Sec. 2-305. - Single account.

(a)

A candidate for mayor or city council or officeholder or specific-purpose political action committee registered with the city and formed for the purpose of supporting a candidate for mayor or city council must deposit each and every political contribution into one and only one specified bank account. This single account must be used for all political contributions and expenditures pertaining to municipal office.

(b)

Persons with established campaign accounts before the date this code goes into effect can transfer funds into the new single campaign account.

(c)

At the time a candidate files the appointment of campaign treasurer pursuant to Texas Election Code Section 252.001, the candidate shall declare the municipal office sought. If candidate subsequently decides to seek a different office, the candidate shall file an amended appointment of campaign treasurer declaring the new office sought.

(d)

If a candidate who has filed a campaign treasurer appointment decides to seek a different office that would require the appointment to be filed with another authority, a copy of the appointment certified by the authority with whom it was originally filed must be filed with the other authority in addition to the new campaign treasurer appointment, in accordance with the requirements of Texas Election Code Section 252.010.

(e)

If, after declaring a candidacy for any elected office, the candidate subsequently declares his or her candidacy for any elected municipal office, he or she may maintain the same campaign finance account. However, if the candidate seeks a municipal office which is subject to lower campaign contribution limits than the previously sought office, the candidate shall return all contributions in excess of the limits for the municipal office sought.

(1)

The transferor committee's available funds shall be viewed as those contributions most recently received that add up to the amount of cash on hand.

(2)

Contributions transferred must be aggregated with any contributions made by the same donor to the committee receiving the transfer. Amounts that would cause a contributor to exceed his or her pre-election cycle contribution limit must be excluded from the transfer.

(Ord. No. 99538, § 1, 8-5-04; Ord. No. 100284, § 3, 1-13-05; Ord. No. 2006-03-02-0269, § 1(Exh. A), 3-2-06)

Editor's note—

Ord. No. 100284, § 3, adopted January 13, 2005, changed the title of § 2-305 from "Single campaign account" to "Single account."

Sec. 2-306. - Campaign bank account statements.

A candidate for mayor or city council or the campaign treasurer, or specific-purpose political action committee registered with the city and formed for the purpose of supporting a candidate for mayor or city council, must send a campaign account statement directly to the designated campaign finance enforcement authority once a month within five (5) business days of receiving the statement from the financial institution. The candidate may choose to direct the financial institution to send a copy of the statement directly to the campaign finance enforcement authority.

The office of the city clerk shall serve as the official records repository for the municipal campaign finance authority.

(Ord. No. 99538, § 1, 8-5-04; Ord. No. 2006-03-02-0269, § 1(Exh. A), 3-2-06; Ord. No. 2009-06-25-0553, § 1(Att. A), 6-25-09)

Editor's note—

Ord. No. 2009-06-25-0553, § 1(Att. A), adopted June 25, 2009, changed the title of § 2-306 from "Campaign account statements" to "Campaign bank account statements."

Sec. 2-307. - Electronic filing of campaign finance reports.

(a)

Candidates for mayor or city council and officeholders will electronically file and update contribution and expenditure reports required under the Texas Elections Code with the office of the city clerk.

(b)

In general and runoff elections, candidates for mayor or city council or specific-purpose political action committees registered with the city and formed for the purpose of supporting a candidate for mayor or city council, shall also electronically file an additional three-day campaign finance contributions report. This report is to be filed no later than 5:00 p.m. on the third calendar day preceding the general or run-off election day. This report is in addition to the reports required by the Texas Election Code. If this deadline falls on a weekend or on a city holiday, the report will be due no later than 5:00 p.m. on the next business day.

(c)

The city will provide access to computer equipment for candidates to file the electronic reports. A candidate, officeholder, or political committee that is required to file electronic reports under this chapter may apply for an exemption if:

(1)

The candidate, officeholder, or campaign treasurer of the committee files with the office of the city clerk an affidavit stating that the candidate, officeholder, or committee, an agent of the candidate, officeholder, or committee, or a person with whom the candidate, officeholder, or committee contracts does not use computer equipment to keep the current records of political contributions, political expenditures, or persons making political contributions to the candidate, officeholder, or committee; and

(2)

The candidate, officeholder, or committee does not, in a calendar year, accept political contributions that in the aggregate exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) or make political expenditures that in the aggregate exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00).

(d)

The city will post the contribution and expenditure reports through a designated elections website.

(e)

Knowingly failing to timely file a report required by this section is a violation hereof, as is the knowingly filing of a report with incorrect, misleading, or incomplete information. If an individual inadvertently files an incorrect or incomplete report, it is his or her responsibility to file an amended report as soon as possible, though no later than fourteen (14) days after discovery of the error or after the error should have reasonably been discovered.

(Ord. No. 100284, § 4, 1-13-05; Ord. No. 2006-03-02-0269, § 1(Exh. A), 3-2-06; Ord. No. 2009-06-25-0553, § 1(Att. A), 6-25-09)

Editor's note—

Ord. No. 100284, § 4, adopted January 13, 2005, amended § 2-307 in its entirety to read as herein set out. Formerly, § 2-307 pertained to electronic campaign finance filing and derived from Ord. No. 99538, § 1, adopted August 5, 2004.
 Ord. No. 2009-06-25-0553, § 1(Att. A), adopted June 25, 2009, changed the title of § 2-307 from "Electronic filing" to "Electronic filing of campaign finance reports."