- Introduction
This Audit Report summarizes the audit results of the committee, Alioto-Pier for Supervisor, Identification Number 1265030 (“the Committee”), from January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2005. The audit was conducted to determine whether the Committee materially complied with the requirements of the Political Reform Act (“the Act”) (California Government Code section 81000, et seq.) and San Francisco’s Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance (“CFRO”) (San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code § 1.100, et seq).[1] - Audit Authority
San Francisco Charter section C3.699-11 authorizes the Ethics Commission (“the Commission”) to audit campaign statements that are filed with the Commission, along with other relevant documents, to determine whether the candidate complied with applicable requirements of State and local laws. The Commission randomly selected the Committee for audit. - Audit Scope and Procedures
This audit was performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. The audit involved a review of the Committee’s records for the period covered by the audit. This review was conducted to determine:- Compliance with all disclosure requirements pertaining to contributions, expenditures, accrued expenditures, and loans, including itemization when required;
- Compliance with applicable filing deadlines;
- Compliance with restrictions on contributions, loans, and expenditures;
- Accuracy of total reported receipts, disbursements, and cash balances as compared to bank records; and
- Compliance with all record-keeping requirements.
The Commission posts audit reports to its web site and, in cases of apparent violations of law, forwards them to the appropriate enforcement agency.
- Committee Information
The Committee was formed in April 2004 to support the election of Michela Alioto-Pier to the Board of Supervisors, District 2 in the November 2, 2004 general election. The Committee’s treasurer was Kinde Durkee. The Committee was still active as of December 31, 2006. - Audit Findings
For the period covered by the audit, the Committee reported receiving $288,575 in contributions and incurring $286,884 of expenditures.The Commission determined that there was one material finding with respect to the audit of the Committee. The Committee received three contributions in excess of the $500 contribution limit, in violation of San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code (S.F. C&GC Code) sections 1.114(a).
S.F. C&GC Code section 1.114(a) provides that no person other than a candidate can make, and no candidate campaign treasurer can solicit or accept any contribution, which will cause the total amount contributed by such person to such candidate in an election to exceed $500.
The details of the contributions that exceeded the $500 contribution limit are as follow
Contributor
Contribution Amount
Firerock Development, LLC
$1,000
Kay, Steven
$750
Sullivan, Thomas
$750
For the Firerock Development contribution, the Committee tried to return the excess contribution by issuing a check to the contributor. The contributor, however, did not negotiate the check.
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Committee’s Response to Finding:
“The Committee does not believe that this finding should be deemed material, because the dollar amount ($1,000) is not itself significant and because these contributions represent only .34 percent of the total amount of contributions which the Committee received. For a Committee that received contributions from over 873 supporters, we believe that the fact that Committee had only two problematic contributions shows that it substantially complied with the provisions of the Political Reform Act and the Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance.”
[1] During the period covered by the audit, Article 1, Chapter 3 of the San Francisco Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code (S.F. C&GC Code) codified the Electronic Filing Ordinance. As a result of amendments to CFRO, the provisions of the Electronic Filing Ordinance are now combined in S.F. C&GC Code section 1.112.