The Committee for Measure A could be hit with a fine of as much
as $5,000 for an
”
oversight
”
that violates campaign law.
The Committee for Measure A could be hit with a fine of as much as $5,000 for an “oversight” that violates campaign law.
Over the weekend, the committee sent out more than 7,800 mailers urging residents to vote yes on the measure, which would allow 500 additional units in the downtown area but keep the city’s population cap of 48,000 people by 2020.
There was just one problem: the mailer didn’t include contact information from the sender. The Political Reform Act requires that mailers numbering more than 200 include the name of the committee, its street address, city, state and zip code in no less than 6-point type and in a color contrasting the background.
“We’re a bunch of amateurs about getting our information on the mailer,” committee member Julie Hutcheson said. This is the first campaign she’s been actively involved in. “Hopefully, the message – believing in our downtown and how important this measure is to our downtown – doesn’t get lost in it all.”
The issue first arose Friday, when a resident contacted City Clerk Irma Torrez inquiring about the mailer and the possible violation. Torrez then called the committee, assuming they’d sent the seemingly anonymous mailer.
Hutcheson contacted the California Fair Political Practices Commission this morning. An advisor there said the best thing would be for the committee to file a formal complaint against itself, which Hutcheson said the committee will do. The commission would then review the case and determine a punishment.
Violations are punishable with an administrative fine of up to $5,000, but could be as lenient as requiring “warning letters” be sent to residents advising them of the mistake, said Roman Porter, executive director of the commission. Porter declined to estimate how long the commission would take to reach a decision, or to speak to this particular case at all. Porter said the commission receives “thousands “of complaints a year throughout California, “hundreds” of which result in fines.
Porter said the commission’s enforcement committee will be looking at any information that would be viewed as “aggravating or mitigating,” Porter said.
Turning themselves in, so to speak, would be a point in the committee’s favor, he said. The experience level of the committee will be taken into account, too.
Former mayor Dennis Kennedy chairs the Committee for Measure A. Kennedy said he was not on the subcommittee devoted to creating the mailer, but he did review it.
“We were so focused on the message that I guess we overlooked the details of what needs to be put on the mailer per FPPC rules. It was an oversight on our part,” Kennedy said, adding that campaigners have been talking about getting the message out to the public about the mistake through a Morgan Hill Times notice or announcement at tonight’s Morgan Hill City Council meeting.
The mailer, which features an artist’s rendering of a vibrant downtown and quotes from endorsers, features the committee’s logo and advises residents to visit YESonA.blogspot.com for more information.
The measure has support from most all the community’s movers and shakers, including the five-member city council, who approved placing the measure on the state’s special ballot May 19. The measure is heavily endorsed, too, with the Morgan Hill Times Editorial Board, the Sierra Club, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors and various downtown merchants lending support.
There is no organized opposition to Measure A. But voters’ uncertainty about the overall downtown plan and how it will affect them could still prove to be a hindrance to Measure A’s passage.
Hot Java owner Bill Quenneville is one outspoken critic. He says the city is “thoroughly out of touch with what people want downtown.”
A nearly identical measure on the November ballot, Measure H, failed by 10 votes.
The committee has raised about $12,000 so far. Hutcheson said she didn’t know how much the mailer would cost the campaign, since they haven’t received a bill from the printer.
