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Complaint Probes Mayor’s Ties To PAC
by Melissa Bailey | Dec 22, 2009 7:25 am
(8) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: City Hall, Politics
A group formed to promote the mayor’s “clean” elections law wants the state to investigate fishy funding for the mayor’s own campaign.
Caleb Kleppner (pictured), board chairman of the Democracy Fund, plans to file the complaint today with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
The Democracy Fund is calling on the state to investigate charges that the mayor’s reelection campaign violated state and local elections laws by accepting hidden contributions from a political action committee.
An attorney for the DeStefano campaign failed to dissuade the Fund from acting on what he called “inferences.”
The complaint centers on a political action committee (PAC) called the Elm & Oak PAC, which shared office space and staff with Mayor John DeStefano’s 2009 reelection campaign.
DeStefano used the PAC to pay over $25,500 in expenses for his 2009 reelection campaign, violating state law and the local clean elections law the mayor pioneered, Kleppner’s complaint will charge.
A draft of the complaint was discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Democracy Fund, the board set up at the mayor’s urging to administer the city’s public financing program for municipal campaigns. The board voted 5 to 0 to move forward with the SEEC complaint, which Kleppner plans to file Tuesday under his own name.
The discussion came on the heels of a similar talk last month, when the board gave the mayor a pass for “flying in the face of” the spirit of the clean elections law by moving cash into a different PAC to support aldermanic candidates.
At the heart of SEEC complaint is the same issue: Whether DeStefano kept to the rules of the clean elections program he helped establish in 2007. The program aims to minimize the influence of city contractors and lobbyists by giving public grants to candidates who agree to lower limits on contributions. By participating in the program this year, the mayor agreed to take no more than $340 from any individual—and to take no money from any PAC.
Neither the PAC nor DeStefano’s campaign reported any contributions from the PAC to the campaign. But Kleppner laid out a series of facts that point to a pattern of coordination and shared resources that he claims break the law.
Kleppner charged that DeStefano and the PAC broke local and state laws through their cozy relationship. According to state law, a PAC cannot contribute more than $1,500 per election to any one candidate committee.
The mayor’s campaign allegedly broke local and state laws by accepting excessive in-kind donations from a PAC, and by failing to report them. The PAC broke state law by making excessive donations, the complaint charges.
Kleppner’s complaint is based on campaign finance filings and on interviews in Elizabeth Benton’s Register story on the topic.
The Elm & Oak PAC was established in February 2007. It is chaired by Debra Hauser, an East Rock Democrat and active fundraiser. DeStefano reportedly was the sole fundraiser for the PAC.
Since DeStefano declared his candidacy for mayor in early 2009, up to 83 percent of the PAC’s expenditures went to DeStefano’s campaign, according to Democracy Fund Administrator Robert Wechsler, who did the research and drafted the complaint.
Payments supporting the mayor’s campaign total $25,587, Wechsler calculated.
Payments include an office on Church Street that DeStefano and the PAC shared. The PAC paid most of the rent and apparently paid the entire phone bill.
The PAC also paid nearly $20,000 to political staffers who worked for DeStefano’s campaign. That figure includes $13,962.50 to Keya Jayaram, DeStefano’s campaign manager.
DeStefano and the PAC shared contributors, too. At least 28 people donated to both DeStefano’s campaign and the Elm & Oak PAC, according to Wechsler. When they hit the $340 ceiling for DeStefano’s campaign, contributors were told they could keep supporting the mayor by contributing to the PAC, the complaint states.
With the facts laid out before them, Democracy Fund members reached the same conclusion.
“It did seem to me that there were some obvious malfeasances,” said board member Steve Kovel.
Board member Maria Lamberto (pictured) agreed that there appears to be improper in-kind contributions to the mayor’s campaign.
Kleppner noted that nothing is proven—he’s making inferences based on available facts. He said he needs the state to investigate because the board does not have jurisdiction over PACs.
To prove these charges, the state will have to show that DeStefano’s campaign received in-kind contributions from the PAC. The PAC would have to justify its expenditures and show that no more than $1,500 was spent to directly support DeStefano.
