Laguna council raises contribution cap for city elections

Laguna Beach residents can pony up an additional $80 to support their preferred local candidates starting this year, following a unanimous City Council vote Tuesday.

An individual will now be able to contribute $440 to a candidate for local elected office, or a candidate’s controlled campaign committee, during a given election cycle — up from the previous cap of $360 that was approved in 2008 and had been in place since 2010.

The new limit — which applies to any committee collecting contributions for recall elections, but does not restrict a candidate’s personal contributions to his or her campaign — will be in effect for the upcoming election cycle.

According to city code, council members have two ways to increase the campaign contribution cap. They review the baseline amount every four years to determine whether it should be adjusted, and they also can make revisions on Jan. 1 of even-numbered years to reflect changes in the consumer price index.

The increase approved Tuesday reflects CPI changes since 2010, according to the city.

Other issues brought up during Tuesday’s discussion included the involvement of money received from political action committees, which do not fall under the city’s jurisdiction, and the possibility of scrapping the city’s restriction entirely.

Local campaign contribution limits are voluntary, though repealing Laguna’s ordinance could require additional financial reporting from candidates as determined by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, according to Laguna City Attorney Philip Kohn.

Council adopts traffic impact review fee

The council also voted unanimously to establish a fee for developers whose projects need a traffic impact study.

Such studies are typically only required for projects that have the potential to change traffic patterns or increase the number of parking spaces required in an area.

The $400-per-intersection fee will apply to all potential development projects and will effectively charge developers to access traffic count data from KOA Corp. — an engineering, transportation planning and construction management services firm the city retained in October — that they can then use to forecast their projects’ impacts and analyze traffic.

The city will collect the fee and use it to pay for the services provided by KOA, which include peer-reviewing the traffic studies.

The city’s fee is less than what it costs on average to conduct traffic counts, which is about $500 an intersection, according to a staff report.

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