Meals, hotels, office supplies: City leaders want to be able to raise more money for ‘officeholder’ expenses

When someone wants to run for a local government office in California, they normally create what’s called a “candidate committee,” basically a special bank account that they can use to raise money. Legally, contributions can be used to pay for things like yard signs and television ads.

But there’s another type of political committee, known as an officeholder account . Elected officials often use money from these committees to pay for the expenses of holding office, including meals, travel, hotels, and mailers about city events. Elected officials can also make donations to civic organizations from these committees. Officeholder accounts can be used to pay for most political and governmental activities, but not expenditures for a future election or wages for staff. They also can’t be used