Phoenix City Council approved campaign information rules that limit the city’s ability to favor any one candidate for upcoming council elections.
The council approved the 2017 Campaign Information Act, which sets rules for the 2017 campaign, and discussed the city manager’s trial budget Tuesday. The 2017 Campaign Information Act passed unanimously.
“It governs what activity is allowable and not allowable by the incumbents and their challengers,” said Deputy City Clerk Ben Lane. “It’s to provide an even playing field.”
For example, some of these guidelines include not receiving airtime on local channels or issuing newsletters or brochures until 60 days prior the the City Council Election Day.
Other rules include mandating that a candidate him or herself must ask the city for research requests. According to the agenda, if campaign staff make research requests they will be reminded the candidate themselves must do it. It also only allows personal information to be used for the purpose for which it was collected.
This act will apply to the upcoming August elections of even-numbered districts, including downtown districts 4 and 8 currently held by Vice Mayor Laura Pastor and Councilwoman Kate Gallego respectively. Phoenix City Council elections are June 30.
The 2017-2018 City Manager Trial Budget was also introduced and discussed at the meeting. Highlights from the trial budget include a surplus of $1.9 million recommended to be used on adding police assistants and homelessness outreach programs.
The surplus would add 16 new police assistants to respond to car collisions, traffic control and other misdemeanor crime more quickly.
Councilwoman Gallego was happy that faster police response times were expected.
“I am glad to see that we are going to have the police assistance,” Gallego said. “One of the things I hear most is about response times and how important it is… when one precinct has a 33-minute response time and another has 57 minutes, that’s not good enough.”
Seventeen community budget hearings will be held from April 4 to April 20 to gain public opinion on the trial budget. This includes a joint budget hearing between districts 4 and 8 on Wednesday, April 5 at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
District 5 Councilman Valenzuela commented on the community hearings.
“We know that what we’ll end up voting on is a little different than what we are going to present and that’s a good thing,” Valenzuela said. “We want people to feel like they’re going to get their fingerprints on this particular budget.”
Following the public budget hearings the City Manager will propose the budget on May 9 and the final budget and funding plan will be adopted on June 21.
Contact the reporter at Joseph.Gilmore.1@asu.edu.
