Fiscal Note
No appropriation is required. City staff will monitor compliance and file the appropriate
disclosures with the City Clerk as part of their regular work duties.
Title
SUBSTITUTE Creating Section 4.28 of the Madison General Ordinances to require certain City contractors to disclose contributions to advocacy organizations.
Body
DRAFTER'S ANALYSIS: This ordinance creates a new required
disclosure for persons or entities entering into a contract with the City where the City’s payments are in excess of $25,000. These entities will be required to disclose contributions made to certain advocacy organizations, including the contracting party itself, any so-called super-pacs or advocacy organizations under sec. 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, operating within Wisconsin within the past two years. Failure to disclose results in a one-year disbarment from contracting with the City. The information on contributions is not a standard for and may not be used in the award of any City contract. A number of contracts, including public works contracts, are excluded from the
disclosure requirement. In its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down, as violating the First Amendment, restrictions on the amount of expenditures for election or political related advertising. In the same decision, the Court held that the First Amendment does not restrict mandatory
disclosure of political or election related expenditures, and upheld the
disclosure requirements in the federal election law. This ordinance shall be effective January 1, 2014.
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The Common Council of the City of Madison do hereby ordain as follows:
Section 4.28 entitled “Required
Disclosures” of the Madison General Ordinances is created to read as follows:
“4.28 REQUIRED
DISCLOSURES.
(1) Findings. Information on the political and advocac...
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