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Health & Fitness

OPEN, HONEST AND TRANSPARENT ???

If you want to run for office in New York State and collect funds to help you pay for campaign expenses, you must comply with the Election Law – period. This is not a matter of personal choice, or whim, but a strict legal requirement. Yet, misinformation and malfeasance continue – so much so that the Governor and State Legislature are considering making the Election Law regulations even stricter in a concerted effort to reduce, if not eliminate the corruption which is endemic in NYS politics.

Therefore it is particularly galling that the current Supervisor and her campaign treasurer continue to flaunt the Election Law despite repeated notifications and warnings about their violations. This failure cannot be shrugged off as “insignificant errors” or “oversights” as the Supervisor (“ATH”) has claimed over the years, while attributing blame to her campaign treasurers. Her current campaign treasurer is a former Southampton Town Democratic Party Chairman (and he is also a former elected official from NJ) who we must assume is familiar with campaign finance rules. Therefore, this is a flagrant disregard for the law!

There is precious little public trust in government and elected officials. Continued violation of the law and a cavalier attitude toward accountability tars honest representatives of the people. Anna Throne Holst has consistently accepted campaign contributions which exceed the legal limits and has carried an illegal negative campaign balance on disclosure reports for almost two years. It stretches credibility to think this is an honest mistake or a mere bookkeeping error. On the NYS Board of Elections (“BOE”) website www.elections.ny.gov, the Throne-Holst campaign fund has reported negative balances for several reporting periods, ranging from negative $6,612.77 to negative $41.63. The BOE clearly states that no report should have a negative balance and negative balances are due to reporting errors which must be corrected. The BOE advises that there are significant consequences for both treasurers and candidates for failure to comply with the requirements of Election Law relating to campaign financial disclosure reports.

The nitty-gritty of campaign finance rules may elude the public’s understanding, so the Election Law also put into place public disclosure requirements as added protection. The bottom line of the fanciful ATH reporting negative balances to the BOE over the past 18 months suggests that she is spending more money than she took in. I, for one, would like an explanation and so should you!

How can her campaign fund be running a negative balance with more expenses paid than she has received in contributions? Perhaps ATH is not reporting all of the campaign contributions or loans that she has received, making her campaign bank statement balance more positive than she has disclosed. Perhaps the checks that ATH reported in 2011 as returned to those donors who gave her more than what she was legally allowed to accept are not cashing those required refunds. If these donors still have not cashed those refunds issued in 2011, her actual campaign fund bank statement balance is higher, but the monies are not hers to legally spend. These are not “reporting errors” in my opinion – this has the appearance of chicanery!

It appears to me that ill-gotten money is continuing to be spent by her campaign to further the re-election of a law-skirting public servant. In October 2011, I advised the Supervisor of my concerns by letter stating that I strongly feel that it is dishonest to retain the over-the-limit contributions in her campaign fund and expend such unlawful monies to further her re-election. I urged her to take corrective action back in 2011 and I am deeply disappointed that her campaign fund remains in questionable status as she commences yet another re-election effort this year. By letter hand-delivered to the Supervisor’s Office last week on May 3, I urged her to take immediate corrective action to cure the negative balances she reported to BOE and I also indicated that the “overage” from the over-the-limit donors in 2011 is not a bridge loan for her re-election campaign expenses. Spending this money and reporting negative balances on campaign finance disclosure reports for an entire second term as Town Supervisor is not a “reporting error” in my opinion - it is an intent to deceive, or to bend the rules.

Sloppy, non-compliant information, expenses and reimbursements are not detailed as required by law. Yet this is what ATH & Co. continue to submit for campaign disclosure statements. Her campaign fund has reported thousands of dollars for reimbursements for expenses without any substantive details that are required under BOE regulations – just lump sum amounts paid to herself or others. This is unacceptable.

Southampton Town deserves openness and transparency from its elected officials. The laws are applicable to all candidates and incumbents seeking elected office.

Campaign finance filings are not supposed to be opaque. They are supposed to be transparent. I know mine are – to the best of my ability. In my opinion, ATH has had numerous campaign finance violations and irregularities over the past six years beginning with her first run for Councilwoman in 2007. Every time these issues were brought to her attention she blamed the treasurer -- whether it was for missing filing deadlines, sloppy bookkeeping, taking in over-the-limit contributions, and other errors. Election Law specifically states that both the treasurer and candidate are equally responsible.

What better time than the kickoff fundraiser for ATH on May 9th for her to set the record straight. I challenge her in the name of the public to open up her campaign finance account books and records to review by investigative reporters at Newsday, the Southampton Press and the Southampton Independent and the public at large.

In addition, I note that Independence Party Platform specifically includes a plank calling for the complete elimination of Political Action Committee money for local, state, and federal offices. Since ATH is an Independence Party member, she should not be accepting PAC funds so as to adhere to the standards the party calls for its candidates, meanwhile, she continues to accept PAC funds from the Southampton Town PBA and other entities.

In the words of Yogi Bera: It’s amazing what you don’t see when you don’t look. It is time for all of us to take a long look at this financial quagmire involving campaign funds and a closer look at who is representing us in local government as Town Supervisor. On Election Day, Nov. 5 – Remember to CHOOSE WISELY for all the elected posts on the ballot this year.

For more information, visit www.LINDAKABOT.com

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