Dec 11, 2007 12:27 pm US/Pacific
Mayor's Campaign Allegedly Violated Fund Rules
City's Ethics Commission Will Not Fine Villaraigosa, Donors
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (file)
AP
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 2005 mayoral campaign accepted $2,500 in excess contributions, but the mayor and the three donors who exceeded the limit will not be fined, the city's Ethics Commission decided Tuesday.
Commissioners found the mayor's campaign accepted funds beyond the $1,000 per person contribution limit in three separate cases.
Park Avenue Productions Inc. and Unity America Fund each donated $1,000, even though the entities were owned or controlled by the same majority shareholder, according to the commission.
In the second case, Sam Navarro donated $1,000 and his company, Graphic Electric, also made a $500 donation.
In the last case, Connie Flores and The Seville Group, of which Flores owned 52 percent, each donated $1,000 to the campaign.
Candidates in citywide elections may stipulate to the violation of excessive contributions without receiving a monetary fine if the excessive contributions are less than $6,000 or 0.5 percent of all contributions made to the candidate.
An attorney for the mayor urged the commission to reject the stipulated agreement because the infractions involved such small amounts of money, and the policy does not allow for any procedural review.
"The mayor has taken responsibility, he has stepped up to the plate and signed this infraction penalty rather than expend the resources of this commission and go through a drawn-out process, and he's accepted responsibility for the actions of his campaign committee," Stephen Kaufman said.
"The question is, does the adoption of an infraction policy then swallow up any type of prosecutorial discretion that may otherwise be applied?"
Commission President Sean Treglia said the policy should be reviewed, but urged his colleagues to refrain from making policy "on the fly. "
"Stick with the legal issue at hand and debate whether we want to accept staff's recommendation," Treglia said.
"I'll just leave you with a couple of headlines. One, is this the mayor's rule because would this policy only affect people running for mayor or citywide office?" he said.
"If the enforcement staff were to exercise discretion and dismiss this case from the onset, what about the contributors? Do we dismiss them as well? What rule to we apply to them in this circumstance?"
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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