Updated: Board Rules on CFO Campaign Disclosure

[kae]

www.voteno204.org/page9.html

STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS DISMISSES CHARGES AGAINST CFO


A recent complaint filed against Citizens for Options (CFO) by Margaret Kohler, the former chair of last year’s pro-referendum political action committee, Citizen’s for Classrooms (CFC) has been dismissed by the State Board of Elections.

The complaint alleged that CFO did not properly account for contributions and did not provide an accounting for all expenditures. After a preliminary hearing at the Chicago office of the State Board of Elections Thursday March 16, 2006 the Hearing Officer found that there were no grounds for such claims and that all contributions and expenditures of CFO had been properly made.

Today, the State Board of Elections adopted the Hearing Officer’s findings and declined to go forward with the case.

[amysmom]

Regarding the anonymous quote saying that the State Board of Elections case was dismissed against CFO. Lets put this to rest once and for all as I have attatched the official report from the State Board of Elections - decide for yourself. Not only was the failure to file the statement of organization part of the complaint, it was the FIRST part of the complaint as you can see in the documentation. It was definitely brought before the board, and nothing was dismissed.

Filing their statement of organization late, which allowed them to file on paper only one day prior to the election, cut the public out of knowing who was behind CFO, and when they reached the $3,000.00 threshold. Read the document below from the State Board of Elections, and you will see that the findings of the hearing are that they exceeded this threshold on 3/23/05, but didn't report until 4/4/05 ONE DAY PRIOR TO THE ELECTION. This allowed them to operate anonymously, cheating the public of knowing who was behind their campaign. They were not cited for expenditure/contribution violations ONLY BECAUSE they made a special arrangement to pay a bill 6 days after the election. Had they disclosed this on the day the service/cost was incurred, the public would have known that the only financial contributor, which paid for distributing their flyer to every household in the district, was from Chicago, not even from our community. So they got away with that, but people need to know how these people operate.

I'm not sure how they got so mixed up that they forgot that the statement of organization complaint was filed against them and that they were cited for this.

The anonymous source also stated that I said that Citizens for Classrooms filed their statement of organization late as well, and paid a fine. ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. Check for yourself on the State Elections website under "fines." There is no end to these peoples lies and shady dealings.

Citizens for Options may appeal the ruling posted below. If they do not, then proceedings will begin to assess penalties as stated in the final paragraph of the document.

And keep in mind the importance of knowing who these people are, that is why the state board of elections has these laws for a reason.


STATE OF ILLINOIS
SS:
COUNTY OF COOK


BEFORE THE STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS
OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS


Margaret Kohler
2228 Snapdragon Road
Naperville, Illinois 60564

Complainant(s) 06 CD 003

Citizens for Options
P.O. Box 104
2218 Ogden Avenue
Aurora, Illinois 60504


Respondent(s)




REPORT OF EXAMINER



This hearing was held as a result of a Complaint filed pursuant to "An Act to Regulate Campaign Financing" (Illinois Compiled Statutes, 10 ILCS 5/9-1, et seg., (hereafter referred to as the Act) alleging that the respondent(s) violated 10 ILCS 5/9-3 in that “Citizens for Options did not file a statement of organization in proper time”;5/9.6 in that “Citizens for Options did not properly account for contributions”; 5/9.7 in that “Citizens for Options did not provide an exact accounting of expenditures including proof of payment in excess of $20.00”; and 5/9.10 in that “Citizens for Options did not provide financial reports according to requirements of this code, specifically section b which requires any contribution of more than $500.00 received prior to the election and the date of the election to be filed within 2 business days after receipt”, Form D-4, Ill. Margaret Kohler v. Citizens for Options, see attachment.

STATES EXHIBITS


To be made a part of this report, a copy of the Form D-4, Complaint for Violation of the Campaign Disclosure Act, filed on March 14, 2006, at the Board’s Chicago office, 100 West Randolph, 14th Floor, chicago, Illinois 60601; Notice and Summons regarding the Complaint; Notice of the Appointment of the Hearing Examiner and Notice of the Closed-Preliminary Hearing to be conducted in this matter, Thursday, March 16, 2006, at 1:00 p.m., at the Illinois State Board of Elections Office, 100 West Randolph, 14th Floor, Chicago, Illinois.
COMPLAINANT(S)

Ms. Margaret Kohler, and Ms. Dagmar Kauffman, appeared on behalf of the Complainant.

