![At Monday's finance committee meeting at Cleveland city hall, council members will discuss requiring financial disclosures for initiative and referendum petitions. [Nick Castele / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0cab639/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x520+0+0/resize/840x446!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F11%2F17%2F0530clecityhall.jpg)
People collecting petition signatures for local ballot measures in Cleveland would have to disclose their spending if legislation now before city council goes into effect.
The rules would require initiative or referendum efforts to list all payments to petition circulators, including dollar amounts, names and addresses.
Paying someone to sign a petition, or promising them a government appointment in exchange, would be prohibited. Fines range from $100 to $500 for trying to buy a signature.
Ohio law already requires this for municipalities. But Cleveland was exempt from those state rules, because the city charter lays out its own local process for initiatives.
Still, at least one group already followed those rules. Last year, the Service Employees International Union District 1199 disclosed spending on a petition drive to raise Cleveland’s minimum wage.
Council President Kevin Kelley introduced the spending disclosure legislation this summer. Council’s finance committee is scheduled to take a look at it Monday afternoon.
