The Reformation Comes to Pittsburgh
On Tuesday morning, Pittsburgh City Council took the largest step against pay-to-play politics in the City of Pittsburgh since the adoption of the Home Rule Charter.
City Council voted to pass all five of Councilman Bill Peduto’s reform bills, and forever changed the system of campaign finance, and the way that contracts are awarded in our city.
This package of reform bills will:
- Cap contributions by individuals at $2,000 for Mayoral and City Controller Races, and $1,000 for City Council races.
- Mandate the creation of an online, searchable database of all campaign contributions and city contracts.
- Ban all no-bid contracts over $30,000.
- Create the Lobbyist Disclosure Act, which would require all lobbyists to register annually with the city.
- Create the Lobbyist Registration Act, which would require all contract bidders to disclose any payments to lobbyists and consultants.
- Strengthen the city’s ethics code to greatly limit gifts to government officials.
This reform was passed in City Council on Tuesday thanks to all of YOU that took the time to speak out for reform. Thank you to everyone who contacted City Council and the Mayor, and made your voices heard- we could not have done it without you!
This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
