To: Commissioners From: Erin Gordon, Candidate Registrar Date
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Commission Meeting: 3/28/2018 STATE OF MAINE Agenda Item #1 COMMISSION ON GOVERNMENTAL ETHICS AND ELECTION PRACTICES 135 STATE HOUSE STATION AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333-0135 To: Commissioners From: Erin Gordon, Candidate Registrar Date: February 14, 2018 Re: Request by James Boyle for Waiver of Late-Filing Penalty for 2018 January Semiannual Report James Boyle is a traditionally financed candidate running for Governor in the 2018 election. Mr. Boyle was required to file the 2018 January Semiannual Report by 11:59 p.m. on January 16, 2018, but it was not filed until January 18, 2018 (two days late). With assistance of a political consulting firm, NGP, the Boyle campaign attempted to file the report electronically by importing the data in the report using the external data import (EDI) feature on the Commission’s website. The preliminary penalty for the late report is $1,000.00 (the statutory maximum for a late-filed semiannual report) and the candidate is requesting a waiver of the penalty. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS Gubernatorial candidates are required to file semiannual reports covering the years prior to the election year if they raise or spend more than $1,000. A semiannual report must be filed on January 15th of the election year to report all transactions received through December 31st. (21-A M.R.S.A. § 1017(2)(A)) When a candidate is late in filing a report, the amount of the penalty is set by a formula which takes into consideration a percentage of the total contributions or expenditures, whichever is greater, the number of prior violations within a two-year period, and the number of days the report is late. (21-A M.R.S.A. § 1020-A)(4-A)) OFFICE LOCATED AT: 45 MEMORIAL CIRCLE, AUGUSTA, MAINE WEBSITE: WWW.MAINE.GOV/ETHICS PHONE: (207) 287-4179 FAX: (207) 287-6775 DISCUSSION Prior to the January 16, 2018 deadline, the Commission staff sent notifications of the 2018 January Semiannual Report by U.S. mail to all candidates who were scheduled to file the report (the reminder is attached). On the afternoon of January 16, 2018, Paul Ainsworth, deputy treasurer for the Boyle campaign, contacted Erin Gordon, Candidate Registrar, to report trouble with the campaign’s EDI upload. At that time, Mr. Ainsworth also emailed a PDF version of the report, as provided by NGP, to the Ethics Commission. Ms. Gordon informed Mr. Ainsworth that NGP should have provided the campaign with an Excel or XML file for the EDI upload and assisted Mr. Ainsworth with the EDI feature on the e-filing website. In the meantime, other Commission employees had been contacted by campaigns using NGP’s services to report that they were having difficulty with the EDI upload process. Another Commission employee conferred with NGP to identify the problem: the EDI feature requires the data to be stored in specific columns, and the template that NGP had provided to its clients included an unnecessary column that was interfering with the upload. Ms. Gordon informed the Boyle campaign of the problem and advised it to reach out to NGP to receive an updated template and to upload the updated file. Ms. Gordon also advised that the PDF of the report Mr. Ainsworth had provided by email would not be viewed as an acceptable format for filing the campaign finance report, and that if the campaign was unable to resolve the upload problem with NGP, it could manually enter all transactions into the e-filing system that evening to meet the 11:59 pm deadline. On the morning of January 17, the report had not been filed and Ms. Gordon sent an email to the Boyle campaign advising them of the missed deadline. She assisted Mr. Ainsworth via email in correcting a problem with the upload template. The campaign forwarded a confirmation email. Ms. Gordon replied on the morning of January 18 that this message was confirmation of the successful upload (the efiling system had received the data), but the campaign still needed to file the report. The report was successfully filed in the afternoon of January 18, 2018. 2 Based on the statutory formula for calculating late-filing penalties, the preliminary penalty amount is $1,000.00, which is the statutory maximum for a late-filed semiannual report. The original penalty was calculated as follows: Financial Penalty Preliminary Report Deadline Days Late Activity Rate Penalty 2018 January 01/16/2018 $131,886 2% 2 $5,275.44 Semiannual Report Through a letter dated February 1, 2018 (attached), the Boyle campaign asks that the Commission waive the preliminary penalty. The campaign accepts responsibility for the human and technical errors that delayed the filing of the report, but believes the preliminary penalty to be disproportionate to the harm caused by the public. The campaign attempted to make the information available to the public by forwarding a copy of the PDF report to Commission staff and reporters, and a bona fide effort was made to file the report on time. