Hall Monitor: Campaign treasurer found to have violated campaign law now a deputy city commissioner

A few weeks ago, the city's Board of Ethics announced several settlement agreements over campaign finance violations by various candidates for office last year, among them City Commissioner Stephanie Singer, who acknowledged several violations of the city's campaign finance code (Singer had, in fact, reported the violations herself when she later became aware of them).

Also named in the settlement agreement was Ellen Chapman, Singer's campaign treasurer — who, CP discovered this week, has since been appointed a deputy commissioner in Singer's office.

Among the violations in the most recent settlement: collecting contributions in excess of the city's limit from Singer's brother David; accepting, on the eve of the primary, excess contributions from one Liz Kaplan in the name of her husband and son but drawn on her own checking account; and failing to disclose those contributions in the 24-hour reporting period required two weeks before an election. The settlement certainly paints a picture of messy campaign finance records; at worst, it could imply defiance of campaign rules on the eve of a competitive election.

But it also provides a off-color backdrop for Singer's decision to appoint Chapman to the Deputy Commissioner role. The recently settled case wasn't the first time the Singer campaign made errors: Singer signed another ethics violation settlement agreement last year, acknowledging making tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures on campaign materials from Singer's private credit card rather than from the campaign committee's account.; and last July, Public Record columnist David Lynn, whose campaign finance columns are nothing if not meticulous, found various inconsistencies and errors in Singer's campaign records, stating that "her filings are in disarray."

Effectively, Chapman is taking one of the positions once occupied by former City Commissioner Rene Tartaglione, daughter of long-time City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione, whom Singer ousted in May. (Rene Tartaglione was found to have engaged in ethics violations as well, by engaging in political activities while working as a civil servant overseeing elections).

Singer, who, along with fellow insurgent City Commissioner Al Schmidt, recently passed rules severely ending patronage among city election workers, told CP on Wednesday, "It's illegal to reward political support with city funds … and I haven't done that." Chapman, Singer argues, is "reliable, smart, and trustworthy and … understands how processes within an organization will affect how that organization performs."

Singer also hired former Second District City Council candidate and ousted committeewoman Tracey Gordon as a deputy commissioner (Singer had been a vocal supporter of Gordon in her fight against the city's Democratic party to retain her committeeperson post), as well as Dennis Lee, who managed her campaign.

I should emphasize here: There's nothing unusual about elected officials hiring on people who worked on their campaigns — from the President of the United States on down to City Council members, it's a common practice. Reformist candidate and insurgent Republican Al Schmidt, who won a seat as City Commissioner in November, acknowledges  hiring two of his campaign staffers as deputy commissioners, saying it only makes sense to hire individuals that "share my work ethic and share my ideas."

Schmidt adds that deputy commissioners are civil servants and therefore barred from various political activities, including assisting with his campaign. "My best professional gain is my political loss," he told CP. Schmidt and Singer both draw a distinction between the kind of nepotism and cronyism they swore to overturn and the appointment of high-level staffers who share their values.

Zack Stalberg of the good government watchdog Committee of Seventy agrees.

"Practically speaking, this is one reason people get involved in campaigns, for the opportunity to work in government down the road. That's a legitimate motive, and the campaign is a great place [for the candidate] to find out whether an individual is good or not," says Stalberg. "The real issue is whether they hire quality people."

Fair enough, says this Hall Monitor: Hopefully the quality of work Singer's staff performs in the City Commission is a little tidier than than it was on the campaign trail.