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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Campaigns owe more than $60,000 in overdue-report fines, Genesee County clerk-register says
Print Sarah Schuch | sschuch@mlive.com By Sarah Schuch | sschuch@mlive.com The Flint Journal
on June 07, 2013 at 6:00 PM, updated June 07, 2013 at 6:05 PM
GENESEE COUNTY, MI – The unpaid-fines cases of three candidates for Flint city council have landed before the Michigan Attorney General for collection after Genesee County Clerk-Register of Deeds John Gleason found 57 campaign committees owe $61,485 for filing late reports.
The clerk's office on Wednesday, June 4, sent overdue-fines cases for Flint city council candidates Eric Mays, Alex Harris and Michael Harris to the Attorney General's office.
When candidates file for an election, they sign an affidavit that states "At this date, all statements, reports, late filing fees, and fines due from me or any Candidate committee organized to support my election to office under Michigan Campaign Finance Act, P.A. 388 of 1976, have been filed or paid."
If, however, that is not true, the county clerk's office will send a notice to the candidate. If the issue is not resolved, the case is sent to the Attorney General's office for review.
According to county records, Mays owes $3,300 in campaign finance fines under the Friends of Eric Mays committee. Alex Harris owes a total of $3,500 between the Friends of Alex Harris and Committee to Recall Offensive Obstinate Kook.
Mays said there is a lot of miscommunication in the clerk's office when it comes to campaign finances and he was given a lot of different information when trying to figure out the situation.
His first penalty came in 2008, so he questioned why his case wasn't brought to the attorney general in 2009, when he ran for Flint mayor.
"If you're coming at me now when I'm a front runner, why didn't we have this stance in 2009?" Mays asked. "It's the sloppiness of the clerk's (office)."
Mays said he would work to pay the fines once he gets more information and finds out how much he actually owes.
"I would love to have this paid quickly. But it's just been a lot of misinformation from the clerk. And I'm trying to prove that. As soon as they give me proper information, I will deal," Mays said.
Alex Harris said he tried to resolve the problem when he found out about it.
"This whole matter stems from my simple oversight of many years ago in failing to check 'a single box' (for a waiver) in a campaign statement form in regarding the (Don) Williamson recall. I was not aware this was a problem until the last number of weeks. Since then, I've repeatedly attempted to resolve the matter in a fair and responsible manner," Alex Harris said.
"Rather than seek a just and fair resolution, Mr. Gleason has chosen to exploit the matter for obvious political reason. It now becomes abundantly clear that diverting attention away from his own political missteps and failures as clerk is at the heart of this contrived political ploy, manufactured and driven by a politician ill-equipped to serve in such an important and responsible position in county government."
Records showed that Michael Harris owed $1,000 under the Friends of Michael Harris committee and the case was initially sent to the Attorney General's office. Michael Harris said that the fines were taken care of years ago, so he was surprised to see them come up again.
After reviewing Michael Harris' situation and finding more documents, Gleason said everything had been cleared up. A letter would be sent to the attorney general saying there was no longer a case against him.
Gleason says he found the records of campaign-reporting fines a confusing mess after he took office in January.
Clerk's office officials admit that proper procedures were in place in the past, but officials are now working to settle the debt.
"We don't have a good system for closing out these accounts. It's a terrible system," Gleason said. "We are moving forward. ... We intend to enforce the letter of the law."
Gleason admits fines were not handled efficiently in the past, how fines were handled in the past and procedures in the office and were confusing and irregular. But that's about to change, he said.
"There's no doubt that there's confusion. There's no doubt that some people were treated differently than others. But I'm just going to follow the law," said Gleason, who became clerk-register on Jan. 1. "People need to understand that there's not going to be any guesswork anymore, (just) whatever the law says."
Officials began discussing how to collect the fines a few years ago, said Doreen Fulcher, Genesee County elections supervisor.
Before, the clerk's office would simply send out two notices – one warning candidates with overdue reports that they will be fined, and another saying they have been fined – but nothing was really done past that, she said. As of December, the treasurer's office began to get involved and more notices were sent out.
Committees and candidates can be fined if they fail to create a campaign committee or fail to file a report when required. Fines range from $10 to $25 per day, with maximum fines ranging from $300 to $500.
But besides sending out notices, there really wasn't much the office could do to collect the fines, Fulcher said.
Once the clerk's office began learning more about the law, staff realized a workable next step was to send a list to the treasurer's office. Figuring out how, exactly, to get people to pay their campaign fines is still a work in progress, but once the treasurer's office got involved some fines have been paid, Fulcher said.
After researching the law, county staff members have begun cracking down on candidates who have outstanding fines.
Gleason's hoping to modernize the system as soon as possible and get rid of the guesswork. Gleason said he will continue to work with candidates and committees that owe fines to see what can be done to make the process smoother.
Gleason said he will also discuss the possibility of focusing only on the fines that go back two years, and forgetting the rest.
"I'm willing to do that because we haven't done a very good job notifying these people," Gleason said. "We've been working diligently trying to help resolve some of these. I have talked to some that we are trying to work out some of the inconsistencies with them. But we are following the law."
Fulcher also hopes that the new process will remind candidates and their committees that fine notices should be taken seriously.
"(John Gleason) very much wants to see (the process) continue forward. We want to collect the debt owed to the county," Fulcher said. |
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Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:28 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Alex Harris said he tried to resolve the problem when he found out about it.
"This whole matter stems from my simple oversight of many years ago in failing to check 'a single box' (for a waiver) in a campaign statement form in regarding the (Don) Williamson recall. I was not aware this was a problem until the last number of weeks. Since then, I've repeatedly attempted to resolve the matter in a fair and responsible manner," Alex Harris said.
The issue is far more than a $1,000 waiver as Harris bragged to the Flint Journal that the campaign to recall Williamson raised far more than that amount. The donation also did not include the free rent and utilities the campaign received. |
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Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:34 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Kudos to Gleason for finally enforcing the campaign laws. Former county employee Rob Coffman bragged about how he helped his Burton friends circumvent the law.
Employees did not always understand the laws either. I remember when Eric Mays told me he received $7,500 in campaign money from Complete. No filings were made and the county elections division said it was all right because he lost the recall. Not true!
Also Jackie poplar never disclosed the sources of her contributions, including in-kind, when she fought the recall against her. Who paid for the handwriting expert and other legal filings. Also she never disclosed the fair value of the legal representation she received free from Attorney Dean Yeotis.
Maybe the office will run legally. I applaud Gleason for raising the legitimacy of the office. |
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Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:43 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| In his lawsuits against the City and GM, mays is using an address on Mackin in the second Ward |
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Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:47 am |
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