Narrow defeat of living wage led to changes in campaign law
CITY HALL — Nearly two years after Santa Monica’s living wage was narrowly defeated at the polls, city officials have adopted a series of campaign reforms aimed at making both sides of the issue more transparent.
Advocates of the living wage cried foul after their razor-thin defeat in November of 2002, which invalidated a city mandate that big businesses in the coastal corridor pay their employees at least $10.50 an hour, or $12.25 without benefits. At issue were a series of “slate mailers” they said gave voters a false impression of the group that spent millions to defeat the measure.
The mailers inferred that the Democratic Party, women favoring abortion rights, education activists and some candidates for office all opposed the living wage. They also indicated with an asterisk that a campaign favoring a school tax also on the November ballot and advertised on the mailer helped pay for them.
However, November 2002 filings with the California Secretary of State’s office revealed the anti-living wage campaign was the only group who paid for the mailers. The group maintains that a third party paid for the advertisement with a small contribution that fell below the state’s disclosure requirement.
Although the practice might be deceptive, it’s unclear whether it’s illegal.
Backers of the living wage formed a panel to investigate the alleged foul play and make suggestions to keep history from repeating itself. That group delivered its findings last June, and City Hall acted on some of them Tuesday by voting to adopt a series of campaign disclosure reforms.
According to city documents, the following changes were made, among others: The municipal code definition of “committee” was repealed so state law applies; slate mailer organizations must now file copies of statements required by state law with the City Clerk; committees making expenditures of $1,000 or more must report them to the City Clerk, except in the case of direct contributions; and the City Clerk must post campaign statements within 24 hours, or as soon as possible.
Tom Larmore, a local attorney who championed the fight against the living wage, said he had no qualm with the added measures regarding slate mailers, which he said made Santa Monica the most heavily regulated city to his knowledge. Still, Larmore questioned the motives of city officials.
“I think what their goal would be is to try to fashion a set of regulations to make it so nobody can compete with (Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights), that’s what they’d like to be able to do,” Larmore said. “They’d like to be able to keep any competition from expressing their point of view.”
Mayor Richard Bloom, a living wage advocate who is endorsed by SMRR for re-election this November, disagreed, saying, “There was a lot of people upset in the community over some of the heavyhanded tactics coming out of the living wage camp, and this was an effort to try and curb that in the future.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.