Panel finds Darr spent as if campaign kitty his

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr spent campaign funds as if they were his own personal funds, kept incomplete financial records, did not look at several campaign-finance reports before he signed and submitted them, and cited “carelessness” for the 11 state ethics and campaign-finance law violations that led to his planned resignation today, according to an investigative report released Thursday.

The state Ethics Commission released hundreds of pages of evidence, interview summaries and financial documents gathered in its investigation into two claims, one filed by Darr and the other filed by liberal blogger and attorney Matt Campbell. The commission fined Darr $11,000 - the commission’s largest single fine issued to date - in a Dec. 30 settlement agreement after finding 11 probable violations of ethics and campaign-finance law.

The documents released Thursday give more insight into how Darr spent more than $31,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. According to the report, $5,720.91 was spent improperly after Darr had retired his debt from his 2010 election, a mistake that likely occurred because of six unreported loan repayments to himself, the report said.

Another $19,997.25 was spent on food, fuel, retail items and entertainment unrelated to the campaign, according to the report. And the remaining $5,854.58 was spent on other personal expenses, which investigators didn’t break down into smaller spending categories.

“In essence, Mr. Darr spent $31,572.74 in campaign funds as [if] they were his own,” investigators wrote. “If Mr. Darr had sought staff’s advice, he could have avoided many instances of making personal use of campaign funds and record keeping and reporting issues.”

According to the report, Darr misspent $10,213.55 on fuel unrelated to campaign-debt retirement. He also spent $4,226.63 on food unrelated to his campaign. The other itemized expenses are $5,287.04 on retail items and $270.03 on entertainment.

The report said Darr made 61 itemized purchases of more than $100 that constituted personal expenses, and reported 43 of them in his campaign-finance reports. The audit listed those unreported items, including a $102 purchase from Kate Austin Jewelry, a $287 stay at Embassy Suites in Overland Park, Kan., a recurring monthly payment to Remax Properties for the last four months of 2011, a $500 payment to a Christian summer camp, three payments of $109, $128 and $157 to furniture and home-decor stores, and a handful of other banking expenses or purchases.

The auditors wrote that Darr failed to report about $3,100 in nonitemized personal expenditures over the course of his debt-retirement campaign.

Darr told auditors during a November interview in his office with his attorney, former state Rep. Dan Greenberg, present, that he did not have specific receipts for all of the expenditures made with campaign funds. He instead produced bank statements.

“It seems clear that bank statements are not a substitute for invoices or receipts as contemplated by [state statute] 7-6-206,” auditors wrote.

The law requires, in part, that candidates keep sufficient records of all expenditures whether itemized or not. The report said Darr should have kept a receipt for every one of the 408 expenditures he made during his debt-retirement campaign.

In response to investigators, Darr said he had relied on two individuals to complete and file his campaign-finance reports for the debt-retirement campaign and hadn’t reviewed the reports himself before he signed them, according to the report.

The report also addressed $1,500 spent on Razorback football tickets, and ultimately recommended that the commission review a policy by the University of Arkansas that waives for elected officials a priority-seating fee normally added to tickets sold in parts of the stadium.An opinion from the commission issued in 2000 ruled that the tickets are not prohibited gifts when face value is charged but did not address whether elected officials can accept the fee waiver.

The report released Thursday also addresses more than $9,800 in excess travel reimbursements that Darr claimed and his use of a state-issued gas card for personal purchases. The report notes that Darr had made several reimbursements to the state related to the gas card but still owed $1,137, for which he said he wrote a check that ultimately was never cashed.

Darr claims in the report that he was unaware of the specific rules governing travel reimbursement, and during his interview with investigators he promised to pay back the money.

In a related development Thursday, a state auditor told lawmakers that he believes that Darr’s reimbursement check to the state dated July 1, 2012, for the $1,137 was lost in the mail after the state auditor’s office sent it to U.S. Bank.

On Dec. 12, the Division of Legislative Audit reported to lawmakers that although Darr submitted a check to reimburse the state for $1,137 of the personal expenses, the amount was never credited.

In response to a question Thursday by Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, Andy Babbit, a supervising senior auditor, said the check was delivered to the state auditor’s office by one of Darr’s employees and that Darr’s check, along with a state check, were mailed to U.S. Bank.

U.S. Bank has no record of Darr’s check being processed in its system, he said. Babbit said he believes that the check was lost at some point after being mailed.

The division previously had recommended that Darr reimburse the state $9,836 for excess travel reimbursements and expenses, and Darr said he would pay that back as soon as possible.

Deputy Legislative Auditor Jon Moore said the lieutenant governor’s office said no repayment had been made as of Thursday.

Darr spokesman Amber Pool said, “We have no way of knowing when the lieutenant governor will make the restitution to the state of Arkansas.” She referred questions to Darr, who could not be reached for comment.

Darr issued a letter of intent earlier this month listing his plan to resign effective Feb. 1. The resignation came amid pressure from members of both political parties and talk of a possible move to hold an impeachment hearing.

Darr will be the fourth elected state official to resign over ethics concerns in the past two years. Others are former Treasurer Martha Shoffner, former Sen. Paul Bookout and former Rep. Hudson Hallum. Shoffner and Hallum face criminal charges, and separate prosecuting attorney investigations are ongoing regarding Bookout and Darr.