For the past six years, $300,000 in city funds has remained untouched. The city currently has that amount in its public financing pot for City Council and mayoral candidates to use in their campaigns, according to Assistant City Clerk Stephanie Mizuno.

But Rick Bettis, an active member of the Sacramento County League of Women Voters, said he thinks that many people don’t know the city’s public financing money exists.

“It doesn’t really jump out at you,” Bettis said.

Since the public fund was set up in 2003, only one candidate has used the money, according to Mizuno. In 2004, Craig DeLuz, a City Council candidate in District 2, used about $17,000 in public campaign funds, Mizuno said.

In Bettis’ view, public financing takes campaigns “out of the hands of the big contributors.”

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters urged the city years ago to set up the fund and enact other campaign finance and public disclosure measures, Bettis said.

Mizuno noted that the city has kept $300,000 in its public finance pot each year since it was established, with the exception of 2008. That year, a portion of the funds were used to pay for some of the city’s election costs, Mizuno said. But no one qualified for public financing in 2008, she said, which meant that it was not being used.

How does the city’s public financing program work?

A City Council candidate needs to follow specific criteria to use the public funds. The candidate must abide by an $88,000 spending cap, engage in one public meeting and turn in certain forms. In addition, the candidate is told to gather $7,500 for his or her campaign, according to the city’s guide to public campaign funds. In order for a candidate to use funds, his or her opponent needs to also be eligible to use public money.

A City Council candidate can receive as much as $35,200 in public matching funds for his or her campaign, according to the city document.

The amounts for mayoral candidates differ from the figures above.

Read the city’s guide to the public financing process here.

What is the fate of the program?

The city’s public financing fund has been in local headlines lately because Councilman Steve Cohn has raised the idea of putting the money toward other uses. The city is facing a $35 million-$40 million budget deficit for the 2010/2011 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 11 report.

Cohn’s comment about diverting the funds raised the ire of building contractor Shawn Eldredge, who is opposing Cohn in the City Council race for District 3. Eldredge noted in a Feb. 20 press release that he wants to use the public money. Real estate broker Chris Little is also running for the District 3 seat.

Cohn said in a Feb. 26 Sacramento Bee story that he did not know Eldredge intended to use the funds.

Photo of Shawn Eldredge by David Watts Barton.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.