In 2004 one of my bills changed how campaign finance complaints are handled. They now go to the Office of Administrative Hearings instead of the county attorney's offices. There is a rapid process to resolve the complaints. The closer it is to election day, the faster it is. Almost all of the complaints are resolved by the OAH's administrative law judges. Only the most serious ones are sent to the county attorney.
The OAH is totally nonpartisan, which was one of the main reasons to take over the complaint process. Others were the time aspect and the cost. County attorneys were required to investigate even when they could see that there was no valid complaint on the face of it. That costs a lot of money and time, money that was spent by the taxpayers. Complaints were "political," and the length of the process let things drag on too long. The complaint process now is even-handed, fair, and quick at the OAH now. The process is working well now and complaints are charged either to the persons in the case or in a few cases to the counties. The OAH website is very instructive: http://www.oah.state.mn.us/faircampaign/faircampaign.html The process is very transparent. I'm sorry you feel that way about the process as it went to the county attorney. But your one experience at that level doesn't call for the whole system to be mistrusted. linda higgins old highland -----Original Message----- From: ken bradley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 9:11 AM To: Dorie Rae Gallagher; Linda Higgins Cc: mpls@mnforum.org Subject: Local campaign finance system broken! Hello Minneapolis Folks, Dorie Rae Gallagher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:I believe Jason is being honest. If you look at the month of May for Colvin Roy, you will see major contributions from contractors, electricians, heating, etc. etc. all tied to Klodt.. all coming from one party. Legal...could be if not reimbursed. Was it? Don't know....be good to have it investigated. Ken Bradley writes: Attempting to have any campaign finance issues investigated is a complete waste of time because the officials in charge of such investigations are partisan, not in the Republican/Democrat way but they clearly have political agenda. I found a possible violation and was sent by the state campaign finance to the county. The county attorney responsible for such campaign finance issues was supporting the candidate I was discussing possible violations. He even gave the candidate a contribution, but never divulge his own bias to me! I became aware of this after the fact. I have no trust in our local campaign finance system, it would take some major reform for me to believe it was working in the public interest, not someones personal interest. Ken Bradley Kenny Neighborhood ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
