Mayor Kenney's campaign fined for not filing finance reports
Mayor Kenney's political action committee has been fined $2,000 by the Philadelphia Board of Ethics for failing to file two campaign finance reports this year.
Mayor Kenney's political action committee has been fined $2,000 by the Philadelphia Board of Ethics for failing to file two campaign finance reports this year.
The board, in a settlement released Thursday, said the PAC Kenney for Philadelphia should have filed the reports with the Pennsylvania Department of State because it made two contributions this year to candidates for the state House.
The reports also should have been filed with the Board of Ethics because they included expenditures for Kenney's transition to mayor and his inauguration, the board said.
Kenney for Philadelphia spent $200,996 from Jan. 1 to March 7, including a Feb. 26 contribution of $1,000 to State Rep. Tonyelle Cook-Artis, according to one of the late campaign reports.
The PAC spent $105,451 from March 8 to April 11, including a $1,000 contribution March 28 to State Rep.-elect Isabella Fitzgerald, according to the other late report.
The board said it was asked by lawyers for the PAC in early 2016 if the reports were necessary, but then "mistakenly believed it did not need to file" them. The PAC "subsequently realized" the contributions triggered the filing requirement and took "remedial action" to fix the mistake, according to the agreement.
The board could have fined the PAC $11,000, but reduced the fine to $2,000 because the PAC cooperated.
That fine is due within 14 days of the agreement, signed Wednesday by Judge Phyllis Beck, vice chairwoman of the Board of Ethics.
Marty O'Rourke, a spokesman for Kenney's PAC, said it disclosed the late filing to the board, agreed with the outcome, and welcomed the board's "continued guidance."
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