The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office determined that Warren Mayor Jim Fouts may have violated the state’s Campaign Finance Act by endorsing candidates at his State of the City address in June, an address that was aired on Warren TV.
Fouts was directed to reach out to informally resolve the complaint. If it isn’t informally resolved by Feb. 28, the matter is to be referred to the state Attorney General’s Office with a request to prosecute criminal activities outlined in the act, according to a letter released Tuesday by Warren City Council. The City Council’s attorney, Jeffrey Schroder, filed the complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office.
That date is months after Fouts is expected to leave office. He is term-limited and is not on the ballot to run for a fifth, four-year term as mayor in the Nov. 7 election. Fouts is asking a federal appeals court to review a lower court’s decision that dismissed his civil rights lawsuit requesting the August primary election for Warren mayor be decertified and a special mayoral election be held with his name on the ballot.
Fouts could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Warren City Council to consider seeking maximum fine
Warren City Council Secretary Mindy Moore said in the council’s release that the City Council will consider the matter at its Oct. 24 meeting and will consider a resolution to request that the Secretary of State issue the maximum fine of $20,000 “in order to deter future violations.”
“In addition, this matter should be referred to the Attorney General for criminal prosecution. In the past, the mayor received a small fine for these violations and obviously that doesn’t work — he did it again,” Moore said in the release.
She later added: “Using taxpayer resources to help political campaigns is a serious violation and we are hoping that our state officials bring an appropriate punishment to a repeat offender that thinks he is above the law.”
The City Council release included the four-page letter the Secretary of State Office sent to Fouts, dated Oct. 16, indicating, in part, “The intermingling of the ‘official’ speech and the ‘campaign activities’ throughout the speech and PowerPoint presentation is enough to conclude that there was a violation of MCFA. Additionally, in your rebuttal you didn’t refute that city resources were utilized during the event, but instead allege that those employees would have been working regardless of whether or not the speech contained campaign activities.”
It also stated it “does not believe that the actions of Mr. Fouts endorsing candidates is covered by the exceptions to MCFA, but even if there is any ambiguity, the legislative intent was to provide neutrality in these circumstances.”
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“The Department has reviewed the evidence submitted in this matter and finds that sufficientevidence has been presented to support a finding of a potential violation of the MCFA. The endorsement of candidates by a mayor is not in the normal course of business and does not create an exception under MCFA.”
Fouts gave his last State of the City address June 22. It was a blend of personal Festivus, a diatribe against the current City Council and plethora of political endorsements for mayor and City Council candidates.
Contact Christina Hall: [email protected] Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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