Board Asks Council to 'Correct' Campaign Finance Law

A “typographical error” in the city code that became fodder for an allegation of campaign finance violations against a sitting councilwoman should be corrected, the chairman of the city’s Board of Supervisors of Elections said.

In a letter sent to the Rockville City Council on Friday, board Chairman David Celeste Jr. asked the council to correct the typo by amending the city code.

Last week, Tom Moore, a candidate for City Council, by accepting a contribution from her husband in excess of the $1,000 contribution limit.

Newton said Monday that she feels exonerated.

“Laws are not determined by a typo and most lawyers know that,” she said. “However, a typo doesn’t sell headlines. It was a misrepresentation that did not need to be stated just to fix a typo.”

Celeste wrote in a letter to Moore on Friday that it is “clear” that city law intended to exempt spouses from contribution limits.

The city code includes a provision that "The contributions of a candidate or his spouse to the candidate's own campaign are not subject to the limitations" on contributions described in another subsection of the code, "but must pass through the hands of the candidate's treasurer and be reported as required in other provisions in this article."

The subsection of the code referred to as "not subject to the limitations" has to do with "volunteering time and personal vehicle" to a campaign and does not refer to campaign contributions, as the elections board says it should.

The board discussed Moore’s letter in a closed session on Thursday. The board's response to Moore does not address Moore’s allegation that Newton broke the law, but states that “the Board considers this amendment to be a correction.”

Celeste, in his letter to the council, asks the council to approve the correction before the Nov. 8 city elections. Moore, Newton and six other candidates are vying for four council seats. Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and Councilman Piotr Gajewski are running for mayor.

Newton explained her reading of the law in .

Other candidates came to Newton’s defense.

“A significant focus of this campaign for Rockville's leadership concerns returning civility and cooperation to our interactions, but this very public effort to fix a typographical error in the campaign finance law by making an example of a fellow candidate and her family seems inconsistent with that objective,” John Hall, a former city councilman who is attempting a return to the council, wrote in a post on Rockville Central that he also provided to Rockville Patch. “I am hopeful that Tom's very next post to his website, the Rockville Patch, and Rockville Central might be an apology to Councilmember Newton and her family for dragging them into what I sincerely hope was just an otherwise well-intentioned effort to clarify the City's campaign finance law."

Marcuccio was more blunt in her assessment. “To have [Moore’s allegation] come out at this point—right before an election—was undoubtedly, without question, politically-motivated,” she said after Monday’s council meeting.

Moore “could have avoided the Newton example,” Councilman Mark Pierzchala, who also is seeking reelection, wrote on Rockville Central. “But in no way did I take the example to be a slam on Councilmember Newton or on Fred Newton, but just as an example of how the law can trip you up.”

The first campaign finance reports from the 2011 election cycle were released Friday. Newton said that it is clear that other candidates read the law the same way she and her husband did.

“This year there are several candidates who have already put in as much, if not more, as we did in 2009,” Newton said.

Fred Newton contributed $4,120.50 to his wife’s 2009 campaign, according to campaign finance reports.

“It’s very clear that a married couple is treated with joint assets,” Bridget Donnell Newton said.

Asked Friday whether he still believes that Newton violated the law, Moore said: “It’s not for me to say.”

In , Moore called for candidates to voluntarily “disclose their spouse's financial conflicts through filling out the standard Rockville ‘Statement of Financial Interests’ form required of all candidates.”

Such a requirement is coming to the city code, but likely will not be in place for this election cycle.

On Sept. 19, the council discussed changes to the code to bring it in compliance with state ethics laws. The General Assembly last year passed a requirement that county and municipal ethics laws comply with those of the state. A draft of changes to the city ethics ordinance, which includes an expanded financial disclosure provision, is pending with the State Ethics Commission.