RESPONDENT(S)

Mr. Ari Rosenthal, counsel, Ms. Katherine Nguyen (treasurer/chairperson), Ms. Nancy Vicker (past chairperson), and Ms. Peggy Bourg (past treasurer) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.

FINDINGS

It is the contention of the Complainant, that the Statement of Organization filed by the Citizens for Options on April, 4th, 2005, indicating a creation date of March 23, 2005, is incorrect. The Complainant bases such allegation on the printing and distribution of approximately 30,000 flyers on March 23rd; the existence of a Citizens for Options website on or before March 23rd; the posting of Citizens for Options yard signs on or before March 23rd; and the hosting of a press conference held March 18th, at the Fox Valley Park District Center. It is also the contention of the Complainant, that expenditures incurred by the Citizens for Options, were not disclosed, specifically; the cost of the printing of the 30,000 flyers; the cost of the Citizens for Options yard signs; the cost of hosting a press conference, and the cost of the Citizens for Options website.
It is the contention of the Respondent(s) that the Statement of Organization was properly filed, reflecting the appropriate date the organization exceeded the $3,000 threshold. In defense of this position, the Respondent(s) submitted its internal ledger and invoices of expenses (Respondent Group Exhibit 1, attached). Such documents reflect receipt of seven (7) in-kind contributions, beginning on March 9th, 2005 and ending of April 11th, 2005, totaling $5,646.46. The documents would indicate that receipts of the organization as of March 23rd, totaled $2,361.46. The Respondent(s) indicated that with the inclusion of the March 23rd in-kind contribution of $3,285, the organization exceeded the $3,000 threshold, and prepared a Statement of Organization accordingly. The Respondent(s) indicate that a review of its internal ledger and invoices reflect that questionable expenses, i.e., cost of printing 30,000 flyer (3/23/05, $1,538.90), cost of the yard signs (3/21/05, $598.56), cost of hosting a press conference (3/14/05, $25.00), and the cost of the website domain (3/12/05, $144.00), occurred prior to exceeding the $3,000 threshold (3/23/05), therefore were not required to be disclosed.


RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

It is the opinion of the Hearing Examiner, after review of documents submitted, that the Citizens for Options did exceed the $3,000 threshold on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005. Due to the proximity of the April 5th, 2005 election, statute requires that “any political committee created within 30 days before an election shall file a statement of organization within 5 business days”, 10ILC5/9.3. Based upon my calculations, excluding Saturday/Sunday, March 26th – 27th, the Citizens for Options should have filed its Statement of Organization no later than Wednesday, March 30th, 2005. Such document was received by the State Board of Elections on Monday, April 4th, 2005. Assuming these calculations are correct, the Citizens for Options filed their Statement of Organization three (3) business days late. In relation to the Complainants allegation that contributions and expenses were not properly reported, the Hearing Examiner finds no grounds for such claim.
It is the opinion of the Hearing that the complaint was filed on justifiable grounds, but recommends no public hearing be ordered in this matter. It is the understanding of the Hearing Examiner, that internal proceedings shall begin to assess civil penalties, if warranted, for the political committee’s late filing of its Statement of Organization.



______________________________________
TONY MORGANDO JR.
Hearing Examiner
March 17, 2006

[demandingthetruth]

Check out the Sun today. Seems they are reporting that the one of the filed complaints against CFO had merit, and that they faulted the options group for the infraction.

[amysmom]

Interesting isn't it, that since the day of the hearing, March 16th, CFO has filed documents with the state board of elections 4 out of the 5 days. Last year the only filing was 6 days AFTER the election. Maybe they get it now.

[Avenging Eagle]

Based upon the new information, I went to pay the Blues Brothers for their work....

But, it turns out they drank too much beer and boxed wine on the job and they actually owe us money!!!