LCP fined for election code violations in connection with Voice of the Coast

The League for Coastside Protection [LCP] has been fined $3,500 for two election code violations in connection with the "Voice of the Coast", a newspaper published by the LCP in the months before the 2005 election, reports Julia Scott in County Times.

The LCP, a political action committee, did not identify the name and address of the organization on the outside of the newspaper. It also misreported the amount of money it received from two contributors, Jim Marsh and Mike Ferreira, who took out ads in the paper and were

later

endorsed by LCP for the Coastside County Water District and Half Moon Bay City Council.

"We support the commission and their purpose," [league Co-Chairman Scott Boyd] said. "We agree with them that when we looked closely at this stuff we did make these mistakes."

Boyd also emphasized that the money his group accepted from candidates went to purchase paid ads in the newsletter and did not influence the content of the publication. [...]

[Executive director of the Fair Political Practices Commission Roman] Porter added that the fines for both violations were well below the $10,000 they could have fetched. Documents show his agency was inclined toward leniency because the League for Coastside Protection had contacted the commission during the 2005 election to seek advice on publishing the Voice of the Coast and because the group did print its name and committee identification number on the inside of the newsletter, if not the outside. The Coastside group also amended its reported contributions after it realized it had miscalculated them.

Disclosure: Voice of the Coast reprinted some articles from Coastsider. All articles on Coastsider are covered by a license that allows free re-use by anyone, with attribution.