This is an open letter mailed to Karl Nurse. I hope you will join me in this effort.
Dear Council Member Nurse:
– It was a pleasure to see you at the clean-up effort at Mirror Lake this past Saturday — it’s always reassuring to see our elected officials rolling up their sleeves to make our city a better place to live.
– As we discussed, I am concerned about the influence of money in this year’s municipal elections. With the mayor’s office and possibly five seats on the city council up for election, I expect there to be at least $500,000 in campaign contributions made to all of the candidates running.
– This is a staggering amount of money and it needs to be clear where this money is coming from and how it is being spent. The City Clerk’s office already does an admirable job collecting the Campaign Treasurer’s reports from each campaign and providing copies of these documents upon request. With so many important races on the ballot this year, I believe it’s time our city government goes one step further in the spirit of transparency and clean elections.
– I ask you to help persuade the rest of your colleagues on the City Council, as well as Mayor Rick Baker and his administration, to instruct the City Clerk’s office to develop an online system that provides all of the information found on the Campaign Treasurers’ report, including all of the contributors to each campaign, the dates when contributions are made and all of the expenditures each candidate makes. This should go beyond a posting of the Campaign Treasurers’ reports, to include an actual database that can be searched for specific information. (This kind of system is already in place at the state and county level, so we know it can be done.)
– As always in government, it is a matter of cost and priority. No matter what the cost, what is more important than clean and fair elections?
– On a personal note: I know a little something about what can go wrong in an election when there is not enough transparency in a campaign. That is why I would hate to see a negative situation develop in any of the campaigns that are operating this year. It is imperative that our city government insure that voters are able to make an informed decision about the candidates. That can only occur if it is clear who is supporting the respective candidates.
– I wish I knew city government better so that I could specifically propose what action must be undertaken to develop the system I envision, but I will leave it to you to fill in the details. You have always been an advocate of clean and fair elections, so I’ll assume you may already have an idea on how to accomplish my proposal. Thank you very much for your consideration of my suggestion.
– I wish I knew city government better so that I could specifically propose what action must be undertaken to develop the system I envision, but I will leave it to you to fill in the details. You have always been an advocate of clean and fair elections, so I’ll assume you may already have an idea on how to accomplish my proposal. Thank you very much for your consideration of my suggestion.
Respectfully,
Peter Schorsch
Peter Schorsch
