r-10669City Council Meeting: March 27, 2012 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER 10669 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SAFEGUARD FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
AND OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
WHEREAS, our democracy. rests on the fundamental principle that our
government is by, for and of the people; and
WHEREAS, the people's right to self - governance is secured through the United
States Constitution and through the democratic electoral process, which enables the
people to exert control over the government they have created; and
WHEREAS, although the law safeguards the people's right to vote for the
candidates of their choice, the law does not sufficiently ensure the fairness of the
campaign process whereby the people determine how to cast their votes; and
WHEREAS, in the last fifty years, there have been mounting concerns about the
influence of money upon the electoral process; and
WHEREAS, these concerns include that the candidate who raises the most
money will be best situated to influence upon voters and therefore be elected
independent of his or her ability to govern and that a candidate funded mainly by private
interests will take office beholden to them and may consequently use his or her office to
promote those private interests rather than the public welfare; and
WHEREAS, corporate funding in the election process has impacted
environmental protections and has the potential to impact our local environment; and
WHEREAS, over the last fifty years, such concerns about the impact of money
on elections and government have yielded many legislative attempts to regulate
campaign contributions and expenditures; and
WHEREAS, the courts have invalidated many of these laws restricting campaign
contributions and expenditures based upon their conclusion that the First Amendment
protects financial participation in the electoral process as an expressive activity; and
WHEREAS, because campaign contributions and expenditures are protected by
the First Amendment, the courts have determined that they may only be restricted if the
government can demonstrate a legally sufficient governmental interest, such as averting
governmental corruption; and the United States Supreme Court has determined that,
though this interest can be demonstrated in the case of contributions made directly to
candidates, it cannot be demonstrated in the case of contributions to or expenditures by
independent committees, which are not controlled by a candidate; and
WHEREAS, in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the Supreme
Court majority concluded that federal limits on campaign contributions and expenditures
violated the First Amendment rights of a union and a political action committee
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(incorporated as a nonprofit corporation) because those organizations functioned
independently of any candidate; and
WHEREAS, the holding that the First Amendment precludes limiting independent
contributions by entities such as political action committees, labor unions, and
corporations has sparked a nation -wide movement to curtail the impact of corporate
spending on elections by amending the United States Constitution to reverse the
Citizens United decision; and
WHEREAS, this movement, known as Move to Amend, urges that "corporations
are not people" and "money is not speech "; and
WHEREAS, at its meeting of January 24, 2012, the Council was asked to adopt a
resolution supporting Move to Amend's call for an amendment to the United States
Constitution to "abolish corporate personhood" and thereby reclaim the right to self-
governance; and
WHEREAS, the City Council heard testimony, discussed the text of the proposed
resolution, and ultimately concluded that, though it supported the basic tenets of Move
to Amend, the resolution should be revised to better reflect this community's
understanding of these issues.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City of Santa Monica supports the efforts to ensure the
fairness of our electoral process by reducing the influence of money upon elections,
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including. placing limits upon corporate donations to political campaigns and by rejecting
the notion that corporations must be treated the same as natural persons with regard to
corporate participation in political campaigns.
SECTION 2. The City of Santa Monica calls upon its elected federal
representatives to safeguard the people's right of self - governance through legislation,
including but not limited to a constitutional amendment, that protects the democratic
process and our individual rights against the threats posed by the decision in Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission.
SECTION 3. The City of Santa Monica supports education to increase and
enhance public discourse about the risks to our democracy arising from unfettered
campaign spending by private and special interest entities that are neither natural
persons nor voters and therefore should not exert control over our government of, by
and for the people.
SECTION 4. The City calls on other communities to join us in this action passing
their own similar resolutions.
SECTION 5. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
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APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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Adopted and approved this 27th day of March, 2012.
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Rich d Bloom, Mayor
I, Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that
the foregoing Resolution No. 10669 (CCS) was duly adopted at a meeting of the Santa
Monica City Council held on the 27th day of March, 2012, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers McKeown, O'Day, Holbrook, Shriver, Mayor Pro Tern
Davis, Mayor Bloom
NOES: None
ABSENT: Councilmember O'Connor
ATTEST:
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Maria M. Stewart, City Clerk