The West Hollywood City Council on Monday adopted two recommendations from the Ethics Reform Task Force regarding political campaign finances, lobbying and gifts.

The city will now require independent committees – that are set up to support or oppose candidates or measures – to identify their top three donors on all campaign material. The city council members also agreed to codify the city’s gift regulations. City officials and employees are not allowed to make or accept gifts from anyone unless it is edible and can be shared, can be displayed publicly at city hall, or is conveyed immediately upon receipt to the city manager and used as a raffle prize. The proceeds would be donated to a charity or deposited in the city’s general fund. Violations of city ordinances would be punishable as misdemeanors or infractions with a fine.

Councilman John Heilman said the updates are long overdue.

The city council postponed the decision to create a local version of the Political Reform Act’s behested donations rule. The recommendation from the task force is to lower the reporting threshold from $5,000 to $1,000 for payments made for legislative, governmental or charitable purposes that are made at the behest of a city official.

Heilman said he doesn’t support a local law for behested donations because there is already a state law in place. Councilman John Duran said the motion applies mostly to him because he is a member of three nonprofit boards. He said he is not sure what the rule would achieve, and that it would take a great deal of labor to track who donates to the nonprofit organizations that he works with.

The council asked staff to come back with a clearer definition of “behested” after members expressed uncertainty about the rule. Heilman and Duran said they don’t want to unknowingly violate a law while soliciting for donations to a charity organization outside of city hall.

The city council members also decided not to approve a recommendation to increase the campaign contribution limit from $500 to $550 and increase it an additional $50 every 10 years. Duran and Heilman said it would be “silly” to raise it by $50. Joe Guardarrama, a member of the task force, said they wanted to strike a balance, acknowledging that nonprofits do a lot of good public work and the public’s desire for transparency.

The council members also postponed considering a motion that would require reports from anyone – including lobbyists, neighborhood associations or nonprofits – who spends more than $5,000 to influence city government in a quarter.

Councilman John D’Amico suggested the city prohibit elected officials from asking for donations from city contractors or property owners and businesses with applications or development agreements pending with the city.

“I think there has been in the past a sense that when a developer comes to town they bring a lot of donations to our local nonprofits and they get what they want and are never heard from again,” he said. “It would be better for all of us if we were limited in that way.

However since donations and campaign contributions are protected under the First Amendment, City Attorney Mike Jenkins explained West Hollywood might not be able to prohibit the donations, and can only require disclosures.

Guardarrama said the most important recommendation the task force made is a requirement that campaign finance reports be submitted directly to the city electronically. Currently, campaign finance reports are submitted on paper to the city clerk’s office, which manually reviews filings. The task force recommends a program that puts data in the system so anyone can easily compare and contrast information.

“It can be very troubling to look at PDFs to find out who has given and who hasn’t,” he said.

As part of the next budget cycle, the city clerk’s office will request funds to implement the electronic filing system for campaign finance reports. The clerk’s office will also schedule additional candidate forums beginning with the March 2017 election.

The three-member task force was made up of Bob Stern, from the Center for Governmental Studies, who co-authored the Political Reform Act of 1974; Guardarrama, a government ethics attorney with Kaufman Legal Group and former city commissioner; and Elizabeth Ralston, who was formerly president of the League of Women Voters in L.A.

The task force was formed by the city council earlier this year to improve transparency and voter participation and keep government officials accountable. After making final recommendations in 2015, the city council agreed to consider recommendations on a month-by-month basis.