The Los Angeles Post

O’Farrell Proposes Public Matching Funds for LAUSD Candidates

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Motion builds on good governance reforms championed by O’Farrell

LOS ANGELES – Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell today introduced a motion that seeks to include candidates for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education in the City of Los Angeles’s Public Matching Funds Program.

“Empowering non-traditional candidates for public office will help bring more equitable representation to Angelenos, and that’s going to be good for our city,” said Councilmember O’Farrell. “Though the City of Los Angeles administers elections for LAUSD, and though the City has a healthy Public Matching Funds Program, LAUSD candidates are not currently able to participate in public financing. Let’s be consistent in ensuring equal opportunity for all potential candidates for public office in the City of Los Angeles. This also encourages the chances for more diversity in government by including LAUSD Board of Education candidates in the public financing system.”

Per the City Charter, the City of Los Angeles is responsible for administering municipal elections for the LAUSD Board of Education. Though candidates for the LAUSD Board of Education are required to adhere to the City’s overall election guidelines related to fundraising, campaign finance, spending, ethics, and more, these candidates are not currently allowed to participate in the City’s Public Matching Funds Program.

Created by voters in 1990, the Public Matching Funds Program helps to reduce the power of moneyed special interests in elections by ensuring that qualified candidates for an elected City office can receive funding for their campaigns through a public financing system. To receive public matching funds, candidates must agree to participate in the program, meet its qualification requirements, and adhere to spending limit guidelines. If candidates are eligible, they may receive public dollars as a match to qualifying campaign contributions from individuals. Currently, qualified contributions are matched at a 6:1 rate, meaning the City will pay candidates $6 in public funds for every matchable dollar of qualified contribution that is received.

Since 2011, outside interests have spent over $54 million on LAUSD Board of Education races through independent expenditure groups, which are not subject to contribution limits. Individuals, however, can only donate a maximum of $1,300 to a LAUSD Board of Education candidate’s campaign. Candidates often seek endorsements from outside interest groups as a means of funding their campaigns, which limits the amount of time they can spend making their voices heard within their communities.

The motion introduced today by O’Farrell requests various departments to report on and analyze the feasibility of allowing candidates for the LAUSD Board of Education to participate in the Public Matching Funds Program, and it continues O’Farrell’s work on good governance reform measures. Recently, the Council unanimously approved O’Farrell’s motion calling for a ballot measure that would increase the number of City Council districts, as well as an immediate, new redistricting process that would be needed to implement that update. If ultimately approved and enacted by voters, O’Farrell’s charter reform measure would represent the most significant expansion of representation on the Los Angeles City Council in a century.