As you may know, Asbury Park is poised to become the first New Jersey city with any appreciable redevelopment to consider a "good government" ordinance limiting campaign contributions from (re)developers.

Two years ago - with help from a group called Common Cause - the last council (Jim Bruno, John Loffredo, Kevin Sanders, John Hamilton and myself) became one of the first New Jersey bodies to pass a "pay-to-play" ordinance that strictly limits campaign donations from attorneys, engineers and other professionals who contract with the city.

We also became one of the first New Jersey towns to pass a related ordinance requiring developers to publicly disclose all campaign donations whenever they apply for a land use variance.

Ideally, that ordinance should have limited developer donations or banned them outright, but Common Cause advised against it. Why? Their legal experts worried that influential developers might protest on constitutional grounds, and they wanted to ensure that towns were not hit with frustrating lawsuits.

Which is why Asbury Park city attorney Fred Raffetto deserves a gold star on his collar: Fred is also the Hightstown attorney, and he devised an apparently bullet-proof twist that let Hightstown safely limit developer contributions.

Essentially, Hightstown writes these limits into the formal development agreement that each builder voluntarily signs with the town.

Using Fred's added step, Common Cause and its spin-off group, the Citizens Campaign, developed a model pay-to-play ordinance for developers, very similar to the one we passed limiting campaign donations by city professionals.

And it is this model ordinance that we're hoping Asbury Park will adopt by year's end. (Speaking of disclosure, this is probably a good place to note that I accepted a volunteer position as the Monmouth County co-chair for the Citizens Campaign this summer -- basically because I admired their work during my council days. The other co-chair is Benson Chiles of Atlantic Highlands.)

So where do things stand in Asbury Park?

At the council's invitation, the Citizens' Campaign -- and local volunteers Dave Christopher and Pam Lamberton -- answered questions about the model developer ordinance at the September 5 city council workshop.

The council then authorized Fred Raffetto to draw up a version suitable for Asbury Park. That proposal is now ready to go, and I'm hoping to see it on the Nov. 14 council agenda.

But what about all those Asbury Park developers who have already signed redeveloper agreements - including Asbury Partners and the three beachfront subdevelopers? Would they be exempt from campaign donation limits?

Luckily, the model ordinance provides a remedy for that, requiring current developers to accept campaign limits the next time they update their agreements - as they invariably do.

Still -- given Asbury Park's large-scale redevelopment and our need to recover from a long-established reputation for government corruption -- I would hope that every current developer, from the beachfront to the downtown, would step forward and publicly adopt these limits as soon as the ordinance is passed.

It will certainly tell us a lot about their integrity and intentions toward Asbury Park. And it would set a real standard for other towns with major redevelopment projects to follow.

Recently, a handful of us attended a Monmouth County Freeholders meeting, asking them to consider pay-to-play legislation at the county level. Because of their concern that political parties will "wheel" money between counties to hide the source of donations, we are going to have a harder sell there.

But we plan to stick with them - and we hope you will voice your support when the time comes. (And if you want to learn more about introducing pay-to-play legislation in your own town, call Heather Taylor at the Citizens Campaign, 732-548-9798.)

So, city council members, make us proud. (After all, the four members of the "Future Started Here" team already returned developer contributions during the last election, so this shouldn't be a stretch.)

And Asbury Park residents, please tell the council that you want them to pass meaningful pay-to-play limits for redevelopers - and thank them when they do.

There's plenty of gold stars for everyone.