NORWALK, Conn. — Ed Camacho has filed a complaint with the state, accusing the Brinton campaign of violations of state campaign finance laws.
“There are such major issues with Lisa Brinton’s campaign finances that a complaint needed to be filed,” Camacho, Norwalk Democratic Town Committee Chairman, said in a statement. “Taking cash game cards, accepting multiple illegal contributions from businesses and failing to discuss the employer and occupation of her donors are clear violations of state campaign finance law. She has taken contributions from Jason Milligan while promising to ‘rip up the LDA’, effectively giving Milligan and Citibank city property for free. Even more troubling, she has failed to report all of her fundraising events or contributions as required by law, and in one instance materially misrepresents donations received in excess of state law limits. It is my hope that Elections Enforcement officials will fully investigate and act quickly to address these issues.”
Milligan is a real estate broker mired in a protracted legal battle with the City and the Redevelopment Agency. Brinton, the Republican-endorsed challenger to Democratic incumbent Mayor Harry Rilling, has said that she would tear up the LDA, the Land Disposition Agreement at the heart of the lawsuit, and start over. Rilling asserts that the LDA is a contract between three parties and cannot be “torn up.”
Brinton did not reply to a request for a response to Camacho’s complaint and comments.
Campaign treasurer Bryan Meek, a Board of Education member seeking reelection, wrote, “I’m certain, if anyone had the time or care to comb through the other campaigns files they could find something. I honestly don’t have the time or desire to sink to this level and the SEEC {State Elections Enforcement Commission} will be fair to us here as they have been in all my dealings with them having run 7 campaigns without this type of error. Unfortunately for them, they will need to wade into the weeds here, probably cost and waste even more taxpayer dollars for the few mistakes I might have made. I regret that, but it is what it is. We’ll still make a donation to something other than Harry’s retirement fund.”
The accusations
Camacho’s complaint references the Brinton campaign filings of Oct. 10 and Oct. 29. The former lists a contribution of $500 Rogers Consulting LLC, “for an advertisement book which is $250 over the legally acceptable limit of contribution,” he states.
The Oct. 29 filing does not list “event activity,” though Brinton advertised an Oct. 14 fundraiser at My Three Sons, paid for by the Jason Christopher campaign, and two “meet and greets” during the period being reported.
Camacho alleges that free $5 cash game cards were distributed to all attendees at the My Three Sons fundraiser, as well as food from “Burger Bar,” including dinner and desserts. That’s all “apparently free of charge to the campaign without attribution. Such contributions are clearly prohibited by state statutes.”
It wasn’t on the filings of either the Brinton campaign or the Christopher campaign, and “no coordination between campaigns is disclosed either. Also, there are no contributions … that are tagged as related to this event.”
Camacho also alleges that former Common Council member David McCarthy contributed more than $1,000 to the Brinton campaign, in violation of state law.
There are 16 contributors for whom no occupation is listed, also a violation of the law, Camacho states.
‘They made no money’
NancyOnNorwalk spoke with Town Clerk Rick McQuaid on Thursday, asking about the absence of “event activity” on the Brinton filing, when three events had been advertised.
McQuaid said he had been unaware of an issue until he received an email from NancyOnNorwalk asking about it, because it’s not his job to police the reports, just make sure they’re filed on time, and the priority at present is the election.
He had contacted the Brinton campaign and informed the campaign that it had until Monday to file an amended report, he said. There would be no fine issued because the report was filed on time.
The My Three Sons event wasn’t listed on either the Christopher filing or the Brinton filing, he said.
“I think somebody just missed it. I mean, they’re both two new campaigns,” he said.
Christopher campaign treasure Brian Smith has been a campaign treasurer for decades. Meek says he’s served seven campaigns.
Smith did not reply to a Friday email.
“I will tell you this right now even if someone was to make a complaint to the SEEC right now, they aren’t going to look at it until after the elections, by far, but and they don’t have to they have a certain amount of days,” McQuaid said Thursday.
Regarding the Brinton fundraiser, “In checking with Jason Christopher, they made no money,” McQuaid said.
Campaigns are required to list “in kind” donations, such as food for a fundraiser, on their forms.
“Is it going to make a big difference? McQuaid said. “I think we’re talking maybe $200 and and just itemizing…. What’s it going to change? Everybody needs to get their people out to vote on Tuesday. That’s what’s going to win the election.”
Reviewing the documents
Brinton’s Oct. 10 filing appears to state that McCarthy’s total contribution (aggregate) is $850. The Oct. 30 filing states that McCarthy donated an additional $250. The total of that would be $1,100, in violation of state law, as reported by Camacho.
NancyOnNorwalk reviewed the Brinton campaign July filing and found conflicting information about McCarthy. In one listing, it’s stated that McCarthy’s aggregate contribution is $200 and in another it’s listed as $300. The $300 total is listed with an April donation and the $200 total is listed with a June donation.
Eight contributors are listed in the July filing as “N/A” under employment. The October filings have 12 listed as N/A and four that have the line left blank.
Meek calls Camacho’s complaint ‘noise’
“I’d have to do more digging to answer all of these thoroughly, but this is noise,” Meek wrote in a Friday email. “It is almost the year 2020 and we are still doing these filings on paper. Mistakes are almost guaranteed. I made one or two tops. This hardly rises to the level of $900,000 walking out of city hall without any controls, to name just one thing.”
The “$900,000” is a reference to a payment made by the Norwalk Finance Department in October 2016, to scammers from China. City officials in January of this year said they had recovered $515,000 after an effort that included a legal battle with an insurance company.
“We still have no idea what amount of that was recovered from CIRMA, nor what the impact on our future premiums was from that,” Meek wrote Saturday. “Nor did we hear of any accountability on anyone, nor did we hear that any kind of modern internal controls available since the 90s were applied. I could list dozens of other abuses of taxpayer dollars.”
His Friday reply continued:
“That said, I can address a few things very quickly off of the complaint.
“I. The legal requirement to disclose Principal Occupation and Employer only applies to donations of $100 or more. #16 here was for $25 and not required for one. I’m surprised a bar certified attorney can’t interpret this simple part of the law. I’ll have to look at the rest of these later, but most if not all of these should be fixable on an amended filing, which I am allowed to do. Given our average contribution hovers around $100 there could be more in this list, but for estimating purposes, I’m forecasting a $1500 liability on this that easily fixable.
“II. Ad book. I have to circle back with the campaign team, but we may have to refund $250 here, or it is possible it was for prepayment of an event adbook held after 10/27 filing deadline that should have been recorded timely or refunded by me. $250 liability worst case.
“III. Unrecorded in-kind donations. This was a last minute thing that lost money, so there were no proceeds given to Lisa’s campaign. We probably need to record the food and game cards as donations in kind, but there were less than a dozen individuals who showed up for this event to my knowledge as there were multiple conflicting events that night. I honestly forgot about it given the immaterial nature, but I’m guessing no more than a $250 in kind contribution.
“IV. David McCarthy’s donations did not exceed $1000. I see my mistake on the October 10th filing which should have indicated a $650 aggregate contribution total. That is an easy amendment and has $0 impact to the campaign. I have electronic records to support this at my fingertips.
“Fortunately the campaign has been run so efficiently, if we have to return any and all of these monies we will still have a surplus to be able to donate some to charity.”
The “last minute” Oct. 14 fundraiser was advertised via Brinton’s Facebook page on Oct. 11.
Meek asked, “Do they have a platform yet beside more of this?”
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