A political action committee received a $1,446 fine by the Fair Political Practice Commission for failing to correctly report some of its spending in the appropriate time allowed during the 2014 Chula Vista Elementary School board election.
The FPPC found that the Chula Vista Educators PAC and treasurer Jennifer C. Porch made six independent expenditures totaling $3,696 the 90 days before the Nov. 4. 2014 general election, and failed to file six, 24-hour late expenditure reports.
The March 24 FPPC complaint filed by Chula Vista resident Larry Breitfelder Navas and attorney Kenneth Moser, in the complaint named the teachers’ union and three elected board members: Eduardo Reyes, Francisco Tamayo, and Leslie Bunker.
The complaint alleges that the PAC purposely did not file its financial paperwork in time.
In addition, they also contended that there was an overt coordination between the Chula Vista Educators PAC and the three candidates. In other words, the candidates allegedly communicated with the PAC on how to spend money for their campaigns.
Reyes and Bunker received financial support from the teachers union in the 2014 school board election.
Tamayo did not as he did not receive the endorsement of the teachers.
The complaint alleges: “The PAC gave to all three candidates contributions totaling thousands of dollars. This while the PAC intentionally failed to disclose over $25,000 of independent expenditures presumably on behalf of these same candidates.”
The issue is not just whether all the ‘independent’ payments and contributions were properly reported by the Chula Vista Educators PAC, as clearly they were not, but whether these activities indicate a level of coordination that connects the candidates to the PAC in a permanent action.”
Despite the claim the FPPC found no evidence of intent to conceal an overt coordination, although both Tamayo and
Bunker received warning letters in June for their actions.
“A warning letter is when we have proven a violation, but not considered serious enough to warrant a fine/penalty,” said FPPC Communications Director Jay Wierenga. “It is considered a ‘prior’ if there are any future violations by the respondent(s).”
Tamayo said he has not received the warning letter yet but said he is glad that he is in the clear for something he was not involved in.
“From the beginning, we said that there is really no case against me,” he said. “It was pretty well documented that I was not part of the teachers’ endorsed candidate so it was pretty hard to say I was coordinating with them.”
Bunker did not return messages seeking comment for this story.
The case against Reyes opened April 6 and is still pending, Wierenga said.
Both Breitfelder-Navas and Moser are Republicans while the three school board members they made the allegations against are Democrats. The complaint was filed on the heels of the 2016 Chula Vista City Council election in which Reyes, a Democrat, ran in the primary election but lost.
Reyes had previously called the complaint politically motivated.
Wierenga said this was a streamline case, fitting the criteria of lower level violations with those involved taking action
to correct the problems, so enforcement puts them in streamline so it gets taken care of and they can focus on bigger investigations.
