Dear Ron and All,
You are correct that the situation could get complicated. However, my
suggestion is based on the fact that there are numerous members of
the California Political Treasurers Association, mostly CPA's, that
specialize in political reporting. As with any other CPA, they can do
all the work from scratch (gets very expensive) or they can just do a
final product such as tax returns or financial statements etc (cost
effective). I offered to do the basic posting of income and
expenses, which perhaps could be turned over to a professional
political treasurer for the final reporting. This part seems
straight forward to me, assuming the professional political treasurer
would accept the conditions.
The not so straight forward stuff is whether the LPSF can accept
donations under a certain limit for the purposes of paying the
professional. Of course one way to solve that would be for donors to
make the donations directly to the candidates themselves.
The Ethics Commission is not much help in this kind of specialized
situation. So perhaps Phil and/or Starchild could call a few of
these professional treasurers and see what the cost would be if all
they had to do was file the final reports based on clear records of
income and expenses.
A helpful website to get names is:
California Political Treasurers Association (CPTA):
www.californiapoliticaltreasurers.org
Also Googling California Political Treasurers results in other sites
with names of firms that specialize in political reporting.
My offer to post income and expenses, and generally organize the raw
data stands. Phil has expressed an interest in this idea. I suggest
he look into a few of the names and see if my idea is really doable
or not.
Marcy
--- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, "tradergroupe"
<tradergroupe@...> wrote:
Dear Everyone;
I sent this originally last night but it seems to have disappeared
as most of the postings are doing when sent to Yahoo Groups. So if
you receive this twice by some far fetched miracle ignore the
second
one.
Dear Marcy;
Not being totally up on all the lovely campaign regulations - from
previous campaign experiences I was under the impression that the
person filing campaign financial reports had to be the treasurer of
the campaign. Not an outside person hired to do the financial
reports.Secondly, for the LPSF itself to partially pay for the hiring of a
candidates campaign treasurer to file financial campaign reports is
like talking a walk on the Dark Side of campaign laws. Even for
private parties to pay for someone to act as a campaign treasurer
would appear to be making a campaign contribution to the candidate
even if used for staff personnel like a treasurer.I think you need to get some decent legal advice on this matter
before money starts flowing to anybody for any reason. The FPPC has
had no previous problems in suing and or fining campaigns for
violations of the FPPC regulations - even in those situations where
genuinely honest errors of omission were made.Ron Getty
SF Libertarian--- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, "Amarcy D. Berry"
<amarcyb@> wrote:
>
> If for no other reason than to give the people at the Ethics
> Commission one of my disdainful glares, I will stop by tomorrow
> morning and see where to start. Nuts!
>
> Marcy
>
>
>
>
> --- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, "Philip Berg" <philzberg@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, yes yes, thankyou, yes.
> > From: Amarcy D. Berry
> > To: lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 9:18 PM
> > Subject: [lpsf-activists] Re: Unexpected blessings!
> >
> >
> > Hi Starchild,
> >
> > This is just a thought, so don't anybody start
hyperventilating.
> > Like everybody else, I shudder at the thought of having to
file
> the
> > @#$@@ campaign reports, so I am not volunteering for that.
But,
> what
> > if I helped you and Phil get whetever cacameney numbers you
need,
> > kept records of income and expenses provided by you and Phil,
and
> > passed the records on to a professional to file the reports,
said
> > professional paid by LPSF allocation and personal
contributions
> from
> > the membership? Like I said, just a thought.
> >
> > Marcy
> >
> > --- In lpsf-activists@yahoogroups.com, Starchild <sfdreamer@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I went in and was interviewed by five doctors with the SF
> > Medical
> > > Society a few days ago. They were cordial, and seemed more
into
> > > listening than asking tough questions, but I'd gotten no
> impression
> > > that they particularly had any strong appreciation of what
I
> was
> > saying
> > > about the importance of patients paying for their health
care
> > directly
> > > in order to make providers accountable to them and treat
them
> with
> > > dignity, while incentivizing health care consumers to care
> about
> > costs
> > > and not just seek the most expensive treatments.
> > >
> > > So I was pretty floored today when I received the following
> > email from
> > > them saying they want to contribute to my campaign. Yay!
> > Unfortunately
> > > I don't have an FPPC number -- not having a campaign
treasurer,
> > I've
> > > made no financial arrangements for my campaign whatsoever.
I
> hope
> > this
> > > will not dissuade them from sending me a check.
> > >
> > > If someone is willing to be my campaign treasurer and lend
a
> > hand in
> > > this area, it would be a worthwhile contribution to the
> Libertarian
> > > cause in San Francisco. I could also seriously use help
with
> > scheduling
> > > events, coordinating the development of my website, and
helping
> > > schedule events and media interviews.
> > >
> > > Love & liberty,
> > > <<< starchild >>>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > From: "Posi Lyon" <plyon@>
> > > > Date: Mon Oct 2, 2006 11:31:20 AM US/Pacific
> > > > To: <realreform@>
> > > > Subject: Contribution from the SFMS PAC
> > > >
> > > > Starchild:
> > > >
> > > > The SFMS PAC would like to make a contribution to your
> campaign.
> > > >
> > > > Please provide your FPPC number, your address, and how
the