Houston City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that would require election candidates to file campaign finance reports, or automatically be reported to the Texas Ethics Commission.
Breaking it down
According to the new ordinance, the city secretary’s office must file a sworn complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission within five days when a Houston candidate misses a campaign filing deadline.
The ordinance was put on the agenda by council member Julian Ramirez using the city’s Proposition A rule, and co-sponsored by council members Joaquin Martinez, Amy Peck and Sallie Alcorn.
What they're saying
Some council members had concerns that it would be redundant with the current law.
“In our system right now, if someone was to want to look up an individualized report, they just type in the name,” District J council member Edward Pollard said. ”If the report is not there, they could reach out to the city secretary's office to make sure that that's legit, and if it is, they can just make their own complaint to the Texas Ethics Commission instead of putting the onus on the city to do it.”
Pollard also questioned whether it would add extra responsibility to the city secretary’s office. Mayor John Whitmire agreed with Pollard’s concerns.
The current Ethics Commission rules allow a person to file a complaint if they believe someone has violated filing requirements. But Ramirez said it is not easy to do, and the city secretary already has a record of whether a person has registered for a campaign and whether they have filed or not.
“A regular resident of the city would have to do the research, and figure out whether someone has filed a treasurer designation, and then look to see whether or not they filed a finance report by the deadline,” Ramirez said.
Also of note
No new penalties were made under the new rule. However, the new ordinance would require the city secretary to post the names of those who missed the deadline.
