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Kelly Huff
Bob Biersack
Ian Stirton
George Smaragdis
COMPLIANCE CASES MADE PUBLIC
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Election Commission has recently made public its final action on two matters previously under review (MURs). This release contains only disposition information.
[re: any provision of the Act in connection with this matter]
Complainant alleged that he spent $1.9 million of his personal funds to host an August 12, 2000 fundraising event – a “Hollywood Tribute to President William Jefferson Clinton” and that the Hillary Rodham Clinton for U.S. Senate Committee, Inc. and a joint fundraising committee, New York Senate 2000, failed to properly report his in-kind contributions. Respondents contend that they implemented and enforced reasonable processes to collect and report information regarding event expenses. The Commission found probably cause to believe that New York Senate 2000 did not disclose all of the costs of the joint fundraising event in accordance with the Act and Commission’s regulations. In order to settle this matter, Respondents will not further contest the Commission’s findings that it failed to report $721,895 in in-kind contributions. The Commission conciliated with New York Senate 2000 and found no reason to believe that the other respondents violated the Act in connection with this matter.
DOCUMENTS ON PUBLIC RECORD:
Documents from this matter are available from the Commission’s web site at http://www.fec.gov by entering 5225 under case number in the Enforcement Query System.They are also available in the FEC’s Public Records Office at 999 E St. NW in Washington.
The complainant alleged that TSC Engineering Company collected funds in the form of payroll deductions from its employees and forwards the funds to its political action committee, TSC Engineering and TSC Surveying PAC Fund. The complainant claimed that his “contribution” to TSC PAC was not voluntary. TSC Engineering responded by noting that it does not sponsor any federal political action committee, but it sponsors a state political action committee. TSC PAC stated that it has never contributed to a federal candidate or committee. The Commission agreed with the Office of General Counsel to dismiss this matter on the grounds that the case was both low rated** and the potential lack of jurisdiction to address the state issues.
** Low rated cases are those that do not warrant use of the Commission’s resources to pursue because of their lower significance relative to other pending matters. Stale cases are those that initially received a higher rating but have remained unassigned for a significant period due to a lack of staff resources for effective investigation. Effective enforcement relies upon the timely pursuit of complaints and referrals to ensure compliance with the law. Investigations concerning activity more remote in time usually require a greater commitment of resources, primarily due to the fact that the evidence becomes more difficult to discover as it ages.
DOCUMENTS ON PUBLIC RECORD:
Documents from this matter are available from the Commission’s web site at http://www.fec.gov by entering 5627 under case number in the Enforcement Query System. They are also available in the FEC’s Public Records Office at 999 E St. NW in Washington.
*There are four administrative stages to the FEC enforcement process:
1. Receipt of proper complaint
3. “Probable cause” stage
2. “Reason to believe” stage
4. Conciliation stage
It requires the votes of at least four of the six Commissioners to take any action. The FEC can close a case at any point after reviewing a complaint. If a violation is found and conciliation cannot be reached, then the FEC can institute a civil court action against a respondent.
