As I mentioned here last week — as well as in today’s Buzz column — campaign watchdog Shirley Grindle was set to meet today with the staff of Supervisor John Moorlach to discuss a proposal for a campaign oversight board.
The meeting, with Moorlach Chief of Staff Mario Maneiro, took place this afternoon. I just spoke with Grindle, and she was optimistic about the chance of moving forward.
“I am pleased with the reaction,” she said. “I’ll be working with Moorlach’s office to refine the proposal.”
– Martin Wisckol
She said that she’ll meet again with Maneiro in two weeks. She said that what they’re looking at is a commission that would focus solely campaign disclosures (ethics commissions in other jurisdictions sometime also look at conflict of interests and other such issues concerning elected officials).
It sounds like a chief element of the proposal would be to require electronic filings from candidates for county office, which would make it easier to catch those with mistakes and violations on their campaign disclosure forms. The amount of paid staff is one issue that needs to be worked out, although Grindle said that the cost to taxpayers would be “very little.”
– Martin Wisckol
