Fresno to weigh in on lawsuit against Bredefeld, Chavez over campaign finance limits
The city of Fresno plans to intervene in Fresno County’s lawsuit against two city council members who have mounted campaigns challenging a pair of incumbents on the county’s Board of Supervisors.
But the move, authorized Thursday in a closed session of the Fresno City Council, is very narrow in scope, City Attorney Andrew Janz told The Fresno Bee after the meeting. Janz added that it is focused on the potential for a court decision in the county’s favor to set a precedent that would force the city to rewrite its campaign finance ordinances.
The county’s lawsuit targeting council members Garry Bredefeld and Luis Chavez – who have formed campaign committees to run for county office – seeks to prevent both from transferring large sums of money from their existing city council campaign committees for their campaigns for county supervisor.
The pair allegedly violated a county ordinance that places a $30,000 cap on transfers or contributions from a candidate’s campaign account for non-county elective offices into their campaign for county offices — including the county Board of Supervisors.
Bredefeld, who represents northeast Fresno on the city council, is running against incumbent District 2 Supervisor Steve Brandau. Chavez, whose city council district encompasses much of southeast Fresno, is challenging District 3 incumbent Supervisor Sal Quintero.
Janz reported after the closed session that the council voted 4-1 to authorize him to intervene in the lawsuit. Councilmember Miguel Arias – himself a candidate to challenge Quintero in the county’s District 3 – cast the lone vote against intervening, Janz said.
Bredefeld and Chavez both recused themselves from the issue and were not present in the room for the discussion and vote, Janz added.
“Our standing argument is this: In the county’s moving papers, they essentially equate campaign ‘transfers’ with ‘contributions,’” Janz told The Fresno Bee after the meeting. “Under state laws and under interpretations from the (state Fair Political Practices Commission), those two things are treated differently.”
“So the city is intervening on a very narrow issue, to distinguish between those two things, contributions and transfers,” he added.
Janz said the city’s campaign finance statutes treat contributions and transfers differently. “If the court were to rule contrary to that, then we would have to go back in, because that creates legal case law or precedent, and make amendments to our statutes,” he said. “That is our interest in intervening, just on that very narrow issue.”
It will remain up to Bredefeld and Chavez to continue to argue in court over the constitutionality or fairness of not allowing transfers. “They have their own lawyers who are going to litigate that,” Janz told The Bee. “I want to make absolutely clear that this is not political. This is not a desire by any council member to help their colleagues. This is just really just about making sure that we put our interpretation of the law on the record to assist the judge in making this ruling.”
Under the city’s rules, a city council member can roll over money from a campaign committee for one election to a committee for the next campaign cycle, or to run for mayor, Janz said. “If the court is going to agree with the county and equate ‘transfers’ with ‘contributions,’ then those are limited,” he added.
The county’s ordinance on file with the state FPPC states that “no person shall contribute an amount greater than $30,000 to any candidate for any county of Fresno elective office per election.” It also defines “person” as an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, labor union or organization, and any other organization or group of persons acting in concert.”
Bredefeld has previously described the county’s ordinance as an “incumbent protection scheme,” and he and Chavez raised questions earlier this year about why incumbent supervisors can apparently transfer their campaign funds from one campaign committee to another while outside candidates cannot.
