Friday, January 30, 1998
Finance records under scrutiny
USAC: Spending reports from printing company contradict
candidates
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Recently disclosed documents from the Elections Board appear to
disprove charges that eleven Students First! candidates violated
election bylaws last year.
However, information from the Agate Printing Company contradicts
the documents from the Elections Board.
Former Finance Committee Chair Robert Rhoan said last Thursday
that campaign expense reports were falsified and that candidates
running on the Students First! slate exceeded the spending
limit.
"The true cost of the sandwich boards that candidates used last
year were not included in the expense reports," Rhoan said.
Rhoan also said that the actual cost of the posters worn by
candidates would push the expenditures of the candidates over the
limits.
The spending limit for all student government positions is $400,
except for the office of president, which has a limit of $600.
According to the expense reports held by the Elections Board,
none of the candidates named, who include Kandea Mosley, Carol Lee,
Stacy Lee, Max Espinoza, Jo Anna Ley, An Le, Mike Hamilton,
Samantha Gilardi, Darnell Grisby, Joe Medico and Juan Aguirre,
exceeded their campaign spending limits.
However, speculation as to the validity of these reports has
recently arisen.
John McMahon, chief financial officer of Agate Printing, the
company that printed the materials, disputes the totals that appear
on the election records.
"We charged them about $300 for a set of 50 posters. They
requested 11 sets. Total, that came out to be around $3,500,"
McMahon said.
In fact, this is not the only difference between the campaign
expense reports and the invoice supplied by the company.
The records from the candidate’s expense reports show the total
cost for Students First! posters at $1,082.39, while the invoice
supplied by Agate Printing shows a total cost of $3,453.18.
The expense report also lists the total number of posters for
each candidate at 30, at a cost of $3.03 each, while the invoice
from the printing company shows that 50 were ordered for each
candidate at a cost of $5.80 each.
McMahon said that he sent the invoice to numerous students
involved in the campaigns, including Rhoan, Undergraduate Student
Association Council (USAC) President Kandea Mosley and former
Students First! representative Miho Murai.
"Whenever we talked to (Mosley), she would say she had no idea
why she was getting the bill," said McMahon.
However, Mosley’s campaign manager explained that candidates did
not directly handle their own campaign expenses.
"We cut a flat check out to the (Students First!) board, who
handled the expenses that were shared by all the candidates," said
Lung Chi, Mosley’s campaign manager last year.
"To my knowledge, all the candidates paid the amount for their
campaign to their campaign managers. I did not pay any amount over
what was outlined in the election code," Mosley said.
According to election board by-laws, "the provision of incorrect
and/or incomplete information by an elected and certified candidate
may result in the Election Board recommendation to USAC for an
impeachment decision to begin."Source Documentation