City Backs Away From Spending-Limits Issue : Ventura: The council refuses to reopen debate over campaign donations, preferring to leave the decision to the voters.

Opting to let voters decide the issue on November’s ballot, Ventura City Council refused Monday to reopen the politically sensitive debate on campaign contribution limits for council candidates.

Two weeks after agreeing to put a proposed ordinance to the voters, council members declined to support Councilman Jim Monahan’s efforts to reconsider their action. After failing on that motion, Monahan asked them to approve the donation limits outright without a vote of the people. But again, he failed to receive a second for his motion.

“You don’t want campaign reform?” Monahan asked. “I don’t understand that.”

But supporters may not have had enough votes to pass the measure Monday night and say they would prefer to let voters decide.

“We have what we hope is a victory of sorts,” said Councilman Steve Bennett, who proposed the measure.

Monahan said last week that he considered the ballot measure--the result of Bennett’s campaign reform proposal--to be too restrictive and wrong.

In December, the council rejected a proposal by Bennett to adopt an ordinance limiting campaign donations. After much debate last month, the City Council decided to place Bennett’s measure before the city’s voters.

But Monahan asked last week that the discussion be reopened, and he and Bennett have been trading barbs since then regarding their respective motives: Monahan accused Bennett of seeking publicity for himself, while Bennett charged Monahan with filibustering.

Backers of campaign contribution limits praised the council for allowing their previous decision to stand.

“I commend you for taking the spotlight away from the role that big money plays in politics,” said Brad Smith, Ventura County’s coordinator for Common Cause, a public interest group that helped draft the measure.

Council members Rosa Lee Measures, Jack Tingstrom, Gary Tuttle and Bennett have said they are content to let voters make the decision. And Mayor Tom Buford and Councilman Gregory L. Carson have said they do not support any of the campaign donation limits that have been proposed.

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Under the proposed ballot measure, campaign donations would be limited to $100 per donor or $20,000 overall. Candidates who agreed to spend $20,000 or less could accept donations of up to $200.

Ventura’s 1993 council race was the costliest in city history, with candidates and political action groups spending collectively more than $220,000. By contrast, candidates in Oxnard’s 1994 City Council race spent about $100,000 campaigning for office.

Three of the 14 candidates raised more than $20,000, including Measures, who raised more than $35,000. Bennett, who pledged not to accept donations of more than $100, still received more than $21,000.