

In a brief interview after the vote, Nelson said this was the largest public role he had held in his five years at the taxpayers’ association. (A San Diegan, he has an undergraduate degree in history from UC San Diego and a masters in public administration from San Diego State University.)

Nelson said the task force would look first at enforcement mechanisms for the city law, including how the city clerk, city attorney and San Diego County district attorney’s office handle campaign violations. That investigation will be part of the task force’s first report, Nelson said.

Next, the group would look at campaign ordinances that other cities have drafted. Finally, Nelson said, the group would take on a broad investigation into enforcement mechanisms, campaign contribution limits, even “responsibility for campaign signs.”

“It’s going to be a big job. It certainly is a major public policy issue that deserves to be reviewed,” Nelson said.

Nelson also said he was interested in investigating Common Cause’s complaints about lack of enforcement of campaign laws. And though he planned to look closely at the city’s $250 limit, “I’ve not perceived any bias toward raising the limit.”

Asked if he had ever observed campaign abuses, Nelson said he had had little personal experience with campaigns other than “putting pins on a map” and doing other small chores as an intern working in then-Supervisor Jim Bates’ 1978 reelection campaign.

Still, Nelson said, he was aware that some employees were asked to give to a political campaign and were subsequently reimbursed by their employer. “I would agree that’s not full disclosure because their boss tells them that’s the thing to do,” he said.

He said that one of his hardest jobs will be to assemble all 18 task force members for their first meeting.

The council’s main job Monday, as it created the task force, was to approve the names of its members. When several council members nominated five additional candidate to Jones’ initial group of 13, Councilman Mike Gotch suggested the council avoid haggling and simply accept all of them.

“It may be unwieldy,” Gotch argued, but getting the new task force going was “more important than getting a magical number” of people named to the group.

The council then unanimously approved the task force, including the additional names.

The committee--with members from strongly opposing points of view--should create a situation of “very intense debate and a very serious fact-finding mission by men and women who have some civic interest,” Jones said.

The committee includes such politically active San Diegans as Nancy MacHutchin, Hedgecock’s chief fund-raiser; attorney Terry Knoepp, who helped write the city’s campaign ordinance; lobbyist Bud Porter, and Mark Zerbe, a strong critic of current campaign practices who is the local coordinator of Common Cause.

Zerbe announced several months ago that he would not serve on the task force because its membership was tainted with so many political consultants. However, his name was on the final list the council approved Monday and Zerbe said, “I’ll stay on as long as the task force is moving in the right direction--representing the public and reforming the city’s election laws rather than tearing them apart.”

The council last conducted a major reviewed of election laws in about 1973, after the Yellow Cab scandal in which councilmen and the mayor were accused of accepting bribes.

The current ordinance was approved in 1975. It sets a $250 limit on contributions. Under the law, those contributions must be from individuals, not labor unions, political action committees or corporations. The city election codes were scrutinized again in 1981 but no changes were made.

Task Force Members

Chairman Mark Nelson, left, executive director, San Diego Taxpayers Assn.

Frank DeVore, businessman

Joe Francis, executive director, San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council

Greg Garrett, attorney

Victor Iopollo, retired insurance executive

Caryl Iseman, real estate broker

Terry Knoepp, attorney

James Leahy, professor, California Western University School of Law

John Leppert, board member, San Diego Chamber of Commerce

Nancy MacHutchin, fund-raiser

Bob Miller Sr., Miller, Roos/Guerrero & Co. accounting firm