Anthony Williams' Mayoral Campaign Fined For Accepting Improper Contributions
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The campaign of Philadelphia mayoral candidate Anthony Williams has been fined $8,000 and must repay the city another $27,000, after an investigation by the city's Board of Ethics.
Adam Bonin, attorney for the "Williams for Mayor" campaign, says the campaign and the board disagreed both on the rules regarding excessive contributions and over accounting conclusions made by both sides.
But, Bonin said, a settlement was prudent.
"Rather than litigate this dispute in court, the campaign decided it was better to settle and move forward," he told KYW Newsradio this morning.
In the settlement, the board and the campaign agreed that Williams accepted $438,000 in excessive donations before he announced for mayor on November 19th. Most of that, they agree, was already spent by the time Williams announced.
Under the settlement, the remainder -- about $63,000 -- must be put in a separate account and remain untouched until the campaign is over.
"It's not illegal to have the money," notes Shane Creamer, executive director of the Board of Ethics. "They just can't use it for certain purposes, including now they can't use it on their (mayoral) campaign. The law says the candidate cannot spend that money to influence their election. They're allowed to have that money; they just can't spend it to influence the election."
Separately, the board found that Williams' campaign received about $17,000 in donations above city-imposed limits after his November 19th formal announcement. The board also penalized the campaign for misstatements and omissions on campaign finance filings.
Bonin says these were largely of clerical errors. And the excessive donations, he says, came from donors who had originally contributed to Williams' state senate re-election campaign.
"These are donors who were supporting Senator Williams in his state senate race, and who didn't realize that those contributions were going to count towards the (city) limits for his mayoral campaign once he announced," Bonin says.
The Williams campaign must now pay $8,000 in penalties, and must repay the city $27,000 to cover the excessive donations after November 19th as well as the board's accounting costs.
And Creamer says that in the big picture, this agreement shows the laws -- and the board -- are working.
"The board is paying attention to these campaign finance details and disclosures. We're on top of things," he said today.