Aurora Mayor John Laesch’s proposed campaign financing ethics reform package, which was held for weeks but recently starting moving through the approval process again, has been further delayed.
Under the current proposal, Aurora would cap at $1,500 per year donations made to candidates running for city office from those doing business with the city. It would also expand economic interest disclosures required of candidates and elected officials.
After some significant changes from the original proposal, a committee of the Aurora City Council recommended the ethics reform package for approval earlier this month. That recommendation meant the proposal was set to go before the Committee of the Whole before making its way to the City Council for final approval, which could have happened as early as Tuesday.
A City Council meeting took place just after this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, a rescheduling of a City Council meeting planned for Dec. 23. Other items on the Committee of the Whole meeting’s agenda were sent to the immediately following City Council meeting for final approval, but the ethics reform package was tabled until January.
Laesch said the item would be held at the Committee of the Whole level considering the back-to-back meetings and a lengthy two-and-a-half hour closed session earlier in the meeting. Aldermen agreed, and a discussion on the proposal was also delayed until it is brought up again.
The proposed changes to city code would limit contributions to candidates or elected officials from those doing business or looking to do business with the city to $1,500 per year. Counting towards the cap would be donations made by the business itself as well as any made by parent companies or subsidiaries, and in some cases donations made by employees themselves.
Those who do not follow the rules would be barred from doing business with the city for up to four years.
Campaign financing ethics reform was part of Laesch’s platform when he was running against former Mayor Richard Irvin. During the most recent campaign and in a previous unsuccessful run for mayor, Laesch claimed Irvin prioritized government contracts or incentives to those who donated to his campaign, which Irvin consistently denied.
According to Laesch, the campaign ethics reform package he proposed was designed to increase transparency and “reduce the influence that outside money has on city contracts.” But some aldermen have questioned if the new rules really would achieve that goal, particularly since there would be no limit on contributions from political figures or organizations.
Plus, other aldermen have voiced concerns about the potential increase in paperwork they said might come from the expanded disclosures that would be required of those in a city elected office, and those running for a city elected office, under the proposed code changes.
Those expanded economic interest fillings would ask not only their occupation but also if their employer has ever done work for or received any financial assistance from the city of Aurora, all real estate they own within the city or nearby, any organizations or businesses they own, any city-funded or affiliated organizations they are involved with and any gifts they’ve received from those doing business with the city or looking to.
The filings would only need to be turned in once per year, rather than each quarter, and would continue to be available for the public to view online.
The proposal considers as a candidate anyone who has begun circulating petitions or has started receiving donations, city staff have previously said. Candidates would then have 15 days to submit their disclosure statements to the city.
Recent changes to the proposal upped the donation limit from the originally-proposed $500 cap, removed further limits on cash donations and removed guidelines on how city property could be used for political purposes.
The donation limit was increased to be more in line with other cities, including Chicago, according to Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron. The guidelines for city property use were taken out to simplify things, since discussions around them got stuck in details that weren’t the “true meaning” of the ethics reforms, she said at the Aurora City Council’s Rules, Administration and Procedure Committee meeting on Dec. 2.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com