OID incumbents violated campaign laws in 2015, spurring FPPC warning

California elections enforcers gave relative slaps on the wrist to two Oakdale Irrigation District officeholders for violating state rules in 2015 races, and a third remains under investigation.

OID board member Gary Osmundson and former board member Frank Clark received warning letters for minor errors associated with a campaign mass mailer urging people to vote for them and former board member Al Bairos on the Nov. 3, 2015, ballot, according to recent Fair Political Practices Commission postings.

“There is an open investigation underway on Bairos,” FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga confirmed Friday in an email.

The October 2015 mailer listed names of dozens of Oakdale residents, many prominent, in support of the three incumbents, saying they had “done an outstanding job during a difficult time.”

Osmundson won his race, while Clark and Bairos were ousted by current board members Gail Altieri and Linda Santos, respectively, both by more than 20 percentage points. Santos now faces recall in a special election scheduled for April 25.

The mailer said Clark’s re-election committee paid for the mailer, but did not state the committee’s address as required by law. The warning letter to him acknowledges that an address “would have provided recipients with little additional useful information,” and concludes that “public harm of this violation is negligible.”

“This is so damn petty,” Clark said Thursday, blaming the omission on “idiots” advising the incumbents’ campaigns. “It’s not like somebody was raped or robbed, for crying out loud.”

In a December 2015 FPPC disclosure, Clark reported that Osmundson’s and Bairos’ shares of the mailer amounted to $1,758 each.

In the summer, Osmundson and Bairos had submitted forms to the state declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they would raise and spend less than $1,000 on their campaigns.

Osmundson never reported exceeding the $1,000 threshold and failed to form a re-election committee to handle campaign finances, both required by the Political Reform Act. The FPPC letter sent to him says he violated two relevant rules but notes the money in question “did not greatly exceed the $1,000 threshold,” he didn’t know about the expense until after the election and the mailer “was not sent to voters in your district.”

Asked for comment, Osmundson sent to The Modesto Bee two notes with demands regarding the identity of the person who “turned us in,” something the FPPC is prevented from revealing.

“Nothing to comment on I guess. Pretty simple, it’s a warning,” Osmundson said in a third email.

In late October 2015, Bairos submitted new reports saying he had formed a campaign committee, but there is little indication he intended to spend less than $1,000. By then, he had given his campaign a total of $4,700, and he acknowledged having exceeding the $1,000 threshold as early as Sept. 26. His paperwork says nothing about the mailer expense.

“I have not spoken with anyone from the FPPC since 2016,” Bairos said in an email.

Clark said an adviser to one of the other campaigns used Clark’s committee on the mailer, apparently because he was the only one of the three who had one. Clark wrote a check to cover the expense and did not see the mailer before it went out, he said, and he later disclosed Osmundson’s and Bairos’ shares as nonmonetary contributions.

“I did everything right,” said Clark, who began selling a self-published, 330-page autobiography a few days ago.

The FPPC retains warning letters “should an enforcement action become necessary based on newly discovered information or future conduct, ” the letters say. They are dated Dec. 28 and were made public Jan. 30. Convictions for more serious violations typically result in fines.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 7:06 PM with the headline "OID incumbents violated campaign laws in 2015, spurring FPPC warning."