By George Fallar 
The Gila River Indian Community has poured $273,471.62 (click here) of reported contributions into Glendale politics through the Neighbors for a Better Glendale independent expenditure committee during this election cycle.
Their contribution would have to be multiplied more than three times to pay the total campaign finance reporting violation fines that could result from prosecution of errors of three of the political committees entrusted with those funds. How much, you ask?
A bit more than $928,870.41. Yes, close to a million dollars.
Reporting Is To Inform The Electorate
The Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) have many words related to campaign finances, most designed to level the playing field and to enable the voting public to determine who is financing matters they will be expected to cast a ballot for or against.
Because campaign finance reporting is required relatively infrequently and the fine for filing reports late is as low as $10 per day, a simple technique to mask the source of funds is to file reports late or not at all.
Considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars received and spent by Neighbors for a Better Glendale, a $10 per day fine could easily be added to the budget and considered the price of doing business.
Not So Fast, Bub
To narrow that loophole, statutes are in place requiring large donations and expenditures to be reported nearly immediately, within one day of receiving or disbursing funds. The cap fluctuates, but $10,000 amount is an accepted norm. Local matters (such as these) within twenty days of an election (applies in all these cases) actually have a $2,500 amount.
A.R.S. § 16-914.01 deals with what notices should be filed, when they should be filed, and the fines for not filing the requisite notices. Violations of § 16-914.01 constitute the bulk of the possible fine (A.R.S. § 16-924) amount mentioned above. Why so high?
Because the fines are tied directly to the amount of the expenditure or contribution. Why?
Because it is intended to provide accurate information to the citizenry in a timely fashion. The fines, three times the amount triggering the violation, is specifically punitive so it hurts too much to ignore.
Yet, some political committees in Glendale are ignoring the regulations anyway.
Example Of How To Report
Another Glendale committee, “Protect Glendale Taxpayers in Support of the Ballot Measure I-14-01” filed multiple “$10,000 notices”. Click here for an example, click here for the City of Glendale’s finance report page if you want to see more.
That committee filed seven “$10,000 notice” documents during this election cycle, as the regulations require. It’s a free form, simple, one page document that satisfies the legal requirements.
Rules Aren’t For Everybody
Three committees currently active in political actions in Glendale have filed none of these reports.
It should be noted the independent expenditure committee “Neighbors for a Better Glendale” is not required to file these notices when they receive monies from the Gila River Indian Community because they are not actively involved in current actions.
It should also be noted that the Gila River people have no culpability at all.
The three committees in violation are financed exclusively by Neighbors for a Better Glendale, according to their finance reports. All three are aiming their actions at the proposed Tohono O’odham casino in Glendale.
Two of the three committees have the same chairman (Gary Hirsch) and the same treasurer (Jill Ryan) as Neighbors for a Better Glendale. Effectively, they’re simply writing checks to themselves as another committee. Completely legal, but certainly harder to make an accounting mistake when you’re responsible for both sides of transactions.
None of the three committees has filed any $10,000 notices despite having many transactions over the $10,000 threshold.
The three committees are:
- No More Bad Deals for Glendale
- Respect the Promise
- Recall Councilman Gary Sherwood
Paid Petition Circulators
Most of the money from Gila River was spent with Petition Partners (PP), described on their “Services” web page as a full service petition management and circulation firm and more. They were gathering signatures for all three groups.
Based on an Instagram photo posted by the PP principal on the day (August 14) two of the committees were filed, the firm may have also been involved with preparing the referendum paperwork and with filing that paperwork with the City of Glendale.
PP has a good reputation locally, so it’s surprising the committee registration paperwork for both referendum committees have at least one egregious error. One would have to assume PP didn’t review the documents in the photo, they simply carried and photographed them.
The committee names for both “No More Bad Deals” and “Respect the Promise” are laughably noted as “in opposition” to THEIR OWN REFERENDUMS. They made the same bonehead mistake on the actual referendum serial number paperwork.
While that agrees with the checkboxes they ALSO erroneously selected on the registration form, it’s completely wrong and misleading to any person researching the referendums.
It’s not a confusing form for most people, it’s a simple “opposition” or “in support of” decision. On or off, up or down.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Complaints Filed
This author filed formal complaints regarding these significant campaign finance violations and others.
I anticipate eye rolls and knowing nods regarding my motives from the usual suspects. I expect to hear “pro casino/anti Gila River” jibes. None of that matters and it’s a deflection of blame.
Motivation isn’t the question here, following the rules is the matter. These three committees in question are run by politically savvy people with paid professional help, and they have ignored the regulations.
Under The Radar
Consider the case of “No More Bad Deals for Glendale” and the process of registering a committee, filing a referendum, and gathering signatures for a ballot referendum.
The deadline for filing signatures for a ballot measure referendum meant to deal with City Council actions from the 08/12/2014 meeting (click here for minutes) was 09/13/2014. The end of the period for the “Pre Primary” campaign finance reports that would be due by August 22 was August 15.
This committee registered with the City on August 14, they were responsible for filing a campaign finance report for that one day (and did not). They SHOULD have waited one more day so they could LEGALLY bypass any campaign finance reporting until the “Post Primary” reports were due on September 25. They did file that report four days late.
There is no public notification anywhere of committee registrations, nor is there public notice of issuance of a referendum serial number. So, unless one was clued in somehow by some other means (such as a smug posting on Instagram), one would never know a committee had gotten together to circulate a petition to refer a decision of the elected officials in a city. Even then, public records requests would have to be filed to discover who was involved, but there would still be no way of discovering the financial backing of the group until the finance report was filed AFTER the deadline for the referendum signatures.
If one objected to the activities of the group or the intent of the referendum, there would be no way to oppose it, giving well heeled groups free rein to circulate petitions with as many paid circulators as they could afford. In the case of these three committees, that equals over $100k worth of signatures in a month.
What Now?
I don’t for a minute think these committees will ever receive even a minor slap on the wrist. They are funded with what appears to be an inexhaustible and liberally spent war chest. Lawyers are already on the payroll for a lawsuit against the City of Glendale, squashing a campaign finance report objection from a non-lawyer should be a simple matter.
Should it be that way? Of course not. The regulations are in place and it’s possible to follow the rules. Not reading the directions isn’t a valid excuse for a first grader, much less groups spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of the principals is new to politics, yet sloppy and unprofessional work is the only excuse available to them.
Maybe that will have to suffice.
Click for the complaints