Meetings
 
Agenda Item
Docket No. 21-122
 
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RE:
Request that the Board waive each of the thirteen (13) campaign finance late fees totaling $18,700 assessed against James A. Gray, II, a candidate for District Attorney and Council Member, Orleans Parish in multiple elections.
Facts:
James Gray requests a waiver and an appearance. He states the following:

He does not believe that he received any notices of the reports being due. He doesn't think that any reports were due during the period from 1995 to 2012. There was no activity during that period, until the 2012 election. In 2012, he hired a CPA to handle all of his reporting for the campaign and that person always assured him that she was filing all necessary reports. He realizes that a candidate is responsible for following the law but it was reasonable to hire and pay a CPA who was in the business of giving advice in this area and following her advice. This is what he did.

Comments:
For details on each report, please see attachment.
Law:
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 for each day until such report is filed.

18:1484(2)(b). Each candidate for any other public office shall file reports of contributions in excess of two hundred dollars in the aggregate during the aggregating period.

18:1495.4D (1). If the final report of a candidate for an election, shows a deficit or a surplus, the candidate and his treasurer, if any, shall file supplemental reports with the supervisory committee of all information required in R.S. 18:1495.5. Such reports shall be filed annually no later than February fifteenth and shall be complete through the preceding December thirty-first. Such a supplemental report shall be filed each year until a report has been filed which shows no deficit and until any surplus campaign funds have been disposed of in accordance with R.S. 18:1505.2(I). The report on surplus funds shall disclose the disbursement of such funds in the same manner as expenditures are reported.

18:1495.4(D)(3). (a) A report need not be filed under this Subsection if the candidate is not an elected public official and shows either a deficit or a surplus of less than two thousand five hundred dollars. However, if the candidate is not an elected public official and his deficit or surplus is equal to or greater than two thousand five hundred dollars, the candidate shall file supplemental reports with the supervisory committee of all information required in R.S. 18:1495.5. Such report shall be filed annually no later than February fifteenth and shall be complete through the preceding December thirty-first. Such report shall be filed each year for five years or until a report has been filed which shows no deficit or surplus. (c)
Any individual who was a candidate and who is elected to or is serving in any elected public office during the reporting period for any supplemental report required by this Paragraph shall be considered to be an elected public official for the purposes of this Paragraph whether or not the office to which he is elected is the office for which his candidacy resulted in the deficit or surplus for which a report is required.

Recommendations:
Decline to waive.
Assigned Attorney: Charles Reeves
 
 
ATTACHMENTS:
Description:
2021-122- James Gray Fines Summary
2021-122 - Waiver Request James A. Gray- II SUPP 9-21-96 Election
2021-122 - Waiver Request James A. Gray- II 10-G _ 18 Suppl
2021-122 - Waiver Request James A. Gray- II 40-G
2021-122 - Waiver Request James A. Gray- II SUPP 11-6-12 Electin
2021-122 - Waiver Request James A. Gray- II SUPP 10-5-02 Election