Friday, October 12, 2012

Respectful Planning PAC Q3 Treasurer's Report

The Q3 Treasurer's Report for the Respectful Planning PAC report was due on 10/10/12.  It was submitted to the City Clerk's office on October 4th.  This is the first page of the report:
Note that the contributions section of the report shows no "monetary" contributions - only in-kind contributions.  A good example of an "in-kind" contribution would be picking up supplies from Office Depot or food from Publix and submitting a receipt.  However, the group shows "monetary" expenditures as well - three times for items from the Supervisor of Elections office and one $75 expense from the Chair of the PAC, Laurel Decker.  These items would have been paid for by either writing a check or forking over real cash for whatever was purchased - voter lists, maps, whatever.  That money/cash would have had to come from somewhere and should show up on this report.  Here are the second and third pages of the report:
 The money that was used (above) would have had to come from somewhere.  Get it?

These items (above) are the only contributions to the PAC identified in the report.  All were in-kind purchases of paper, ink and pens - logical and expected purchases for a petition drive.  But, where did the money come from for what was bought on the previous page?   Hmmm.

Now, here is the petition.  Now I know Laurel Decker is a smart cookie, but looking at the petition, doesn't it seem as though that this was somehow professionally prepared?  Like by an attorney or some other sort of professional?  Should their time be indicated as an "in-kind" contribution, at least.  Or, for all we know, someone could have handed over a bag of cash for the time put into the creation of the petition.
Note too that it was also filed before the reporting period of July 1st.  Was the PAC formed before?  Where is the previous report?  It isn't on the city's website.
Then, on the group's FaceBook page, we have someone proudly displaying what the group's t-shirts will look like.
Where are the t-shirts on the treasurer's report?  Here are some of the members wearing the t-shirts - so someone bought them with money or they were contributed "in-kind."  But where are they recorded on the report?


Color me surprised that this group would be so flagrant in hiding where their resources came from - why we know this group plays by the rules all of the time.  Or, maybe this kind of behavior has become second nature and they think that no one is watching?