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Councilmember Thorne said he was having difficulty with contribution limits for candidates and expenditure limits, felt incumbents have an advantage but typically do not run unopposed in Pleasanton. He supported free speech protections under the First Amendment and said he would rather see more materials come in with the candidate's opinion rather than what someone else is saying about them. He said the counter-reforms under review will encourage people to finance their own campaigns, he did not want the dais to become a playground for the wealthy and said limits on expenditures and campaigns may create a negative effect. Councilmember McGovern confirmed with the City Clerk that the date of the last filing deadline is 4 days prior to the election, with the cut-off being 7 days in order for the treasurer to work on the filing. Councilmember McGovern felt a Code of Ethics which would attach itself to the Commissioners Handbook was very important and she confirmed with the City Manager that it would come before the Council sometime in the near future. She supported the $1 per voter as the limit, a voluntary signing of the pledge with the stipulation that people have the right to respond to hit pieces, supported electronic filing, supported links that would provide the State and County's websites and was not sure if she would support a contribution limit. Councilmember Cook-Kallio supported electronic filing, transparency, said the City was handcuffed by the federal election laws and the Supreme Court, she did not support making up rules just to feel better about the process as the outcome would be more complicated. She discussed the effects of "bundling", supported the opportunity to refund contributions, said most cities that have a voluntary expenditure limit or a contribution limit have one or the other but not both. She wanted people to be honest in the money they give to candidates, agrees there is negative campaigning, and was not in favor of making the rules more complicated which would result in less transparency. If voluntary expenditure limit was established, the $1 per voter was reasonable with the exception of a mayoral race, which may run higher. There are many rules that one would have to look at in establishing a voluntary pledge, such as fines, special elections, exemptions, accounting and costs incurred as candidates, advantages as incumbents, and she suggested the Council have as much transparency as possible and make sure it is not complicated. She said there are too many things the Council cannot control such as member to member communications, and little could be done at the local level until there is federal campaign finance reform. She did not support individual contribution limits. Councilmember Sullivan agreed there have been expediential increases in both direct contributions to candidates and independent expenditures in PACs. He supported transparency, electronic filing, and future real time software. He cited increases to both contributions and expenditures over the years, said the reporting period should cover as many days as possible before and after an election, liked the 7 day cut off period, said he got a negative hit piece, had no money left or time to respond, and he felt integrity of the system was more important than being able to respond to a hit piece. He was in favor of a voluntary pledge which should apply during the entire election period, in favor of an ethics pledge the candidates would take or a pledge that discourages certain actions, supported $1 per voter which prevents huge expenditures of campaign funds, suggested an escalation factor indexed to the CPI, did not agree there should be a penalty established, and agrees if there is a voluntary pledge of expenditures then the contribution limit would be irrelevant. Mayor Hosterman agreed that money raised and spent has gotten out of control, supported transparency, electronic filing, was not interested in placing limits on campaign contributions, liked the voluntary expenditure limit to $1 per voter and supported an ethics pledge. City Council Minutes 7 December 18, 2007