Campaign Finance Board Gets with the Program on 20th Anniversary
Angela Shelton sat under the fluorescent lights at the Campaign Finance Board a few weeks ago wondering what she had gotten herself into this time.
When David Hooks Jr., a third-time candidate for Council from Far Rockaway, asked her to be his treasurer for his campaign next year, she quickly agreed. She assumed it would be easy.
Then came two hours of training on C-SMART, the CFB's proprietary software that feeds into the board's online public database.
“Now I am feeling overwhelmed,” Shelton said. “I did not realize the extent of transparency that is needed or how important the treasurer was.”
Shelton was one of 11 participants that Wednesday evening at the required training session. They heard John Westhoff, deputy director of the CFB candidate services unit, who debuted the newest C-SMART features. The new system enables campaigns to generate reports and call lists based on contributor demographics, provides a template for thank-you and refund letters, and incorporates a better interface to file according to state deadlines.
A record number of candidates are expected to run in the city next year, and as the epicenter for monitoring campaigns and enforcing compliance, the CFB has come up with a number of ways to stay on top of the surge.
The C-SMART upgrades which also now allow the program to interface with QuickBooks and MS Money are just part of the effort as the Board celebrates its 20th anniversary. In February, the CFB radically revamped its website and hosted a conference at Fordham University on its history and future.
Next up for the Board is creating a web-based portal for campaigns to keep track of filing deadlines. Ultimately, the board's in-house programmers hope to redesign the notoriously complicated online searchable database before next year's elections, said Eric Friedman, the CFB press secretary.
“Often the only time people hear about us is when we have to penalize someone,” Friedman said. “The goal is to get people to think ‘Hey, I could be a City Councilman.’”
First time Council candidate Rafael Figuereo, who lives in Washington Heights and attended the recent training session, welcomed any steps to make his filing process easier. Still, he said he did not have the time to input demographic data like the sexual orientations or names of the universities that his contributors attended.
“If you are a candidate with a lot of money, you can hire someone to file,” he said. “It is not something difficult to do, but it will take time.”
The Board has taken steps to ensure privacy and security for all the information entered into the system. No information will be uploaded to the CFB's servers, Friedman said.
Andrew Ehrlich, treasurer for Council Member Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan), was one of a handful of campaign workers who participated in focus groups for the redesign of C-SMART. He said he was happy with its result. By using the new software for the filing period which ended in January, Ehrlich said he shaved off about at third of the time he would usually spend inputting data, though he did not generate thank-you letters or use other new features.
“It is a huge step forward,” Ehrlich said.
His main critique, echoed by several other campaign treasurers, was that the program could not be used on more than one computer at once, which limited the number of people who could work on the filings.
The new version of C-SMART has now been sent out to all candidates with active accounts with the CFB.
Phil Goldfeder, director of operations for Council Member and expected comptroller candidate Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), said Felder's campaign plans to compare the functionality and capability of the new program to the software he has been using.
“I can't say that I will jump on it in the first day,” he said. “But I would probably use it.”
When David Hooks Jr., a third-time candidate for Council from Far Rockaway, asked her to be his treasurer for his campaign next year, she quickly agreed. She assumed it would be easy.
Then came two hours of training on C-SMART, the CFB's proprietary software that feeds into the board's online public database.
“Now I am feeling overwhelmed,” Shelton said. “I did not realize the extent of transparency that is needed or how important the treasurer was.”
Shelton was one of 11 participants that Wednesday evening at the required training session. They heard John Westhoff, deputy director of the CFB candidate services unit, who debuted the newest C-SMART features. The new system enables campaigns to generate reports and call lists based on contributor demographics, provides a template for thank-you and refund letters, and incorporates a better interface to file according to state deadlines.
A record number of candidates are expected to run in the city next year, and as the epicenter for monitoring campaigns and enforcing compliance, the CFB has come up with a number of ways to stay on top of the surge.
The C-SMART upgrades which also now allow the program to interface with QuickBooks and MS Money are just part of the effort as the Board celebrates its 20th anniversary. In February, the CFB radically revamped its website and hosted a conference at Fordham University on its history and future.
Next up for the Board is creating a web-based portal for campaigns to keep track of filing deadlines. Ultimately, the board's in-house programmers hope to redesign the notoriously complicated online searchable database before next year's elections, said Eric Friedman, the CFB press secretary.
“Often the only time people hear about us is when we have to penalize someone,” Friedman said. “The goal is to get people to think ‘Hey, I could be a City Councilman.’”
First time Council candidate Rafael Figuereo, who lives in Washington Heights and attended the recent training session, welcomed any steps to make his filing process easier. Still, he said he did not have the time to input demographic data like the sexual orientations or names of the universities that his contributors attended.
“If you are a candidate with a lot of money, you can hire someone to file,” he said. “It is not something difficult to do, but it will take time.”
The Board has taken steps to ensure privacy and security for all the information entered into the system. No information will be uploaded to the CFB's servers, Friedman said.
Andrew Ehrlich, treasurer for Council Member Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan), was one of a handful of campaign workers who participated in focus groups for the redesign of C-SMART. He said he was happy with its result. By using the new software for the filing period which ended in January, Ehrlich said he shaved off about at third of the time he would usually spend inputting data, though he did not generate thank-you letters or use other new features.
“It is a huge step forward,” Ehrlich said.
His main critique, echoed by several other campaign treasurers, was that the program could not be used on more than one computer at once, which limited the number of people who could work on the filings.
The new version of C-SMART has now been sent out to all candidates with active accounts with the CFB.
Phil Goldfeder, director of operations for Council Member and expected comptroller candidate Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), said Felder's campaign plans to compare the functionality and capability of the new program to the software he has been using.
“I can't say that I will jump on it in the first day,” he said. “But I would probably use it.”
