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The Democracy Fund, New Havens public campaign financing program, took a step last night toward extending its services to races for the Board of Alders.

The funds board met Wednesday night, after last weeks meeting was postponed when the absence of secretary William Wynn prevented the board from achieving a quorum. The fund, which was established in 2006, aims to support clean elections by offering grants and matching funds to candidates who do not accept donations from PACs or corporations and do not accept private donations exceeding $370. At yesterdays meeting, the board discussed extending the fund to include more local elections namely races for alder, city clerk, voter registrar and probate judge in addition to mayoral and state-level races, including state senators and representatives.

Were trying to get an understanding of under what circumstances the Board of Alders would allow an expansion of the fund, Fund Administrator Alyson Heimer said.

Heimer prepared a questionnaire, which was up for discussion at the meeting, for the Board of Alders to gauge their interest in using the fund. After a brief review, the funds board members unanimously approved the questionnaire and moved to send it to the alders.

As administrator, Heimer must file a request regarding the expansion to present to the alders by the end of the month. The Democracy Fund board entered into an executive session, separate from the review, last night and discussed the potential format of such a presentation behind closed doors.

At last weeks informal meeting, members of the funds board agreed that the Board of Alders would likely have questions about the impact on the city budget if the proposal to extend the Democracy Fund to Board of Alders races were to pass.

Yesterday, Democracy Fund Chair Jared Milfred 16 suggested that a report he prepared last year, which includes an analysis of the costs of aldermanic races, could be utilized to supplement the funds presentation to ease any concerns about the increased costs of an expansion. In the report, Milfred found that the average amount spent on an aldermanic race was $3,367 less than 1 percent of the Democracy Funds current operating budget of $342,581 for the 201516 fiscal year. There are 30 members of the Board of Alders.

Heimer will meet with Mayor Toni Harp today to discuss the funds place in the 2015 budget. She said she does not foresee requesting any additional funding from the Board of Alders.

Meetings between the funds board and the Board of Alders will also help determine whether the Democracy Fund will extend only grants, only matching funds or both services to Board of Alders candidates, Milfred said. While grants are direct donations to campaigns, through matching funds, the Democracy Fund matches private donations from $10 to $25 on a 2:1 basis.

At the meeting last night, Heimer also proposed that the fund update its grant and matching fund amounts to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. Although the funds by-laws call for a re-evaluation of these amounts every four years, some figures have not been updated since 2008.

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Democracy Fund may extend services to Board of Alders races