Democrats fined $100

The Jay County Democratic Party will be fined $100 for its delinquency in filing required campaign finance forms at the county clerk’s office.

Jay County Election Board unanimously voted to levy the fine after discussing the circumstances surrounding missed filings since 2005. According to county clerk and board member Jon Eads, the statute of limitations on fines would only allow for consideration of the last two years of delinquent forms.

That still would have left a possible $7,000 fine for the Democrats, with state law allowing a fine of $50 per day late, up to $1,000 per missing form. The party’s most recent missed filing is an outgoing treasurer’s report that was required to be filed within 30 days of the resignation of former party treasurer Randy Geesaman. The form is now three days late.

But past failures to notify the party of filing delinquencies were cited as a reason for leniency in the case.

“One question I have is why weren’t notices sent out as required by the statute?” asked newly-elected Democrat treasurer Bob Clamme.

Clamme said that prior to Eads' election in November, delinquency notices were not given to the county party informing them of missed filings.

“The lax (enforcement) of the previous administration will be taken into consideration when alleviating or administering fines,” said Eads. “I also understand there’s no repercussions toward past clerks for that.”

During the meeting, Democrat chairman Randy Mann gave a statement about the party’s intention to stay on top of filing requirements in the future.

“As a representative of the Democrats, I regret that we have to deal with this problem … It is an embarrassment to our community and our party,” Mann said. “We put our trust in our former treasurer (Geesaman), understandably and considering he was former (Portland) clerk-treasurer and now is the current mayor. We had no reason to believe that he would not fulfill his duties.”

Election board members Caleb Lutes and Eads spoke in favor of a $100 fine, and Eads said his office will enforce compliance in the future. Board member Bart Darby expressed his concern that the fine still implied guilt on the part of the party despite not receiving delinquency notices or any information from the county clerk’s office.

The Third Congressional District Democratic Party is still conducting an internal audit into party finances to investigate commingling and mishandling of party funds by Geesaman. Upon the completion of the audit, the county election board could still conduct its own investigation into commingling of party funds.