All right, Jelani, we're live.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Just want to welcome you all to our limited public financing program training this afternoon.

And so we will allow folks to log in on Zoom and we will get started momentarily.

So once again, just want to say good afternoon to everybody and want to say thank you for joining us for our limited public financing program training.

This requirement to participate and the LPF program for the 2020 election will be fulfilled upon completion of this training.

And we're happy that you are all joining as you're taking this step and running for public office.

And so as people are still logging in, we'll get started in just a moment.

But just want to say that this training will probably last about 30 to 45 minutes.

And depending on how many questions we have, we'll be able to engage you all, answer any questions that you may have regarding the process and moving through the limited public financing program.

Once again, my name is Jelani Killings.

I'm an ethics analyst with the city's public ethics commission.

I'm also joined by our administrative assistant Anna Lara, who will be monitoring any questions that you all may have.

Feel free to submit them as we're going through the presentation, and I'd be happy to stop and answer or bring any clarity to any of the questions that you may have about the program.

So with that, we're gonna go ahead and get started this afternoon.

So just want to share a little bit about the public ethics commission.

Starting off, uh we're currently staffed at about six employees.

Our executive director is Whitney Barazzotto.

Uh also once again, my name is Jelani Killings.

I'm an ethics analyst and our administrative assistant Anna Lara, who joins me uh this afternoon in assistance.

We also have our executive director, Whitney Barozotto.

Um, and so in navigating and going through the program, uh you will be interacting uh most likely with myself and Anna Lara as you process your reimburs reimbursement and submit uh your packets for the LPF program.

But also just want to share with you in case you receive any communications from any other commission staff.

Uh we also have our commissioners listed here as well.

Uh, we do have a seven-member body uh of Oakland residents who serve on our commission and who help oversee and direct the public ethics commission.

And just a little bit about our brief history about the commission.

We are an independent body here in the city of Oakland, uh, founded in 1996, and really with the purpose of ensuring that there's fairness, openness, honesty, and integrity here in city government and really valuing and building public trust.

Uh, when people think of the public ethics commission, they usually think all things ethics.

Um can get pretty broad in terms of what they call our office for.

Uh, but we actually have specific uh jurisdiction and oversight that is given by the city charter and also enabling uh legislation uh that has been passed here in the city of Oakland.

Uh so there are really three buckets or key areas that we focus on as a commission.

One is the area of government ethics.

Uh, the other is what you were here for today, dealing with campaign finance, and we also oversee laws related to transparency uh here in the city of Oakland, primarily the Sunshine Ordinance as well as the Lobbyist Registration Act.

So today's training is specifically about uh the limited public financing program here in the city of Oakland.

The limited public financing program provides a limited amount of funding by way of reimbursements to district city council candidates here in the city of Oakland for qualified or certain campaign expenditures.

The limited public financing program was created in 1999.

And so when it was originally created, it actually was a different model as a matching program and included all city offices here in the city of Oakland.

But there was an amendment that was made to the Limited Public Financing Act in 2010.

And when it was amended, it shifted to a reimbursement model in which we administer today, as well as limited to just district city council candidate races.

And so the purpose of the limited public financing act uh are listed here.

One was to ensure that individuals have a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the elective and governmental process, uh looking to reduce the influence of large contributors, easing the pressure on candidates to raise large amounts of money.

This is a key one as well is really to encourage competition for elective office and allow candidates to spend less time fundraising and more time dealing with important constituent and community issues.

This is something that our office is continuing to look at as well as doing a project and looking at equity as well as looking at any barriers for public participation in the campaign process and seeing if there are opportunities to improve the public financing program here in the city of Oakland.

And so I note that because as you all are now engaging and looking to go through the public financing program, uh we always solicit your feedback, uh anything that we can do to improve the program and definitely welcome uh you to share your experience as you participate in this 2020 election.

So now just moving on to sharing uh what funds are available uh in the limited public financing program.

So for the 2020 election, the total amount uh available in the limited public financing account is approximately 153,000.

And so the way that that 153,000 is distributed is done in two phases here in the limited public financing program.

So phase one really just looks at the total amount of funds being the 153,000 and divides that evenly among all of the candidates who opt into the program uh and meet our Form 1 LPF deadline of August 27th.

And so we'll initially take uh and we'll go through that scenario with phase one a little bit later in the training.

Uh but essentially what we're looking at now is the 17 candidates that were certified by the city clerk.

Uh, if you take that 153,000 and divide it amongst those 17 candidates, that's what uh would be available in this first phase one.

Uh phase two uh looks at a reader redistribution.

Um so once uh we have a September 18th deadline in which uh candidates must submit their first reimbursement for the program.

We will redistribute the untouched phase fund uh untouched phase one funds after that initial September 18th deadline to those who submitted their first initial reimbursement.

And so we'll talk a little bit more in depth about phase two as we move along.

But essentially, what phase two wants to do is to maximize uh the money that is being allocated to candidates to ensure that all the money is distributed from the limited public financing account and nothing is left over at the end of the election.

So, as I noted in terms of phase one, there are 17 candidates that were certified by the city clerk back on August 13th for a district city council member districts in one, three, five, and seven.

So now as we talk about phase one, uh so looking at all the candidates that were certified uh by district by the city clerk's office uh on August 13th, uh we look and we have about seven, we have 17 candidates.

And so the total amount of funds that are available to each candidate for phase one is at least $9,000.

And just want to note once again that this amount depends on how many candidates actually opt into the program by that August 27th deadline.