OXNARD : Plan to Ban Votes on Contributors Fails

After 45 minutes of debate Tuesday, Oxnard City Councilwoman Dorothy S. Maron failed to persuade her fellow council members to adopt an ordinance prohibiting them from voting on measures affecting campaign contributors.

At the end of the discussion--which was punctuated by allegations that campaign dollars buy votes--Maron’s proposal failed for lack of a second. It would have required city attorneys and a citizens committee to draft an ordinance.

“If the council passes such an ordinance, we can’t guarantee we can uphold it,” City Atty. Gary Gillig said. When Maron asked how to keep elected officials honest, Gillig suggested that they take “classes in character.”

Maron said she believes that the need for campaign reform in Oxnard is so strong that she would be willing to defend such an ordinance all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court. “I believe with good reason that these large contributions impact people’s voting,” she said.

She suggested that if an ordinance is not acceptable, council members should set a limit on contributions that they would accept. Gillig said such an agreement, which no other council members seemed to support, could be drawn up but would be hard to enforce.

Mayor Nao Takasugi, who raised $92,128 in the last election, $72,000 more than Maron in her last contest, opposed a contribution limit. He said that if any group initiates changes in the city’s campaign law, it should be an independent citizens commission.

“I’m inherently opposed to elected officials taking these kinds of matters into their own hands,” Takasugi said.

Councilman Michael A. Plisky said he too has a problem with campaign reform: “I don’t think everyone is corrupt.”