Sacramento Ethics Commission Dismisses Campaign Contribution Complaints, Finds no Violations
John Pelissero is a senior scholar in government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. He said the campaign fundraising limits are designed to create a level of fairness and should be clear to all candidates. Pelissero added that the fact Valenzuela later returned contributions to bring her total below the limit demonstrates ethical awareness.
“But I think there's also a level of ethical awareness that the whole City Council needs to own,” Pelissero said. “And that is that they created, perhaps unintentionally, a situation that kind of undermines the trust that the public can have in how elections are going to be conducted in the city of Sacramento.”
John Pelissero, Director, Government ethics, quoted by Capital Public Radio.