Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday delivered on-time reports on more than a dozen charity payments made at his request between 2018 and 2024 by prominent foundations and companies including Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile. For failing to do so, he agreed to pay a $13,000 fine.
California’s political ethics law requires elected officials to report donations made on their behalf within 30 days. The Fair Political Practices Commission said Newsom and his 2018 campaign committee failed to produce their reports on time on 18 occasions, often submitting them months late.
The committee noted that Newsom, who has been in public office for more than 25 years, should have avoided losing track of the more than $14 million payout. Newsom has filed more than 1,100 such reports totaling more than $300 million since 2011, all before he was eventually confronted by enforcement authorities.
One payment from T-Mobile exceeded $12 million, while payments from Amazon ranged from $5,000 up to nearly $500,000. Mr. Newsom’s campaign argued that some applications were delayed because he had to rely on third parties to track the necessary application information.
“There is an inherent public harm in the nondisclosure of payments because the public is deprived of important information and a timely opportunity to scrutinize payments,” FPPC said in its settlement agreement with the governor. mentioned in.
The commission did not fine Newsom for missing deadlines for multiple payments he requested for aid to the state during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is common for elected officials to ask companies to make charitable contributions to specific organizations, and such payments are not subject to the restrictions that apply to direct campaign contributions. The reporting requirements are intended to allow for timely public oversight of these “large payments,” which may be an attempt to curry favor with elected officials.
Concerns were raised when it was reported that the amount of payments Mr. Newsom requested in 2020 was six times the total amount reported by former Gov. Jerry Brown during his final eight years in office.
A spokesperson for Newsom defended the governor’s record soliciting charitable donations.
“We need more of this work across government to connect private resources to public needs,” Nathan Crick said in a statement.
Click pointed out that Newsom has filed a thousand other reports on time, saying, “Many of the reports identified in the report were filed just weeks late and were not delivered to recipients. This is due to a delay in notification of receipt of payment.
