Former Lancaster Councilwoman Sandra Johnson has agreed to pay $1,500 in fines for failing to comply with state campaign reporting requirements in her 2012 city council re-election campaign.
The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) said this week that Johnson violated the Political Reform Act by failing to disclose information about her occupation and employer on campaign statements for 20 individual contributors. An audit conducted by the Franchise Tax Board (for the period of January 2011 to June 2012) found that the 20 contributors to Johnson’s 2012 campaign accounted for $14,600 in donations, representing about 28 percent of the total contributions received.
“This is a significant amount of the total contributions received,” the FPPC’s Enforcement Division stated in the agreement, emphasizing that the omissions represent “part of a pattern of non-disclosure (because) occupation and employer information was not provided for individual contributors on three successive campaign statements.”
The FPPC said that Johnson’s committee cooperated fully with the act’s requirements by revealing that her campaign had received about $52,300 in contributions, while spending approximately $27,750.
The Enforcement Division of the FPPC said Johnson did not deliberately try to conceal contributor information nor was there any intent to deceive the public, explaining the inquiry as “… just a misunderstanding of the law by a group with little prior experience with the act.”
Campaign reporting requirements are stringently reviewed by the FPPC. According to the Secretary of State, candidates are required to itemize contributions totaling $100 or more on each semi-annual and pre-election campaign statement, and disclose a contributor’s full name, street address, occupation, employer’s name, and the date and amount of each contribution.
Kimberly Underwood, an accountant with the University of Antelope Valley, was also named in the agreement for her role as treasurer in Johnson’s campaign.
