Sheriff William Johnson has paid a $1,000 fine levied by the Ohio Elections Commission last week as a result of a complaint filed by county resident Steve Magda.
Executive Director Philip Richter said Johnson’s hearing, originally scheduled for May, was held June 14 before the full commission. Johnson was represented by David Pontius. Casey O’Brien represented Magda, whose wife is the Republican candidate for county treasurer.
The commission considered two complaints against Johnson’s campaign. The first one involved improper donations from corporations from 2004 to 2009. Richter said those years are outside the two-year statute of limitation for campaign violations and the complaint was dismissed.
The same allegations were present in the second complaint, but for more recent campaign finance reports. Richter said the commission determined that the campaign had violated the state law on accepting corporate donations and a fine of $1,000 was imposed.
Richter said the fine must be paid by the candidate, not the campaign fund. He said Johnson’s payment was received this week and, as far as the commission is concerned, the matter is closed.
Johnson said he was told the campaign fund could have paid the fine, but he chose to handle it, as well as the travel and legal fees incurred, from his personal finances.
“If you make a mistake, you correct it,” said Johnson. “It’s the right thing to do.”
After learning of the allegations, Johnson returned all of the donations that the campaign had received from corporate donors. Richter said the total was about $14,000 and included those donations for the years beyond the statute of limitations. That action was taken into consideration by the commission in determining its ruling and fine amount.
Richter said the amount of money involved and the length of time that had passed between receiving the donations and rectifying the situation also were taken into consideration in setting the fine amount.
“This is more substantial, in cases like this, than what the commission would normally impose,” he said.While the law does provide for jail time, Richter said the commission would have to refer the case to the prosecuting attorney for that action.
“The commission cannot impose jail time. As an administrative agency, we either refer to the prosecutor or impose a fine.”
Johnson said all of the corporate checks that the campaign received were for golf outing tickets and the donors therefore received value for their payments. He said the money was never spent and remained in his campaign’s war chest.
The sheriff predicted that all Ashtabula County candidates will keep a close eye on their corporate donations after the publicity that resulted from his infraction.
“The buck stops with you,” Johnson said. “It makes you realize you got to keep track of things.”
Magda said he will probably have a statement on the outcome of the hearing “later on.”
“I guess that’s what (the commission) decided,” he said.
Richter said the commission typically gets only “a couple” corporate donation complaints out of the 1,000 or so it handles every year. He said most cases deal with failure to file a campaign finance report or late filing of the same.
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