COUNTYWIDE : Board to Consider Campaign Reforms

A proposal to overhaul the county’s campaign finance regulations cleared another hurdle Tuesday when it was scheduled for consideration by the Board of Supervisors at its meeting next week.

The five supervisors will discuss next Tuesday whether the reform plan should be put to county voters in June. A majority of the supervisors has already voiced support for placing the measure on the ballot.

The proposed campaign finance law would replace the 13-year-old regulations included in the county’s “TINCUP” ordinance--an acronym for “Time Is Now, Clean Up Politics.”

The new ordinance would limit--for the first time--the amount of campaign money supervisors and other elected county officers could receive from individuals or political action committees--a growing force that has contributed more than $820,000 to supervisor races in the last 14 years.

Candidates would be barred from taking more than $1,000 from individual contributors during their four-year election cycle. Those who face a runoff election would be allowed to raise an additional $1,000 per contributor.

County activist Shirley Grindle, a former county planning commissioner who helped draft the existing law in the 1970s, presented her new reform proposal to the board in November.

Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez on Tuesday placed Grindle’s new measure on the agenda for the supervisors’ meeting next Tuesday, urging the board in an accompanying letter to let voters decide the issue on the June ballot.

“Although this new approach is a significant departure from the present ordinance, I believe it simplifies the existing process while maintaining the integrity of campaign reform,” Vasquez wrote to his colleagues.

At the same time, Supervisor Roger R. Stanton--who will take over as board chairman in January--released a letter that he wrote to Grindle endorsing her plan. “I am in full support of your proposal,” Stanton wrote.

Grindle said gaining support from the board was “the tough part.” With that apparently accomplished, she said she does not anticipate major opposition to putting the measure on the ballot.