AUSD Board President and Alhambra Education Foundation President Fined $6,000

WE INVESTIGATE

(L-R) Steve Perry and Robert Gin (Photos – aef4kids.com, ausd.us)

Lawyers for the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) are recommending the Commission approve a $6,000 fine as part of a settlement agreement between the FPPC and current Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD) Board President, Robert (Bob) Gin, and former AUSD Board Member and current Alhambra Education Foundation (AEF) President, Stephen Perry, for multiple violations of the Political Reform Act.

By Sean McMorris

Often referred to as California’s anti-corruption law, the Political Reform Act exists primarily to provide the public with transparency into who is funding a political candidate and to ensure that elected officials abstain from voting on matters where they could have a conflict of interest.

Gin and Perry are charged jointly with two counts of violating the Political Reform Act:

• Count 1: failure to timely file 24-hour contribution reports.
• Count 2: failure to Comply with Disclosure Requirements for Slate Mailers.

The charges relate to their roles as Principle Officer (Gin) and Treasurer (Perry) for a 2016 ballot measure committee called “Alhambra Kids 2016 Support Measure AE & Measure HS.” The two counts carry a maximum fine of $5,000 each, but the parties appear to have agreed on the $6,000 fine through the settlement process.

With respect to Count 1, the settlement agreement establishes that Gin and Perry failed to timely file reports for $27,000 in campaign contributions from eight different sources. Political contributions over $1,000 received within 90 days of an election must be reported to state and local agencies within 24 hours. Each of the eight contributions cited in the settlement required 24-hour reporting.

With respect to Count 2, Gin and Perry failed to print the full name of the ballot measure committee and a proper return address on political mailers sent out by their ballot measure committee, as mandated.

The mailer in question

A deceptive slate mailer

Gin and Perry also unlawfully printed a deceptive slate mailer that promoted federal, state and local candidates on the front of one of their committee’s bond measure advertisements sent to 6,728 residents. The slate mailer purported to be the “Official Alhambra Democratic Voters Guide,” and it stated that “leaders of the Alhambra Democratic Movement urge you to support this Democratic slate.” Gin and Perry also printed a “Notice to Voters” statement on the slate mailer that implied the advert was sent by the “Alhambra Democratic Movement,” and not Gin and Perry’s ballot measure committee.

On the seriousness of the violation, the FPPC noted in its settlement agreement that “the violations arising from the Committee’s distribution of a slate mailer are serious given the elevated level of public confusion caused by the Committee’s identification of a group other than the true sender on the mailer.”

Gin and Perry committed additional violations of the Political Reform Act that were not charged in the interest of settlement. Those violations include failure to timely report over $10,000 in loans, expenses, and independent expenditures, as well as failure “to include the necessary ‘Paid for by’ phrase and/or print the full committee name on five different mass mailings.”

Bob Gin and Stephen Perry

Bob Gin has been an AUSD School Board for over a decade. He was re-elected to the Board in 2018. Steve Perry sat on the AUSD School Board from 1988-1996, but resigned after he was convicted of stealing $31,000 from the local police officers association while he was its president. In 1994, Perry was fired from the Alhambra Police Department (APD) for allegedly tipping off the subjects of a Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control investigation, but he was later reinstated by the Alhambra Civil Service Commission. Perry has been the president of the AEF (a nonprofit that raises funds to support AUSD programs) since 2006.

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Other Alhambra politicians sanctioned by the FPPC

The list of Alhambra Politicians who have violated the Political Reform Act in recent years continues to grow.

Current or former Alhambra City Councilmembers who have been warned or fined for violating the Political Reform Act include the following:

• Current councilmembers Jeff Maloney and David Mejia who received a warning letter from the FPPC in 2018 for improperly reporting $5,000 each in campaign contributions from the same developer;
• Former three-term Alhambra Councilman, Luis Ayala, who ran out the statute of limitations on an FPPC investigation into him and his campaign regarding the improper filing of over $100,000 in campaign contributions;
• Former three-term Alhambra Councilman, Gary Yamauchi, who was fined $232 by the FPPC in 2017 for not reporting required donor information on $3,200 in donations;
• Former three-term Alhambra Councilman, Steven Placido, who was warned by the FPPC in January 2017 for not reporting all required donor information and fined $950 the same month by the L.A. County Registrar for filing campaign finance reports 95 days late;
• Former three-term Alhambra Councilman, Stephen Sham, who received an FPPC  warning letter in 2019 for not accruing donations properly and not disclosing required information about all of his donors;
• Former Alhambra Councilman and current San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District Board Director, Mark Paulson, who was fined $100 by the FPPC in 2019 for not disclosing consulting income on his statements of economic interest (Form 700s); and
• Former six-term Alhambra Councilwoman Barbara Messina who was fined $14,000 by the FPPC in 2014 for her connection to the creation and operation of a phony Independent Expenditure Committee that sent out mailers falsely claiming that her political opponent wanted to bring a casino to Alhambra.