San Jose
Manh Nguyen found to have multiple campaign law violations
Agenda Item Name: Hearing on Complaint filed by Tom Cochran on June 5, 2015 against Manh Nguyen and Manh Nguyen for City Council D4 alleging violations of the San Jose Municipal Code
Date/time/location item will be heard: July 8, 2015 5:30p, San Jose Ethics Commission
Issue summary: The complaint filed by Tom Cochran against Manh Nguyen and Manh Nguyen for City Council D4 alleged a violation of Title 12 by the failure of Nguyen and Nguyen for City Council D4 to file Late Contribution Reports with the San Jose City Clerk. It has been concluded that the Respondent (Nguyen and Nguyen for City Council D4) did not timely file 99 Form 497s reporting $271,386.65 of Late Contributions as required by both Title 12 and the Political Reform Act. In addition, the Respondent has not reported 22 Late Contributions in the amount of $11,634.31. These facts constitute multiple and systemic violations of the Municipal Code.
The City Clerk has not yet imposed a late fine, though it is understood that the potential late fine would be “quite large”. One recommendation regarding the action to take in this matter is that the Commission delay any action until it learns what action, if any, the City Clerk intends to take regarding the imposition of a late fine. The Commission might also consider a civil penalty, though the investigation did not reveal any malicious intent or attempt to conceal the late filing; nor that the late filing was deliberate. If the Commission decides to impose a civil penalty, they could impose a fine up to $5,000 for each of up to 99 violations (22 Late Contribution Report violations, 77 additional violations of the Political Reform Act’s 90-day rule), or three times the amount the Respondent failed to report properly, whichever is greater.
Link to item: http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/44952
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/44953
http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/44954
Link to agenda: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/44941
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