Title
Amending Title 20 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Officers and Employees," by amending Chapter 20-600 to prohibit the receipt of contributions by city elected officials or candidates for city offices from individuals or businesses who are applicants for, or recipients of, city contracts or financial assistance; to limit the eligibility of individuals or businesses to receive city contracts or financial assistance if they have made political contributions within certain timeframes to city elected officials or candidates for city offices, and to prohibit any person campaigning for elective City office from using for such purpose funds contributed to him or her while serving in another elective City office; and by adding a new Chapter 20-800, entitled "Campaign Finance" and by amending Chapter 20-300, entitled "Compensation," to provide for the limitation of contributions for municipal election campaigns for all offices, to create an Independent Campaign Finance Board and to establish a system of public financing for election campaigns for certain offices, for those candidates who voluntarily limit their campaign expenditures; all under certain terms and conditions.
Body
WHEREAS, in Philadelphia in recent years, a substantial number of individual campaign contributions have exceeded ten thousand dollars and oftentimes exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars; and
WHEREAS, campaign contributions in the City's municipal elections since 1991 have escalated to astronomical levels, approaching a half million dollars in some City Council races and exceeding $27 million spent in the 1999 mayoral election; and
WHEREAS, such excessive monetary contributions leave the impression with the average citizen that our government is for sale to the highest bidder and that only those persons or businesses that have contributed heavily to the campaigns of City elected officials can obtain City contracts or financial assistance; and
WHEREAS, elected officials spen...
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