Contact: Dan Schroeder, 801-xxx-xxxx
COUNCIL MEMBER ADMITS CAMPAIGN FUNDS CAME FROM ENVISION OGDEN
Ogden City Council member Blain Johnson filed statements with the city earlier this month, disclosing that most of the funds for his 2007 campaign came from Envision Ogden, the organization that sponsored the grand opening of the city-owned Salomon Center.
Johnson's amended campaign finance disclosure statements were filed in response to a citizen complaint submitted March 3 by Dan Schroeder.
The complaint was prompted by Schroeder's recent discovery of a disclosure statement that Envision Ogden filed with the IRS last May.
Together, the disclosure statements reveal a complex series of transactions that converted Salomon Center ticket revenues, as well as other contributions to Envision Ogden, into campaign funds.
Although Envision Ogden is now registered with the IRS and the State of Utah as a political action committee, its registration forms were not submitted until 2008, long after the organization's major fundraising activities during January through October, 2007. The IRS requires political action committees to register their status within 24 hours of receiving their first contribution.
These fundraising activities raised $87,342, according to Envision Ogden's IRS disclosure statement. Its major contributors included Qwest, UBS Financial Services, Ogden Regional Medical Center, Zion's Bank, Vectra Management, AMCAN, Fresenius Medical Care, the Ben Lomond Hotel, McKay-Dee Hospital, the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce, and the State of Utah. Envision Ogden held a fundraising dinner in February, 2007, and sponsored the Sneak Peek" grand opening of the Salomon Center the following June.
Johnson's campaign finance disclosure statements previously listed a direct contribution of $1500 from Envision Ogden, plus another $10,990 in contributions from an entity called Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate. Schroeder's complaint to the city alleges that Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate received these funds from Envision Ogden; Johnson's newly amended statements confirm this allegation. In total, Envision Ogden's contributions made up over 70% of the $16,895 that Johnson raised for his campaign. His opponent, Sheila Aardema, raised $3425 and lost the election by 65 votes.
Royal Eccles, who unsuccessfully challenged council member Amy Wicks during the same election, also amended his disclosure statement recently to indicate that Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate, which gave him $9700 in campaign contributions, received funds from Envision Ogden.
Ogden's campaign financing disclosure ordinance prohibits persons and organizations from making campaign contributions with the funds of another. Schroeder's complaint alleges that Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate is in violation of this ordinance, and suggests that Johnson, Eccles, and Envision Ogden may have been knowing participants in the violation.
No organization called Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate is registered as a Utah business or political action committee. However, both Johnson and Eccles have listed the address of this entity as 4723 Harrison, Ogden. Johnson is an attorney with the law firm Smith Knowles P.C., whose offices are also at this address.
City Attorney Gary Williams, in a letter sent last week in response to Schroeder's complaint, stated that he will take no further action to investigate this matter because the candidates' amended disclosure statements "cure" any alleged violation. The letter also states that there was probably no violation to begin with, because Friends of Northern Utah Real Estate was presumably the legal owner of the funds that it passed on to the candidates. In addition, the letter states that any conflict of interest Williams himself might have in this matter is irrelevant, because the ordinance requires the city attorney to make legal determinations in such cases.
In a written rebuttal, Schroeder stated that there is no "cure" provision in the city's ordinance; that similar violations of federal election law are aggressively prosecuted; and that Utah's rules
against conflict of interest for attorneys take precedence over any requirement in a city ordinance.
