In Our Opinion

It took a couple of years, but the City Council finally passed an ethics ordinance, as required by the City Charter.

Unfortunately, it’s still flawed.

A few weeks ago we outlined two areas that needed to be weeded out, and the City Council righted one of them.

However, the council kept in a requirement for all candidates for local office to submit campaign financial reports with the City Clerk – even if they receive or spend less than $1,000.

According to state election law, candidates who spend or receive less than $1,000 are exempt from filing a financial report. Why on earth would Hamtramck require filing a burdensome financial report?

Because Councilmember Scott Klein insists there enough candidates who lie about what they spend just to avoid filing a report. We’re sure that’s happened in the past and will continue in the future. But how widespread is this?

By requiring all candidates to file these reports, even if they only spend a couple of hundred bucks, the city is going to turn off would-be candidates. Few people are going to be willing to run for office and make out a financial report for spending a little money.

And if fewer people run for office, that means voters will be denied a wider field of candidates to choose from.

There is no good reason to have stricter requirements for a local office. It’s frustrating that the council can’t pass a simple, straight up ethics ordinance.