LITTLE ROCK — Two of the three at-large Little Rock directors who were re-elected in November spent close to $100,000 each in the most expensive at-large Board of Directors election in recent history.
Mayoral races for the past few election cycles have routinely seen $100,000 spent, and one hit the $200,000 mark. But the election in November, which saw all three at-large city directors with challengers on the ballot for the first time in 16 years,drew thousands of dollars to campaign coffers, according to final campaign-finance expenditure reports filed last week.
Not all of the candidates had filed their final reports as of Friday afternoon, according to records at the Pulaski County clerk’s office. The reports were due by 5 p.m.Monday.
All three at-large directors - Position 8 Director Dean Kumpuris, Position 9 Director Gene Fortson and Position 10 Director Joan Adcock - raised more than their opponents, in some cases by a 50-to-1 ratio. At least two of them more than quadrupled the amount of money in their coffers compared with their last competitive race for reelection.
In the Position 8 race, Kumpuris raised and spent more than $92,000. Most of that money was raised before the election, but $9,250 was contributed between the end of October and the filing deadline, according to the report, which was faxed in and stamped by the clerk’s office Wednesday.
Most of Kumpuris’ funds were spent with the Markham Group LLC for consultant fees, advertising, postage and other expenses. Finance report records were not available from the last year in which Kumpuris had an opponent - 1996.
Neither of Kumpuris’ opponents in the election, Adam Lansky and Lynette Bryant, have filed their final reports.
Lansky said he planned to file his report but was out of town because of a death in his family. He said he had not raised or spent any additional funds since his preliminary report was filed in October, bringing his total funds and expenditures to $500.
Bryant, who put election advertisements on Central Arkansas Transit Authority buses, did not return calls seeking comment. According to Pulaski County clerk’s office records, Bryant has not filed a preliminary report, which was due before the election, and had not filed her final report as of Friday.
During her unsuccessful 2010 candidacy for Ward 5 director, Bryant filed her preliminary and final reports in late January.
Arkansas law allows for the Arkansas Ethics Commission to issue a fine for late reports and a heavier fine for frequent late filers.
According to Arkansas Code 7-6-247 (a), late contribution and expenditure reports can result in fines that are determined on a case-by case basis, but the law offers guidelines. For a first-time offender, the guidelines suggest a $25 fine for the first 10 days past the deadline, a $50 fee if the report is 11 to 20 days late, and a $100 fee if the report is filed between 21 and 30 days late.
The guidelines suggest doubling those fines if the candidate has repeatedly missed deadlines.
The suggested fines for missing deadlines for the preliminary report, according to statute 7-6-247 (b), range from $50, $100 or $150 for first-time offenders, and $100, $150 or $250 for frequently late candidates.
In the race for the Position 9 seat, all three candidates filed their final reports on time.
At $95,000, Fortson raised and spent the most money of any candidate, according to his final report. Fortson’s report listed payouts to the Markham Group for consulting fees, advertising, postage and other expenditures.
Fortson raised less than $20,000 in his last campaign for the seat in 2008.
Opponent Willard Proctor Jr. raised about $2,460 and spent about $5,080, according to his report. He borrowed more than $2,600 from his personal accounts and ended his campaign owing himself about $1,780, according to his report, which was filed at the end of November.
Glen Schwarz, a frequent candidate, raised and spent $161, most of which was used to buy an ad from his own publishing company, according to his finance report.
In the race for the Position 10 seat, Adcock raised more than $22,700, according to her report filed Monday. At the end of her campaign, Adcock was left with more than $8,000, which she chose to donate. Most of her expenses were listed as postage, advertising, mailers and campaign volunteer expenses.
During her last campaign, Adcock raised a little more than $5,000, according to reports filed with the Pulaski County clerk’s office.
Position 10 challenger Robert Webb had not filed his report as of Friday afternoon.
“I was in a car wreck recently, and my truck was likely totaled,” he said. “I do plan on filing that report as soon as possible. I need to get some records out of my truck in order to complete those, and I’m trying to get access to those now.”
On his preliminary report, Webb said that he had raised about $3,150 and borrowed about $600 from himself to finance his campaign.
The 2012 election cycle was the first full election cycle since City Attorney Tom Carpenter issued an opinion in 2010 that the city might not be able to enforce its campaign-finance rules passed by the Board of Directors in 1997.
Those rules required candidates to donate or return all surplus campaign funds within 30 days after the election. The city law did not address what the state statute identifies as “carryover” funds.
State law allows candidates to keep up to one year’s worth of the salary for the position they were seeking as carryover funds for their next election. Carpenter’s opinion stated that the city law could not be more restrictive than state law in terms of the contributions of unused funds.
Carpenter said last week that his opinion does not outweigh city laws.
Several officials, including Carpenter, said they did not recall the city law being formally changed, although several board members and others said they planned to seek a nonbinding attorney general’s opinion during the 2010 discussion. No record of an opinion or a request was available in the Arkansas attorney general’s opinion archive.
Adcock said she believed the city law still stands. She was the only candidate who had a surplus at the end of her campaign.
“I did not keep any of it,” she said. “Regardless of whether the law was changed or it says that I could have kept some of the money, I would have chosen either way to donate it because it’s the right thing to do.”
According to Adcock’s finance report, she donated $8,261 to various charities, including $5,100 to the Little Rock Animal Village, $1,000 to Neighborhoods USA, $540 to eStem Public Charter School to help house its new activity van indoors, $400 to various community garden projects, $500 to the Fallen Firefighters Memorial Fund, $100 to Safe Places and $621.42 to Little Rock’s senior-citizens programs.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/06/2013