Tempers flared on the Redondo Beach City Council dais as council members dove into campaign finance concerns at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The discussion was prompted by a referral to staff from District 4 Councilman Steve Sammarco at the Jan. 19 City Council meeting.
Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel said that he had spoken to mayors and council members in other cities, learning that Redondo Beach is one of the only local municipalities that doesn’t have individual limits on donations. In both Manhattan and Hermosa Beach, individuals are limited to donating a maximum of $250 per election cycle; Torrance has a limit of $1,000 per cycle.
“I think we’re all in agreement that something needs to be done,” Aspel said.
Significant amounts of money were spent both on a major ballot measure and within council races in the March 2015 general election. Yes on B, an organization funded by AES to promote power plant rezoning as proposed in Measure B, spent $1.1 million on its campaign. By contrast, No on B, backed by residents groups and grassroots organizations, spent approximately $16,000 in its eventually successful campaign.
Christian Horvath, the eventual winner of a fierce District 3 council race, won office in the face of great criticism for support he received from the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee; an April 23 story in the Easy Reader reported that the Chamber PAC spent $25,883 in independent expenditures supporting Horvath, nearly matching his own fundraising efforts. To that point, Horvath had raised $26,173.
Horvath was also criticized for accepting donations from an embattled developer who was interested in building a hotel in close proximity to the city’s waterfront. The developer had been tied to civic corruption in nearby Hawthorne. Horvath returned the $4,000 in campaign contributions after learning of the developer’s past controversies. Aspel and Ginsburg accepted donations from the developer in the past, saying that they were unaware of his history.
Horvath was the first member of the council to speak to the topic on Thursday night, offering his thanks to Sammarco for bringing the topic up.
“This is something I’ve been interested in with regards to federal elections for a long time…I am glad that here in Redondo Beach we already have term limits,” Horvath said, noting that he had recently spoken to a council member of another city who had been serving on his council since the 1980s. A councilperson may only serve two terms in their lifetime within Redondo.
Though Horvath noted his support of finance reform (which is a topic that was addressed during his campaign, though not as a central tenet of his platform), he was among those denigrated by District 2 councilman Bill Brand for contributions accepted by local developers and business owners.
“I didn’t take money from any of these people…my colleagues are taking money from leaseholders in the harbor,” Brand said. “I think, regardless of whether it helps to persuade candidates, it doesn’t look right, which is why I didn’t take it; that’s what I think any elected official could say.”
He added that he wasn’t accusing anyone of quid pro quo, saying that money “breeds distrust in the public.”
Aspel took issue with Brand’s statements. “You can’t sit there and act like he’s the only pious and virtuous person” on the dais, Aspel said. “If you have accusations that someone is unethical, you should come forward with those — that’s what you were insinuating.”
“We don’t agree on things, but I’ve never said anything about your integrity,” Aspel continued. “If you say something about someone up here, I’m going to stand up for us.”
Redondo Beach Unified Board of Education Vice-President Anita Avrick spoke from the audience, saying that she doesn’t take issue with limiting campaign contributions. However, she would like the council to consider the cost and potential limits in running in a city-wide election, as school board candidates do. “If you can’t run a [district] election on $10,000, if it’s impossible to do that on $10,000, someone running city-wide will have to run a lot more [in their campaign],” she said.
Mayoral candidates, as well as candidates for City Attorney, City Clerk and City Treasurer also must run city-wide campaigns, leading the discussion to consider a multi-tier system that would limit individual contributions to candidates based on the office they’re seeking.
Based on a motion made by Brand, and seconded by Sammarco, the City Attorney’s office will come back to the April 19 meeting of the City Council with either a two-tier or a three-tier system focusing on campaign contribution limits, election cycle limits, and limits on loans, for further discussion.
