Financial disclosure ordinance fails during council vote

By Liz McMahan
Assistant City Editor

January 13, 2009 12:38 am

— Local political activist Mark Hughes stood at the side of the room at Monday night’s City Council meeting holding a sign:
“Transparency is not stupid,” it read.
The sign was in support of Mayor John Tyler Hammons’ proposed ordinance for financial disclosure for candidates for city offices. It referred to a remark at a meeting last week in which Councilor Bob Luttrull called Hammons’ proposal “stupid.”
Hammons again asked Monday night for support of other councilors for the measure.
Councilor Shawn Raper listed more than a dozen pending decisions the council faces. Those issues range from whether the city will increase stormwater fees for local businesses to settling the dispute over the city’s portable signs to asking voters to approve millions of dollars in sales taxes to fund projects.
Getting the answers to those kinds of problems is more important right now than deciding whether the city should have a campaign finance disclosure law, Raper said.
Councilor Jim Ritchey said at a retreat last year the council set its priority issues for the year, and campaign finance was not among them.
Councilor David Jones said he does not oppose financial disclosure, he just opposes the proposal Hammons presented.
It is more than nine pages long and holds so many regulations and legalese that it would discourage candidates from filing, Jones said. He also is opposed to creating the job of special prosecutor to handle campaign finance complaints.
Councilors Robert Perkins, James Gulley, Jones, Luttrull, Raper and Ritchey voted to deny the ordinance. Hammons, Jackie Luckey and David Ragsdale Jr. voted not to deny the measure.
Hughes noisily bent his poster in half, folded it in quarters and tossed it on the floor before he took a seat in the audience.

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