Confusion leads to waiving of many campaign fines

Friday, Feb. 18, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Political candidates and public officials who didn't file their financial disclosures on time in 1999 and were fined a total of $250,000 are going to receive some clemency.

In a few cases, refunds will be made. In most instances, the people never paid the penalty and appealed for forgiveness.

Kenneth Rohrs, newly appointed executive director of the state Ethics Commission, went through the 81 cases of those who never filed or submitted their forms late.

Rohrs recommended Thursday the commission forgive many because of circumstances or errors by the commission last year.

He said 28 candidates for political office were fined $76,475 but there was no evidence in the record they were ever given the forms or notified they had to file the financial disclosure statements.

The commission accepted his recommendation that the fines be waived and that those fined be given a new deadline of March 31 to file their disclosure forms or they will be hit then with sanctions.

Four candidates were fined $19,750, but Rohrs said they were not considered to be public officials. They were members of such entities as a swimming pool board or a soil conservation district. Their penalties were forgiven.

Another group was fined $33,075, which Rohrs said was a "little embarrassing." The former staff of the commission apparently made errors in assessing those penalties, and they should be written off the books, he said. The commission agreed.

The disclosure forms were due by March 31, 1999. Some public officials filed early in 1998 without realizing they would have to submit a second form by March. The fines totaling $38,000 for that group were waived.

In one case a $9,675 fine was erased for a man who encountered an emergency with his 91-year-old mother and had to move to Tennessee. He later returned to Las Vegas to learn he had been fined for being delinquent. The penalty was forgiven.

Many candidates or public officials who filed late were hit with fines running into the thousands of dollars because the amount increased with each day the report was tardy. The commission, in many cases, agreed to reduce these to $575.

One member of the state Public Utilities Commission received a $1,775 refund. He filled out his form, but the secretary at the PUC office filed it there instead of sending it to the Ethics Commission.