Ethics board dues PAC
The city Board of Ethics is alleging fraud by a political-action committee with close ties to the city's Democratic Party.
The city Board of Ethics is alleging fraud by a political-action committee with close ties to the city's Democratic Party.
More than a year ago, the PAC, known as the Appreciation Fund, was slapped with a $39,000 fine for repeated delays in complying with the city's campaign-finance ordinance.
Common Pleas Judge Gary DiVito upheld the fine and issued a contempt citation last year against the PAC, ordering it to pay the $39,000 fine within five days.
But instead of paying the fine, the PAC apparently set about emptying its bank account - paying a $13,550 catering bill left over from the mayoral campaign of the city Democratic chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, and paying $2,500 to the PAC's attorney, Thomas Nocella, who ran unsuccessfully for judge last year with the Democratic organization's endorsement.
At last report, the Appreciation Fund had only $378 in its bank account, the Ethics Board said in a legal motion filed last week.
Who controls the PAC is an open question. It was founded in 2003 by Democratic ward leader Carol Ann Campbell, its chairman, and building contractor Ernesto DeNofa, its treasurer.
As of last year, state election records listed Campbell as the PAC's chairman. But in an interview with the Daily News last October, she said she'd resigned the post several years earlier.
A call by the Daily News to Brady yesterday was returned by attorney James Eisenhower. Eisenhower said Campbell had agreed, sometime in early 2007, to pick up the catering costs for a Brady reception, to make up for an earlier PAC check that had bounced.
"The congressman did nothing wrong," Eisenhower said. "The congressman had no knowledge that there was a judgment against the PAC at the time that bill was paid. . . . We believe it was a lawful, in-kind contribution."
None of Brady's campaign finance reports had publicly listed the $13,550 catering bill as a debt, or noted any in-kind donations from the Appreciation Fund.
"It may have been an oversight in the filing," Eisenhower said, "but it was disclosed to the Ethics Board fully when they asked about it. We turned over all the documents related to it, including the invoice that was received."
Nocella did not return a telephone call to his office. Efforts to reach Campbell and DeNofa were unsuccessful. *
