Assemblyman uses CPA letter to fight campaign charge

Kirsten Searer

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.

Assemblyman Chad Christensen has provided a letter to the secretary of state from a CPA who said Christensen has not committed "any illegality or significant impropriety" with his campaign finances.

The letter was part of Christensen's official response to the secretary of state's office, which asked him to clarify his finance report filed in January.

One of Christensen's constituents filed a complaint in February after Christensen's finance report showed he cut himself 12 checks from his campaign funds totaling more than $18,000.

In his response, Christensen wrote that he wrote the checks to "reimburse campaign expenses paid by me personally."

In all, he said, he "paid $18,679.75 of campaign expenses from my personal funds, the same amount I was reimbursed."

The reimbursements he made are permitted under the Nevada Revised Statues, he argued.

The letter Christensen attached from CPA Richard Bowler states that his company, Piercy, Bowler, Taylor & Kern, reviewed all of Christensen's "supporting documents for amounts received and spent."

"Except for some minor expense classification errors and a relatively small error in the beginning cash balance, no problems were discovered," Bowler wrote.

Bowler also noted in the letter that Christensen has now retained him to be his campaign's treasurer.

Christensen did not send the "supporting documents" to the secretary of state but he said he would if the state officials ask for them. Otherwise, he said, he plans to send copies of the backup documentation -- receipts and the like -- along with his corrected campaign finance report.

The complaint also questioned the timing of the checks that Christensen cut to himself. Most of them came on Aug. 14 or soon after, which is the time that Christensen incorporated his consulting business.

Christensen said the dates of when he cut his checks and when he incorporated his business were a coincidence.

"None of the money received from the campaign was used to fund my business," he wrote. "I operate my business from my home. It is a consulting business requiring only my personal services."

Christensen said he hopes that his constituents will understand that the campaign worker who filled out his report didn't do it correctly.

"In the future, I will no longer really be touching any of this," he said. "I will have a professional treasurer to handle this in the future."