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Appearance in connection with a request that the Board waive the $2,500 campaign finance late fee assessed against Dale Atkins, a candidate for Clerk of Orleans Parish Civil District Court, in the February 6, 2010 election, whose Supplemental campaign finance disclosure report was filed 237 days late. |
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In connection with her request for a waiver of the $2,500 late fee assessed for the late filing of a Supplemental campaign finance report, Monica V. Bowers, on behalf of the candidate, states that she serves as treasurer for the candidate's campaign fund and has served since April of 2006. Ms. Bowers maintains that the untimely filing of the Supplemental report is a mistake and the result of an electronic failure due to her change from the use of a PC to a MacBook Pro. She explains that on the afternoon of February 15, 2012, she realized that she did not have the Leaders program on her MacBook Pro. She immediately contacted the Ethics Board and was directed to and spoke with Ethics' IT staff to confirm that the Leaders program was compatible with MacBook Pro. Initially there was trouble installing the Leaders program on her MacBook Pro, however, Leaders ended up being installed under the Parallels software of her MacBook Pro. She then was able to sign on to Leaders and enter the necessary campaign finance data for the Supplemental report. Ms. Bowers states that she believed that the report had been timely filed. Ms. Bowers states that she was surprised that the electronic transmission apparently failed. She did not know that the report had not been filed until October 9, 2012, thereafter, she downloaded the Leaders software onto her husband's PC and filed the report.
The candidate was sent a reminder notice dated January 12, 2012 and a delinquency notice dated February 22, 2012 (see attached documentation). Also, the Ethics IT department researched its records to determine if there was an electronic receipt or transmission failure of the Supplemental report on the date of February 15, 2012, and was unable to find a successful or failure of an electronic transmission for the date of February 15, 2012. Ms. Bowers makes reference of two electronic filings made in 2011. Confirmations of receipt of the electronic filings were sent via email (see attached documentation). Confirmation receipt for the Supplemental report due February 15, 2012 filed on October 9, 2012 was sent via email as well (see attached documentation).
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ELECTION: February 6, 2010
TYPE OF REPORT: Supplemental
DAYS LATE: 237
ASSESSED FEE: $2,500
REPORT DUE: February 15, 2012
REPORT FILED: October 9, 2012
ACTIVITY REPORTED:
$0.00 in receipts, $8,843.09 in disbursements, and $46,400.80 in funds on hand
OTHER LATE FILINGS: 5
A Supplemental report filed 1 day late in connection with the February 7, 1998 election, a 10-P report filed 1 day late in connection with the February 2, 2002 election, a Supplemental report filed 1 day late in connection with the October 5, 2002 election, a Special report filed 4 days late in connection with the April 22, 2006 election, and a 30-P report filed 1 day late in connection with the February 6, 2010 election. The late fees assessed for the late filings of the reports have been paid.
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18:1505.4.A(1) Any candidate, the treasurer or chairman of a political committee, or any other person required to file any reports under this Chapter, who knowingly fails to file or who knowingly fails to timely file any such reports as are required by this Chapter may be assessed a civil penalty as provided in R.S.42:1157 for each day until such report is filed. 18:1485C. Each candidate for a major or district office and each principal campaign committee of a candidate for a major or district office shall electronically file reports of contributions and expenditures with the supervisory committee. Effective January 1, 2012, Act 25 of the 2008 2nd Extraordinary Session requires Major and District office level candidates to electronically file campaign finance disclosure reports. A report is considered not filed until it is filed electronically.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Aneatra Boykin |
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