Santa Clarita May Scrap Limits on Council Campaign Donors

The Santa Clarita City Council tonight will consider eliminating its limits on campaign contributions for council members -- an idea that supporters say will help unknown candidates raise money, but that skeptics view as a new opportunity for big developers to influence local politics in the fast-growing suburban city.

The proposal, which will be presented at a council meeting beginning at 6 p.m., would repeal an ordinance that set the donation limit at $250, according to Councilman Frank Ferry, who is spearheading the effort.

Under his proposed changes, Ferry said, media and public pressure would create a “self-imposed limit” on candidates seeking donations.

“There isn’t anybody who’s going to go out to developer A, B or C and take a $50,000 [contribution],” Ferry said Monday. “They’re going to be crucified.”

Ferry also said the change will help candidates who are interested in running for the city’s five council seats by allowing them to raise more money from core supporters, such as family and friends.

“If you need $50,000 to run a viable campaign to win, you now need 200 friends to come up with that amount,” he said. “The intent would be to give people an opportunity to run that otherwise couldn’t compete.”

For residents like Tom DiCioccio -- a local activist known for opposing development -- allowing unlimited individual donations will only help big builders score influence in Santa Clarita, where the most heated public debates center on the pace of growth.

“Now, all of a sudden, they’re trying to get more money out of the developers,” said DiCioccio, who also criticized Ferry for introducing the measure on the Fourth of July holiday weekend. “It’s so sneaky.”

Councilwoman Marsha McLean won her first term in April 2002, but raised only about $16,000 that year, according to the city clerk’s office.

McLean said she would probably support the measure, because the current law gave her problems with fund-raising in two other unsuccessful campaigns for office.

“It’s going to help the grass-roots candidates,” she said. “A $250 limit, for me personally, made it harder.”

Ferry said the new rules will also create more accurate reporting, eliminating situations in which family members all pitch in with individual $250 donations.

That practice caused problems for Ferry when he was raising funds for the 2002 election and had to return two $250 donations from children of his supporters who were under 18, he said. In that campaign, Ferry raised more than $70,000, which he believes to be a record for the city.