EYE ON SC
City to Make Campaign Finance Information Front-Facing
The mayor finished his opening comments by saying the city should set a campaign contribution limit of $500 per person. Currently, as a result of Assembly Bill 571, San Clemente adheres to a contribution limit of $4,900 to candidates seeking city or county office per election, between the period of Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2022. Ward said she liked James’ thoughts on the matter, adding that she would like to see a link available on the city website’s homepage for information about campaign donations. “I like the limit; I have no issue with that kind of amendment,” she said.
James also suggested they prohibit vendors that contract with the city from donating to local campaigns, and that such a prohibition should be written into the language of future contracts. City Attorney Scott Smith and City Manager Erik Sund agreed that the enactment of the campaign limit needed to be formally written and brought back to the council for a vote, but Sund said the public notices and adjustments to the website could be implemented easily after the council vote. “On (the city vendor limit), there’s going to be a little First Amendment snag, but the extra reporting or interim reporting in connection with contracts, there’s an idea about freshening those as you submit a proposal on a contract that you could look at, that wouldn’t limit it, but it would provide disclosure in connection with our FPs and contract awards,” Smith explained. Mayor Pro Tem Chris Duncan mentioned that the city could look to the state’s Cal-Access system that provides financial information as a guide. He added that he wasn’t sure they could limit who can contribute to campaigns. However, Ward pointed out that even if the city could not limit contributions from vendors, the council chiefly desired to disclose any information regarding campaign donations from businesses the city has contracted with to the public. The next council meeting is scheduled for June 7 at the San Clemente Community Center starting at 5 p.m. The meeting can also be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
release announcing the report. “However, what people may not realize is that sewage spills and infrastructure failures release over 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage into surface waters annually,” she continued. “That’s why we’re working across the nation to test the waters, so communities know where it’s safe to surf, swim and play and to protect clean ocean water for all people.” The report explained that most of the water samples where high bacteria levels were found had been collected from beaches or freshwater sources like creeks, marshes and rivers—sites, Surfrider said, that are “influenced by stormwater runoff.” “These results are consistent with national trends, which show that stormwater runoff is the number one cause of beach closures and swimming advisories in the U.S. Stormwater can wash chemicals and other pollutants from streets and lawns into local waterways and down to the beach,” the report stated. The report also identified 10 beaches of priority where water samples revealed high bacteria rates. The list includes three
spots in Hawaii—Chocolates Surfbreak, Nāwiliwili Stream at Kalapakī Bay, and Māliko Bay—and one area in California, Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica, which had a high bacteria rate of 81%. Surfrider volunteers regularly test water quality at beaches in their communities and measure bacteria levels in ocean, bay, estuary, and freshwater sites through the Blue Water Task Force program. Along with sites in California, volunteers also test bacteria levels at various locations in Hawaii, Oregon, Hawaii, and other coastal states. Regarding potential solutions, Surfrider noted in the report it is pushing for legislation that encourages and funds the replacement of “polluting cesspools” with more “advanced wastewater treatment technologies.” Surfrider is also calling on Congress to “make significant investments to repair, upgrade and ensure climate resilience for America’s failing water infrastructure” because of climate change’s role in sea-level rise and increased extreme weather events, which can, in turn, adversely impact coastal infrastructure.
BY C. JAYDEN SMITH
San Clemente City Council unanimously voted last week to make campaign finance information more transparent and accessible to the public after a vigorous discussion at its May 25 meeting. The city will soon look to produce synopses of 460 forms, or campaign disclosure statements that candidates routinely file as public notices, and ease public access to information on the city’s website. Mayor Gene James initiated the conversation, agendizing the matter at the May 3 meeting after reading a report card published by the nonprofit Citizens Take Action. The watchdog group gave the city a D-, largely as a result of there being no monetary limits candidates can receive from individuals or PACs. The report had also found that information about campaign finances is “not particularly easy to find” on the San Clemente city website, with campaign finance information going back to 2018. “I was a little upset when I saw it, but then when I looked at it a little more, I really understood the D-,” said James. While acknowledging the city’s inability to control money coming from political action committees (PACs), James said he wanted to look at being
The city is expected to soon update its website and make other changes related to the presentation of campaign finance information as part of efforts to improve transparency per a recent vote from the San Clemente City Council. Photo: File
able to search the city website, and that he, personally, struggles to find information there. “I think we need a website revamp … but specifically as it relates to those 460s that candidates file and being able to search those PDF documents by contributor, by recipient, by amount, by PAC—and let’s bring some transparency to this,” he continued. James suggested having the city clerk produce a summary of 460s submitted to the office and publish them as public notices in newspapers. He believed such policies would remove money from campaigns and people will get to see from where funding originates.
Surfrider’s Clean Water Report Shows Majority of Tested Sites Have Low Bacteria Levels BY COLLIN BREAUX AND SHAWN RAYMUNDO
A new report by Surfrider Foundation shows that while some communities are continuing to struggle with high bacteria levels in their beaches, bays and waterways, the majority of test samples taken in much of the nation’s coastal areas last year revealed low levels of bacteria. More than 70% of the 8,532 water tests that Surfrider Foundation’s Blue Water Task Force conducted along the West Coast, as well as parts of the East Coast, Hawaii and Puerto Rico in 2021, came back with low levels of bacteria, according to the San Clemente-based organization’s latest Clean Water Report. The Blue Water Task Force’s test San Clemente Times June 2-8, 2022
Surfrider Foundation’s latest Clean Water Report finds that 71% of the water tests conducted around much of the nation’s coastal areas in 2021 had low levels of bacteria. Photo: Shawn Raymundo
results further found that 9% showed medium levels of bacteria, while the remaining 20% measured high bacteria levels that “exceed water quality criteria, or Beach Action Values, set by each state to protect health in recreational waters.” “Hundreds of millions of people visit and recreate at U.S. beaches every year,” Water Quality Initiative Senior Manager Mara Dias said in Surfrider’s media Page 6
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