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Accurate and complete campaign finance reports are an integral part of Maine Campaign Finance Law. Candidates, party activists, news reporters and others visit the Commission’s public access website after a filing deadline to find out how candidates and committees have raised and spent their campaign funds. They should have access to the candidate’s or committee’s complete financial activity as soon as the filing deadline has passed. Mr. Boyle is a candidate for Governor, and therefore his reports are of interest to the press, other candidates and some members of the public. Mr. Boyle has provided an understandable explanation of what led to him to file the 2018 January Semiannual Report late. However, the burden on a gubernatorial candidate to understand the filing process and to file timely, accurate reports is high. Mr. Boyle is a former State Senator who has some familiarity with filing campaign finance reports and he received paid assistance from NGP, an experienced vendor, in preparing his reports. The Boyle campaign was not the only campaign affected by the faulty template NGP had provided, but the other affected campaigns filed their reports on time. 3 Candidates for Governor are held to a high standard and it is important that filing deadlines are taken seriously. Staff acknowledges that the Boyle campaign did encounter some technical difficulties beyond their control during their filing attempts. We recommend reducing the preliminary penalty to $500. Thank you for your consideration of this memo. 4 Penalty Calculation The penalty for filing a campaign finance report late is based on a percentage of the total contributions or expenditures for the reporting period, whichever is greater, multiplied by the number of days late. The percentage is based on your history of past violations: 2% for the first violation, 4% for the second violation, and 6% for the third and each subsequent violation. Violations for late-filed reports accumulate in the two-year period beginning on January 1st of each even-numbered year. A penalty accrues daily beginning on the day following the filing due date. Any penalty of less than $10 is automatically waived. How Your Penalty Was Calculated Filer: James Boyle Late-Filed Report: 2018 January Semiannual Report Contributions $131,886.00 Penalty Base Amount $131,886.00 Expenditures $57,530.25 Percentage 2% Due Date 01/16/2018 Daily Accrual Rate $2,637.72 Date Filed 01/18/2018 Days Late 2 Previous Violations 0 Your Total Penalty $1,000.00 Payment Statement and Payment Options From: James Boyle Penalty Amount: $1,000.00 Amount Enclosed: _______________ Check/M.O. #: _______________ BY MAIL: Enclose this payment statement with your payment. Please make check or money order payable to: Treasurer, State of Maine Mail to: Maine Ethics Commission 135 State House Station Augusta, Maine 04333-0135 ONLINE: Go to www.maine.gov/online/ethics/penalties. Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices Mail: 135 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333 Office: 45 Memorial Circle, Augusta, Maine Website: www.maine.gov/ethics Phone: 207-287-4179 Fax: 207-287-6775 2017 CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT FOR PRIVATELY FINANCED CANDIDATES COMMITTEE TREASURER James Allen Boyle Anne Haskell PO Box 879 31 Higgins Street Gorham, ME 04038 Portland, ME 04103 PHONE: (207) 756-2928 PHONE: (207) 712-1244 EMAIL: [email protected] EMAIL: [email protected] REPORT DUE DATE REPORTING PERIOD 2018 JANUARY SEMIANNUAL 01/16/2018 07/01/2017 - 12/31/2017 REPORT FINANCIAL ACTIVITY SUMMARY RECEIPTS TOTAL FOR THIS PERIOD TOTAL FOR CAMPAIGN 1. CASH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTION (SCHEDULE A) $51,490.00 $51,490.00 1A. CASH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION(SCHEDULE A) For party candidates, general election contributions will only appear on this line after the primary. 1B. CASH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION RAISED PRIOR TO PRIMARY (Not shown on Schedule A of this report) 2. OTHER CASH RECEIPTS (INTEREST, ETC) $396.00 $396.00 3. LOANS (SCHEDULE C) $80,000.00 $80,000.00 4. TOTAL RECEIPTS $131,886.00 $131,886.00 EXPENDITURES 5. EXPENDITURES (SCHEDULE B) $57,530.25 $57,530.25 6. LOAN REPAYMENTS (SCHEDULE C) $0.00 $0.00 7. TOTAL PAYMENTS $57,530.25 $57,530.25 CASH SUMMARY 8. CASH BALANCE AT BEGINNING OF PERIOD $0.00 9. PLUS TOTAL RECEIPTS THIS PERIOD (LINE 4) $131,886.00 10. MINUS TOTAL PAYMENTS THIS PERIOD (LINE 8) $57,530.25 11. CASH BALANCE AT END OF PERIOD $74,355.75 OTHER ACTIVITY 12. IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS (SCHEDULE A-1) $0.00 $0.00 13. TOTAL LOAN BALANCE AT END OF PERIOD (SCHEDULE C) $80,000.00 14.