Lake election board member critical of program that waives late filing fines

Election board officials Tuesday continued to deal with a handful of late campaign finance report fines and filings after handing the bulk of the matters in March.

The move to waive fines for some individuals who were no longer seeking office raised questions for board member Michael Mellon, a Republican, who again questioned why election board officials would waive fines for individuals in the first place.

Mellon said the office’s fresh start program was intended for committees or organizations, and it allows them to disband and reorganize under new leadership while keeping the same name and shedding the fines and late filing strikes accrued by the old leadership. Late filing fees increase based on the number of times an individual or entity has filed late over its existence.

In contrast, individuals can disband their campaign at any time, and there would be no new leadership stepping in to run on the same name, Mellon said. Currently, individuals are able to take advantage of the system, rack up fines, disband to get the fines tossed, and then reorganize and run again with a clean slate.

“It was designed for organizations. It was never intended for individuals. That was not our intent,” said Mellon, who first raised this point at the board’s March meeting.

He said the concept of completely waiving fees every single time someone says they are disbanding means anybody who ever owes a fine should be advised to just disband and start over.

“I believe it is a problem to get this weirdo fresh start thing they are doing,” Mellon said.

Michelle Fajman, the Democratic election board director, said the Fresh Start program does apply to organizations, but urged officials to view waiving fine fees for individuals on a case-by-case basis. Many candidates who wind up running afoul of campaign finance requirements are first-time candidates who are convinced to run for a race and never plan on running again. Some, however, do try and take advantage of the system.

“In some instances … we know the people are running for office again. Sometimes some of us don’t even recognize the name,” Fajman said.

Mellon said the board does not do a good job tracking who may be gaming the system when it comes to running again after saying they would not.

cnapoleon@chicagotribune.com