HomeMy WebLinkAbout07 28 1989 Citizens need to know how money is spent by CAWYour Opinion:
Citizens need to know how money is spent by CAW
Dear Editor,
We know it was Eliot Cutler who wrote the airport referendum, which was
on the ballot in March, because he said he did. He also said, "We spent a
considerable amount of time and made considerable effort to draft the charter
language."
From his quotation to the City Council, we also know his firm charges
between $156 and $270 per hour for its services. In addition, we can assume
the consultants, paid by Citizens AirportWatch (CAW) to make presentations
on the environment, noise pollution and alternatives to the airport at the Oct.
19 City Council meeting on the master plan, cost a considerable sum, but we
have not been told what that figure might be.
What we don't know is from whose deep pockets all this money came and
why its donations and expenditures are such a secret.
The Florida Statutes state that each political committee that anticipates
receiving contributions or making expenditures during a calendar year in an
aggregate amount exceeding $500, or which is seeking the signatures of
registered electors in support of an initiative, shall file a statement of
organization within 10 days after its organization or, if later, within 10 days
after the date on which the information that causes the committee to anticipate
that it will receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $500.
The statement shall include the names and addresses of the principal
officers, finance committee and custodian of books and accounts. The
operative words here are "shall" and "that anticipates." This means mandatory
registration before of after an action has been taken.
The Florida Statutes also require each political committee to file, at stated
intervals after registration, reports of all contributions received and expendi-
tures made.
Considering the indications listed below, receipt and expenditure of funds,
and seeking signatures of registered electors in support of an initiative, were
certainly anticipated well in advance of Dec. 27, 1988, when the CAW
registered as a political committee. Travel expenses alone for items two and
three probably would reach the minimum.
1. A letter to the editor, published Sept. 21,1988, urged attendance at the
Oct. 19 City Council meeting and was signed by John Evans, attorney for the
CAW. So, we can assume the CAW was organized prior to that date.
2. The CAW attended the Oct. 19 City Council meeting in force, and in
addition to public input by its members, its out-of-town, out -of -county
consultants made presentations to the council.
3. The Washington, D.C., law firm of Cutler & Stanfield was retained as one
of the CAW's attorneys. Besides writing the petition to place the airport
referendum on the March 14 ballot and the charter amendments attached, the,
wrote the letter produced by Evans at the Oct. 19 meeting, in which
alternatives to the airport were recommended.
4. A six -page newsletter, soliciting funds, was prepared and printed. It
mailed the week of Dec.12 to CAW members and other Sebastian residents.
The postage, which had to be paid in advance, cost hundreds of dollars. This
expense had to be anticipated, and if the printing was free, it should have been
reported as an in -kind donation, showing its value and who made the donating.
5. A petition was circulated, seeking signatures of registered voters, in
support of placing the referendum on the ballot. This petition, after it was
validated by the county supervisor of elections, was delivered to the city cleric
on Dec. 22, but writing it and organization of the petition drive had to be
anticipated.
6.On Dec. 27, the CAW registered as a political committee.
7.On Jan.10, its first financial report, covering the period between Dec. 27
and 31, was filed. It showed receipts of $840 and no expenditures.
To be charitable, I suppose we can assume failure to register as a political
committee until Dec. 27 was the same sort of inadvertent error made by its °
attorney, who incorrectly reported receipts from the CAW booth at the Indian
River Festival, and that it was not a ploy to conceal the receipts and
expenditures prior to that time.
Still, all of this business required considerable organization and could not
have occurred on the spur of the moment. It must have been anticipated.
Therefore, the CAW should have been registered as a political committee
10 days after it was organized, or certainlyymonths before Dec. 27.
Since it was. not, it should be compelled to fill in the blanks to make the
record complete and to pay any penalties involved because it did not do so.
The citizens of Sebastian have a right to know how much of whose money,
for what reason, is behind this contentious committee that keeps our city in
turmoil.
Doris E. Markham
Sebastian