Clarke, Hughes, Henon . . . Miss deadlines? Fine!

THE PHILADELPHIA Board of Ethics has imposed fines on the political committees for two City Council members, including Council President Darrell Clarke, and a state senator for violations stemming from missed deadlines for publicly reporting campaign money.

The fines are part of settlements reached between the ethics board and the three committees.

"None of this appears to be deliberate," Shane Creamer, executive director of the board, said. "I think these are just mistakes of omission and just bookkeeping and filing mistakes."

The political committee for state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Phila., who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been fined $1,500 for failing to file a campaign-finance report by a June 18 deadline, according to the ethics board agreement. The committee filed the report on July 26, about a month after being contacted by the ethics board.

Councilman Bobby Henon's political committee and its treasurer have been jointly fined $3,000 for failing to file four reports in the days leading up to the May 19 primary. The reports were due between May 5 and May 15 for contributions that had to be accounted for within 24 hours. The committee also filed a report in June that left out "a substantial amount" of the contributions received during the filing period, according to the ethics board agreement.

Clarke's campaign committee was fined $1,500 for failing to report two contributions that had to be reported to the ethics board within 24 hours of being received.

Clarke and Henon were reelected to Council seats with little opposition this year. Hughes, a state senator for 20 years, does not face reelection until 2016.

Creamer said settlements related to missed filing deadlines have been fairly common this year. He said the board has entered 44 settlements this year, 31 of which involved missed reporting deadlines.

tnadolny@phillynews.com

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