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But spokesman Sean McMorris with the good-government group Common Cause California said in an interview that if Modesto believes Rank Investigation & Protection is the best company, then the city should have proved it by having it compete through a request for proposals. “If this is the best person for the job,” he said, “they still will get the contract if it goes out to an RFP.” McMorris said there is no justifiable reason for a city not to issue a large contract through a request for proposals or other formal competitive process that will draw a lot of responses, giving a city a full range of companies to evaluate before picking one.

When the Los Angeles City Council ultimately approved the new system Wednesday, the California Clean Money Campaign, California Common Cause and other groups said they were sorely disappointed.

A candidate paying himself a salary is “highly irregular,” said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, who thinks the vast majority of candidates would refrain from doing it for fear it would look bad to voters and potential campaign donors.

Kati Phillips, spokeswoman for California Common Cause, which supports campaign finance reform, predicted the measure is not going away. “We will see this again,” she said.

When corporate profits are at stake, campaign spending often balloons, said Kati Phillips of California Common Cause, which advocates campaign finance reform. “Health care measures are expensive,” she said. “There’s a lot of money to be made off of sick people.”

California’s campaign finance watchdog agency voted Thursday to prohibit the use of cryptocurrency including bitcoin for political contributions in the state amid concerns that the anonymity it provides would make it difficult to identify who is trying to influence elections.