LITTLE ROCK — A report filed in January for state Treasurer Martha Shoffner saying she had $97,349.67 in carryover funds on May 19, 2010, from her campaign, and $47,356.29 on Dec. 30 was wrong, she now admits.
State law limits officeholders’ carry-over to an amount equal to the office’s annual salary, which in this case is $54,305.
Shoffner was questioned last week by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about the discrepancies in her report,and she acknowledged the errors late Monday by filing five amendments.
In one amendment, she changed her reported carryover to show no balance on the May 19 and Dec. 30 dates in 2010 and no expenses during that period.
After the newspaper’s queries, “we started looking back through [the reports], and we took it to [the Ethics Commission],” Shoffner said Tuesday.
“There was one report that shouldn’t have been filed, the carry-over,” she said.
The four other amendments altered reports filed earlier this year. She signed each amended report. She hadn’t signed the original reports.
One of the amended reports - her campaign finance report for Oct. 26-Dec. 31, 2010 - shows a carry-over balance of $54,304.29, a drop from a balance of $57,806.29 on a report that had been filed earlier for the period.
The amended report shows that on Monday, Shoffner contributed $3,502 of her surplus to the state Democratic Party.
The original report “should have never been filed, because you can’t carry over more than your salary, so we amended [it], and then [a commission staff member] advised you need to give that, the difference, to an entity,” Shoffner said. “So I did it to the party. ... That was all redone, and everything’s fine with that now.”
Shoffner said she doesn’t believe that she violated state law.
“It was just a mistake,” she said.
A third amended report for her carry-over fund shows a balance of $54,304.29 on Jan. 1 and of $50,580.29 on March 31. The original report showed a balance of $47,356.29 on Jan. 1 and $43,632.29 on March 31. She also amended her carry-over fund reports for April 1-July 1 and July 1-Sept. 30, leaving her a carry-over of $46,010.29 on Sept. 30.
Graham Sloan, executive director of the commission, said either a citizen or the commission may initiate a complaint alleging a violation of ethics laws and rules.
“A violation is only found in the context of the complaint process,” he said. “For a violation to be addressed, it first has to come before the commission in the form of a complaint.”
The Arkansas Ethics Commission has the authority to fine public officials $50 to $2,000 and issue a public letter of caution, warning or reprimand for violation of ethics laws.
Shoffner, who reported paying $900 a month to lease a vehicle through her campaign funds and carry-over account, was asked last week whether the vehicle was put to personal use.
“Well, yeah,” she said.
“It was just my vehicle during that time. I had made a promise I would not drive the other car [her state-issued vehicle] until after the election, but in leasing that, that was legal, because we had looked up the law,” Shoffner said.
Sloan said that under the state’s ethics laws and rules, campaign funds may be used to lease a vehicle for campaign purposes and carryover funds may be used to lease one as long as the travel is reasonably and legitimately related to the office, not for “purely personal use.”
Shoffner wondered whether personal use “is going to and from home, because that’s all I do.”
She said Tuesday that she didn’t have her personal vehicle when she leased the vehicle with campaign and carry-over funds, but she does now. She said she purchased a personal vehicle, a Ford Freestar, several months ago. She said she only drives a state vehicle for official state business.
Would using carry-over funds to lease a vehicle to drive to the state Capitol and back home be considered reasonable officeholder travel? Sloan said it would depend on the facts of each situation.
Shoffner, a Democrat from Newport, is a former state representative.
She was elected a year ago to a second four-year term as treasurer, easily defeating Green Party candidate Bobby Tullis of Mineral Springs, whose campaign website referred to Shoffner as “her royal highness.”
In July 2010, defending her use of a state vehicle, Shoffner said the situation of Gov.Mike Beebe, who travels in a vehicle driven by a state police security detail, was different from her situation because he has “a manservant driving him around.” She later apologized for saying that.
Shoffner’s chief deputy, Karla Shepard, was relieved of her duties about two months ago and retired, according to Shoffner. Shoffner has declined to explain why Shepard was relieved of duties. Shepard has declined to discuss the matter, too.
Shepard’s annual salary was $105,196, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.
In another development, Shoffner said she appointed Debbie Rogers, a worker in the treasurer’s office, as her permanent chief deputy last week but hasn’t raised her salary.
Rogers said she became chief deputy on Oct. 27. She has worked in the office for 27 years and previously was manager of local government services, she said. Her annual salary is $92,821.
The treasurer is the state’s banker and handles more than 400 accounts for about 200 state agencies and serves on the boards that manage investment of state retirement funds for public employees and school teachers. Other duties include managing short-term investments of state money and helping maintain a stable banking system.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/02/2011