The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
State turns down Scio campaign finance complaint
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
The Michigan Secretary of State office will not look further into a complaint filed by Scio Township officials this month against Trustee Jim Dries.
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Township Clerk Kathleen Knol and Trustee Chuck Ream filed the complaint alleging Dries violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act by submitting falsified campaign reports on behalf of The Team for Scio 2008.
The "Team" is a group of candidates from various areas of township government, with incumbents Dries and Treasurer Donna Palmer, who will run in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary election in Scio Township.
Dries is the group's treasurer and also works in the Register of Deeds division of the Washtenaw County Clerk's office.
Knol and Ream filed the formal complaint on Jan. 16 with the Secretary of State after finding political action committee documents containing inaccurate financial data on the county Web site, ewashtenaw.org.
The reports showed that the Friends of Scio Township PAC, under which Dries and other associated candidates are running, declared it was debt-free.
According to several township officials not allied with Dries' group, there does exist outstanding debt that Dries had previously promised to be paid for by a fund-raiser, but that never took place.
The Secretary of State responded to the complaint Monday with a letter outlining the law governing campaign contributions.
"The MCFA requires a committee to disclose its contributions and expenditures by submitting periodic campaign statements to the designated filing official," said Melissa Malerman, an administrative law examiner with the Michigan Department of State.
"Errors or omission contained in a campaign finance statement or report may be brought to the committee's attention by the designated filing official. In appropriate cases, the filing official may notify a committee of an error or omission and provide that committee an opportunity to correct that error or omission without penalty."
Dries filed an amended 2006 annual campaign statement specifying the debt owed from 2004.
He also made good on that debt by reimbursing township officials who had made contributions.
Last week Knol was issued a check for $768.05, while Ream received $500. Trustee Jean King and Supervisor Charlie Nielsen received $161.54 and $109.97, respectively.
The letter on the MCFA allegation concluded, "As the committee has already taken steps to correct its omission by filing an amended report with the Washtenaw County Clerk, the Department will not investigate this aspect of (the) complaint."
Dries admitted that he erred in the filing and regretted making it, thus filing the amended motion and trying to make amends with his fellow trustees.
He added that he would file an annual report for 2007 by the end of this week. The due date is today, he added.
"Further, our next report should show that all of those debts should be paid," Dries said.
Knol and Ream, as well as Nielsen, who was not named in the complaint, accepted the Secretary of State's decision, but were not pleased with its implications.
"The basis for our complaint was the filing of the false campaign statement," Knol said in a prepared statement.
"After our complaint was filed this group turned around and filed an amended campaign statement acknowledging the debt that they failed to report previously.
"It is not surprising that the Secretary of State chose not to go further in their investigation because the basis for our allegations was removed when the amended statement was filed and the debt was acknowledged."
Knol said it still raises troubling questions.
Ream was not satisfied with the Secretary of State's response either.
"I'm disappointed that there was no judgment of fault in this case, even if there was no penalty or fine," Ream said.
"There was a fault committed. I'm not as concerned about small issues like this, as much as I am about larger issues, like planning, parks and public safety."
He drew a connection to Dries' involvement in the Public Act 425 agreement negotiations for the proposed Sloan-Kingsley development.
Last year, township attorneys ruled that agreement was inequitable to the township's interests.
"Jim worked on that 425 agreement, and it gives away the farm," Ream said.
Nielsen said he considered the check that Dries gave him as "damage control."
"If I had to speculate, my gut impression would be no, I don't think we would have been paid without the complaint," he said. "Jim was well aware of it beforehand."
Dries said the response to the complaint absolves him of wrongdoing.
"Clearly Clerk Knol and Trustee Ream are upset that there is a slate raising money and support to oppose them in the August primary," Dries said.
"I think that the Secretary of State's response shows that we're running a clean campaign and running within the law."
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