By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Mayor Ras Baraka may have signed an ordinance by when you read this, that the Municipal Council approved March 17, that places a cap on redevelopers’ “Pay-to-Play” contributions.
The Mayor like with most pother legislation, has 20 days to sign a council-passed ordinance for it to take effect. Although tis 20-day period ends April 5, Baraka may have signed on long before then.
Baraka’s respective Corporate Counsel and Business Administrator, Kenyatta Stewart and Eric Pennington, had introduced this revision to the city’s May 2011 “Pay-to-Play” legislation before the Council Feb. 3.
The measure repeals the previous ban on developers making contributions to municipal-level candidates’ campaigns and/or political parties with a $300 per candidate limit.
A developer may contribute more than $300 per candidate – but makes himself or herself subject to the city’s “fair and open process” when filing for a contract bid.
The Council’s March 17 passage and Baraka’s likely signing will replace the up to $2,800 a potential contractor or developer can contribute to a candidate’s campaign. A $2,800 contributor will have to sit out from contract bidding until the next year.
The March 17 amendment, on one hand, relaxes the formerly hard and fast rule the 2011 Municipal Council had put into law. That legislation formally put Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s 2008 executive order barring potentially contract bidding contractors from making campaign contributions. Newark was among the 150 municipal and county legislatures that have put the order into their legal code.
This amendment is the first granted by the council in 10 months. Newark’s elders had earlier relaxed Corzine’s 2008 order and their own 2011 law May 20, 2020.
The May 20 amendments included:
· Newark-focused PAC or CPCs and Essex County political party committees being exempted from “Pay-to-Play.”
· “No exemption for fair and open contracts” language removed.
· $300 individual and $2,500 business entity contributions annual limits were removed.
Baraka’s administrators, on Feb. 3 and March 17, have said that the latest revision makes for a more level contribution field.
“If there’s a $300 rule for lawyers, garbage companies and everybody else who has to go before the council,” asked Stewart March 17, “then why are we focused on the rule for developers? If you contribute in a fair and open process, you deserve an opportunity like anybody else.”
“We’ll have restrictions that’ll be the same as the state and other municipalities that follow the state’s guidelines – no more, no less,” added Pennington. “The guidelines that are in place are to ensure that there’s no quid pro quo and no untoward conduct applicable to the Municipal Council.”
North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr. viewed the latest amendment as another step away from the days when Gov. Chris Christie, Corzine’s successor, had sent a monitor to observe the city’s financial practices in exchange for some budget-balancing state funding.
“The city was under special conditions with the state,” said Ramos. “The (Baraka) administration is looking to have a law in place which’ll mirror what the state contribution limits are and build some consistency.”
While these rules are set to go forward, there is no particular certainty about what would happen to those redevelopers who “pay to play” off the record.
