Missouri's Administrative Hearing Commission on Tuesday not only upheld state Ethics Commission findings against a political committee with ties to the Northeast fire district, it bumped up fees for the violations by almost $40,000, to $206,595.
The decision stems from an appeal of Ethics Commission findings that were issued a year ago today against the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District Improvement Committee and its treasurer, Linda Love-Tolbert. The Ethics Commission imposed fees of $167,712 against the committee and Love-Tolbert — the fire district's office administrator — after determining that the political committee had violated a string of campaign finance laws.
Neither Love-Tolbert nor her attorney in the appeal, controversial former Northeast fire district attorney Elbert Walton Jr., could be reached for comment.
Liz Ziegler, general counsel for the Ethics Commission, praised the decision. "We are very pleased to see the Administrative Hearing Commission uphold an Ethics Commission action of these significant violations of the campaign finance laws," she said.
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The hearing commission's decision says Love-Tolbert and the improvement committee "violated Missouri's finance disclosure laws in multiple ways." Among them, according to the decision, they failed to file reports with the Ethics Commission and failed to report contributions, including some from a Northeast fire district account.
The committee also failed to report expenditures paid, failed to report cash expenditures and allowed Anthony Weaver, a former district consultant, to sign checks drawn on a committee account despite the fact he was not the committee's treasurer, according to the decision. As treasurer, Love-Tolbert was responsible for the committee's reporting requirements, the decision says.
In the appeal, Walton argued that the Ethics Commission's procedures had violated his clients' constitutional rights to a fair hearing, that the commission did not have the authority to issue fines, and that the fines were excessive and arbitrary.
If the Ethics Commission finds that a committee or its treasurer has violated campaign finance laws, it may assess fees of $1,000 per violation, or double the amount involved in the violation.
Administrative Hearing Commission staff attorney Richard Maseles explained that in an appeal, the Hearing Commission doesn't review the Ethics Commission's decision; rather, it decides the issues based on facts presented and then arrives at any fees based on its own findings.
The improvement committee had pushed for the passage of a failed $10.7 million bond issue put before fire district voters four times within a year. It also had fought against an effort to recall then-Northeast board members Robert Edwards and Joseph L. Washington.
In addition to the fine imposed last year, the committee was ordered to file all due campaign finance reports. According to the Ethics Commission, the still-active committee hasn't filed any reports since fall 2008.
