Ethics proposal

ADDITION: BREAKING NEWS

At about 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon, Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope announced he was unable to accept the petitions for a controversial proposal to update the city's ethics ordinance.

“I applaud the goal of transparency in government,” said City Clerk Chris Swope.  “However, the City Attorney Office’s review documented a multitude of conflicts with the Michigan Constitution, state law and the City Charter. Per the City Charter, I cannot accept these petitions as “proper.”

The measure is now dead, unless proponents sue the city to force it onto the ballot. Officials with Lansing Citizens for Ethics Reform have hinted that may be an option. In Tallahassee Florida a similar initiative was taken to court by city leaders in an attempt to prevent it from appearing on the ballot. The city lost that court challenge the measure was approved by 67 percent of voters in Nov 2014.

"We're very disappointed that the mayors first instinct was to oppose more transparency in city government," said Walt Sorg, leader of Lansing Citizens for Ethics Reform. He said they were reviewing the City Attorney opinion, and would determine there next steps from there. 

A proposal to amend Lansing’s ethics ordinance may have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, but city leaders are concerned it may violate state laws.

Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope said Monday his staff was completing the verification of nearly 6,700 signatures. Four thousand need to be those of registered Lansing voters for the proposal to be placed on the ballot.

The proposal would create limited public financing for local political campaigns and set up stricter requirements for lobbyists, among other provisions.

But Swope said he waiting for an opinion from the Lansing City attorney, Janene McIntyre, before approving or rejecting the proposal. He has until today to send the proposal to the City Council or reject it.

“The Charter says I am to certify an initiative if I find it to be sufficient and proper,” Swope said. “I’ve asked the city attorney what that means exactly.”

Swope said he is concerned provisions of the initiative may violate state laws.

“I have been told that it violates two different state statutes,” Swope said. He declined to say who had told him. Efforts to reach McIntyre for comment were unsuccessful.

That same concern was echoed by Randy Hannan, chief of staff for Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero.

“As a result, on a very preliminary basis — the legal analysis isn’t complete yet — but on a preliminary basis there’s some problems with the proposal that could end up in court challenges,” Hannan said on the TV show “City Pulse Newsmakers” last week. “Theoretically, it could end up not making the ballot at all.”

Walt Sorg, who heads the the ballot committee Lansing Citizens for Ethics Reform that proposed the initiative, said the proposal was fully vetted by lawyers before it was circulated.

But Bob LaBrandt, lead counsel at Sterling Corp., a conservative political consulting firm in Lansing, said in a press release the initiative violated many state laws.

“What Lansing Citizens for Ethics Reform is attempting to do with their proposal is enact a single ordinance that contains three subjects: ethics regulation, lobbying regulation and campaign finance regulation,” LaBrandt wrote in the press statement. “The Michigan legislature attempted to do the same thing in 1975 when it enacted the Michigan Political Reform Act. The Michigan Supreme Court found that Act unconstitutional because it had three objects not one.”

LaBrandt noted that the court indicated the Legislature was free to adopt laws in each area, but not under one act.

“A lawsuit claiming a single subject violation of the City Charter could derail the effort,” he said.

In addition to challenging the “single subject” legality issue LaBrandt said the proposals may also violate the Michigan Campaign Finance and Lobbying Act. That law prohibits local laws from being more restrictive than state laws on lobbying and campaign finance.

LaBrandt did not return calls seeking comment and his press release does not disclose why he wrote the opinion or for whom.

“The Lansing Anti-Corruption Ordinance was carefully written to abide by state law and the city charter,” Sorg said in a prepared statement. “We feel confident that Mr. LaBrandt’s concerns are off-base. Similar measures are common across the country, such as the Honest Elections Seattle initiative that will be on the ballot this fall in that city. At the end of the day, the people of Lansing have the right to choose for themselves whether to protect the integrity of our city government. We sincerely hope that right will be respected at the ballot box this November.”

Sorg would not say whether his committee was prepared to sue the city to force the initiative onto the ballot in November if Swope declines to approve it.

City officials in Tallahassee sued to keep a similar initiative, backed by the same nation group — Represent.us — from the ballot last year. The initiative, city attorneys argued in state court, was unclear. But a state judge tossed the lawsuit in September ruling the ballot initiative language was not vague. That paved the way for the city commission to put the initiative on the ballot in November, where it won approval by 67 percent of voters.