Bonds attract big donations and it's all perfectly legal
Salomon Smith Barney gives $25,000 to Yes on Measure E
Contributions a free speech issue
By Oakley Brooks
Two different school bond measures went before Saratoga voters March 5--one sank, one swam.
But there was a common buoy for both of the campaigns: fat donations from contractors who stood to benefit from the bonds' passage.
Some of the largest single donations from supporters of the failed $268 million West Valley-Mission Community College District bond and the successful $19.9 million Saratoga Union School District bond came from investment firms seeking to handle the lucrative bond transaction.
New York-based Salomon Smith Barney gave $25,000 to the Yes on Measure E campaign at West Valley, part of the roughly $150,000 campaign secretary Ash Pirayou says that Yes on E raised.
UBS PaineWebber Inc., which sold bonds for Saratoga Union's 1997 Measure D construction effort and contributed $12,000 to that campaign, also pitched in another $12,000 toward the passage of Measure L this year.
"They want it passed," said Saratoga Union business manager Ellen Tipton. "We have other vendors that have donated in the past."
Other vendors chipped in this year as well. HMC Architects, responsible for current construction within the Saratoga district, contributed $5,000 for the recently passed Measure L. Sobrato Development Companies added $2,500 to the more than $53,000 Friends of Saratoga Schools raised for the Saratoga Union bond.
And with a new technology center slated for construction with bond money at West Valley, Santa Clara tech infrastructure giant Applied Materials added $25,000 to the college bond campaign.
The contributions in the college bond election didn't set well with everyone. On Feb. 23, Saratogan Cynthia Barry, an active member of the No on E campaign, faxed the Saratoga News a copy of county financial reports showing Salomon Smith Barney's contribution. Barry called the infusion of special interest money, "in some ways, worse than Enron."
"I don't know that the general public is really aware of it," said West Valley Homeowners Association President Vic Monia, who estimates he and others raised between $40,000-$45,000 to fight Measure E.
Neither side has yet filed its final financial statements with the county.
But just as in national political campaigns, special-interest money is perfectly legal in local elections, says county Assistant District Attorney Bill Larsen, a specialist in campaign finance law. And in most local elections there are no contribution limits, so potential contractors can give as much as they'd like.
Larsen says any challenges to the clout of special-interest money have met a common reaction in federal courts.
"The court has referred to it as the mother's milk of politics," he says.
Pirayou, a veteran election consultant in the South Bay, says that the contributions on the $25,000 level for the college bond campaign are not out of the ordinary, given the amount of the bond.
Tipton says she doesn't believe the campaign money affects the school district's relationship with potential contractors. When campaign volunteers solicit donations from the vendors, the companies have the option of refusing, Tipton notes.
"If for some reason they choose not to give, I don't think that would change our attitude towards them," she adds.
Even Monia defends the right to contribute as fundamental.
"It's a free-speech issue," he says. "I don't have a problem with giving as much as you can."
According to Larsen, the free-speech issue is the very one that has stopped any reform efforts on special-interest money.
"Attacks are on shaky ground because of free speech," says Larsen. "Who gives is not restricted; that's the bottom line."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
