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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Levinson Introduces Pay to Play Reform
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On Tuesday, July 31, 2007, County Executive Dennis Levinson introduced a comprehensive "pay to play" reform with anti-wheeling provisions to the Board of Freeholders. In doing so, Atlantic County becomes the first county in the state to propose such an ordinance.
Wheeling is defined as the process by which individuals, professionals and others who wish to contribute to a political campaign without detection make a contribution to an organization such as an out-of-area political party with the understanding that their contribution will be "wheeled" back to the candidate for whom it was intended without directly identifying the source of the initial contribution.
The ordinance prohibits the award of public contracts to professional business entities that have made certain political contributions and limits contribution amounts that contractors seeking county work can make before and during the term of a contract.
According to Levinson the ordinance is necessary to ensure county government remains in the hands of the people, not political power brokers. "I am proud to introduce an ordinance designed to prevent outside interests from gaining undue influence in Atlantic County and negatively impacting the lives and interests of our residents."
This is the fourth ordinance introduced as part of the county's Government Integrity Agenda, initiated by Levinson in January 2007 in cooperation with the Center for Civic Responsibility's Citizens' Campaign to ensure public trust and confidence in the integrity of county government.
The Board of Freeholders has already passed three ordinances, one that promotes open appointments, another that provides mandatory ethics training for elected county officials and key management county employees, and a third on competitive contracting for professional services.
"Atlantic County stands at the forefront of all counties in the state," stated Citizens' Campaign Chairman Harry S. Pozycki. "Atlantic County continues to serve as a model of government accountability by which other counties should be measured."
The public contracting ordinance would prohibit the county from doing business with any professional business entity or contractor who has solicited or made a contribution of money or pledge of a contribution, including in-kind contributions, in excess of specified thresholds ($300 per candidate; $500 per political party committee or political action committee) within one calendar year preceeding the contract date.
The ordinance would also prohibit political candidate committees from accepting contributions from political committees outside Atlantic County in excess of $2,600 per election, including state, county and municipal political parties, legislative leadership committees, and political action committees.
"I applaud County Executive Dennis Levinson for his willingness to introduce and support this ordinance that strengthens government integrity in Atlantic County," stated Alan Kligerman, Chairman of the Citizens' Campaign Atlantic County chapter. "You are to be commended for your initiative."
"We intend to legally protect the high ethical standards of Atlantic County government and to extend our current benchmarks of accountability to all future elected officials and county employees. I urge the Board of Freeholders to give this ordinance careful consideration and to support all efforts that promote government responsibility and build public trust," concluded Levinson.
Freeholder Chairman Joseph F. Silipena referred the ordinance to the freeholder code committee, chaired by James Curcio with members Alisa Cooper and Rev. Lawton Nelson, Jr., where it will be reviewed before returning to the full board for a second reading and public comment.
For more information, please contact Howard J. Kyle, Chief of Staff, at (609) 343-2368.
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