This is sad.
Our current city councilman who is running for mayor filed two corrections to previous state mandated campaign finance reports on May 16, 2013. I picked this up from the elpasonews.org web site. According to the article the candidate under reported $40 thousand in contributions. You can read the article here.
Actually, it is hard to see. Not understand, see. The portion of the document where the contributions are listed uses typeface that is so small and blurry that even after printing out each sheet and using a magnifying glass it was hard to see. You can try it yourself. Scroll down about 10 pages and try to read it.
What is clear to see is in the explanation of correction that is part of an affidavit attached to the amended reports:
“… On May 6th the COH [candidate office holder] identified discrepancies regarding the total contributions and total expenditures previously filed. Upon further review, the COH identified several bookkeeping errors that led to the unintentional omission of several campaign contributions and expenses. The COH has since identified the omitted campaign contribution [sic?] and expenditures and included them in this amended Campaign Finance Report.”
Several?
One, two, a few mistakes — I guess that would be human. Is this the way he proposes to handle our money if we elect him mayor?
Timing
The candidate found the errors on May 6th, five days before the election. Why did he wait until 5 days after the election before making the legally required corrections?
I note that the other candidate also had to file a correction. His original report was filed Thursday, May 2, 2013. His report was filed in person and as we know Thursday is the last day of the week that city hall is open. The very next day that city hall was open for business was Monday, May 6, 2013 and that was the day his correction was filled. It consisted of a listing of more expenditures. Evidently he had already reported all of his contributions as the law requires. May 6 was five days before the election.
The councilman/candidate saw problems on May 6 and took 10 more days to file the corrections. He filed his corrections after the election. I also note that his original report was filed using the new electronic system that the city has so he did not have to sign the incorrect report.
Who?
Who did he leave off his list of contributors? As I said earlier it is hard to see. I did find one contribution from a lady that has the same last name as one of the ball team owners. Go figure!
Times
As of this moment the El Paso Times has chosen not to cover this story. There was a dearth of news in the Saturday and Sunday issues of the Times this week so the failure to cover the story could not be for lack of space.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 