Attorney Elia Alexiades (pictured) showed up Monday night on behalf of DeStefano’s 2009 campaign. He suggested the board undertake its own investigation instead of calling on the state to step in. He asked that witnesses, such as the campaign staff, be called in to defend the allegations if the board takes that step.
He noted that the draft complaint is based on “inferences,” not proven allegations. And he called the complaint too hasty, given that the campaign has yet to file its last campaign finance report, which is due on Jan. 10.
Alexiades’ comments did not dissuade the board from voting to move forward with the SEEC complaint. The info in the past filings provides ample evidence to launch a state investigation, Wechsler noted. After that, the state will start the investigation from scratch, he said.
In other news, the DeStefano campaign had to give back $4,160 in campaign contributions that exceeded the limit for individual donations, which is $340. The refund checks were issued from June 30 to Dec. 12. Most of the refunds were a result of the campaign’s own self-policing.
Five refunds, totaling $1,040, were issued because the board alerted the campaign to the impropriety, according to Wechsler.
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Comments
posted by: The Truth on December 22, 2009 8:04am
New Haven is corrupt. Nothing will get done. This story is a waste of time.
posted by: I Wonder? on December 22, 2009 8:41am
Is Chief Lewis leaving as he knows theres scandal coming?
posted by: Bruce on December 22, 2009 9:44am
New Haven Dems always remind me of the movie Nightmare Before Christmas. They seem to want to do things right, but they’re so used to their old ways that it always comes out a bit twisted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKAxikZmY-0
Sorry to generalize again, but you know me…
posted by: Funky Chicken on December 22, 2009 10:52am
I don’t think JD will ever go the public financing route again with all that he is dealing with now. I am not saying he did right or wrong but it appears to me that the board is making up the rules as the go along.
posted by: DK on December 22, 2009 1:43pm
Shouldnt this be easy to see from the required PAC filings of Elm and Oak? If there are reimbursements then it is legal. If not, then there was a problem with the filing that should be fixed and the campaign and PAC should be made to change it. All of this is public record by going to the SEEC, something the Democracy Fund board does not need an investigation to do.
While people may not like it, a PAC may make expenditures on candidates getting Democracy Fund money. From other articles it seems the Elm and Oak did just that, including for aldermanic campagins, and Destefanos campaign was another one. You may think that is wrong but it is certainly legal.
Funky Chicken is right. If the Democracy Fund is on a witchhunt and making press to find something that is public record, this is going to kill the public financing system in New Haven. Surely Mayor DeStefano was hampered by a $340 limit but chose to accept it anyway. If he runs again (which would be an incredibly long time) he has no incentive to submit to a Board that seems politicized. Seems shortsighted.
posted by: City Hall Watch on December 22, 2009 1:43pm
Funky Chicken:
It’s not about making up the rules as much as it is about following the rules. While some of the guidelines in the Democracy Fund are a bit sketchy, there are others that are pretty specific. The intent of the fund is quite clear. I think it is an issue of whether one wants to follow both the intent as well as the details of the law. Unfortunately, there is a pattern and practice of playing fast and loose; of playing around the edges and making excuses for intentionally crossing the line. Let’s be clear here: The idea that one runs a campaign that spends thousands with little or no accountability, co-mingling funds and office space, people and salaries. That’s just not kosher by any stretch of mayor’s considerable excuse making capabilities.
posted by: strangerthanfiction on December 22, 2009 7:01pm
DeStefano has been a good mayor and why he feels it necessary to overstep the rules here is puzzling. But kudos to the Democracy Fund, which he appointed!, for calling him on it. Elm & Oak PAC, James Hillhouse Society PAC - they all don’t pass the smell test. And why would a mayor doing a good job, basically unchallenged, and the only candidate taking taxpayer money through the Fund feel the need to engage in such hijinks? Let’s see what the state says.
posted by: Ura on December 24, 2009 12:34am
Surely we have all learned by now that in CT our beloved politicians can sit securely in positions of power one day and sit in a prison cell the next. I am not saying that JD is corrupt (in fact, I hope he is not)... only that corruption seems to be a theme in CT public sector leadership, and it shouldn’t be all that surprising when one of our leaders is exposed.
