March 10, 2005

Kansas Governmental Ethics Office Goes Easy on Violations 
by Tiller's PACs?  Did former Kansas Ethics General Counsel,
and ProKanDo Contributor, have any part in decision?

Update (Aug 15, 2007)

In Jan-Mar 2005 ProKanDo sent Kansans for a Moderate Government three checks that totaled $8,300.  The Kansans for a Moderate Govenment PAC then spent all their money $8,333.31 in six checks -- two in each month, Jan, Feb, March 2005 -- at Digital Printing & Copies, Wichita for "printing" costs.  Just printing costs -- no mailing costs?  This PAC spent all their money and had a zero balance on March 14, 2005 -- four days after this original report. 

ProKanDo's Jennifer Wright then sent a "Termination Report" for Kansans for a Moderate Government to the Secretary of State dated June 8, 2005.   The termination of this PAC meant this report was not posted online in Jan 2006 when all the PAC reports were first put online.  

• Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission Hassles Internet News Source to Register as PAC
• Connections between mysterious "SDC PAC," founder of the Oz Museum in Wamego, and Dr. Tiller in Wichita?
• General Counsel for KS Governmental Ethics Commission Contributes to Controversial PAC

Now we question whether the Kansas Governmental Ethics Office went easy on violations by Dr. Tiller's PACs, Kansans for a Moderate Government and ProKanDo.

The following letter, obtained from the Secretary of  State's office, reveals the Ethics Office waived civil fines of up to $5000 because of violations of KSA 25-4156.

As a final response in a discussion I had with Kansas Governmental Ethics Executive Director, Carol Williams, to confirm her former General Counsel, Vera Gannaway, had contributed to the ProKanDo PAC,  I sent this e-mail about $10,000 that was missing from the ProKanDo report:

Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004
To: 'Carol Williams'
Subject: RE: attorney for Commission

Kansans for a Moderate Government PAC reports a $10,000 contribution from the ProKanDo PAC on 7/23/2004, but the ProKanDo PAC expenditures DOES NOT show this contribution.  $28,330 in other contributions by ProKanDo to Kansans for a Moderate Goverment are on both reports and check out.  But the first $10,000 contribution is missing.

One can only speculate how it is possible to send out multiple mailings in at least four state senate races (specifically, State Senate Districts 10, 20, 31, 32 and perhaps others) in only a week before the election.  4 * $5,250 approximately explains the week of expenditures of about $21,000.  With 2 or 3 mailings in some of these state senate districts, the cost would have been about $1750 to $2625 per state senate district mailing.  Perhaps there was some very special voter targeting, or some special accounting, but the numbers just don't add up for a state senate district mailing.  Advance planning was so precise that no reporting of expenditures was needed in the July 26, 2004 PAC report by either group, which conveniently hid this relationship until the Oct 25, 2004 report. 

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This missing $10,000 item was made public in the Nov 16 report by the Meadowlark.

One would think that a $10,000 mistake on a PAC contribution report would be a significant amount, and could be easily verified by the Ethics Commission.  What actions did Carol Williams take after receiving this notification?  Did the Ethics Office promptly send a letter to ProKanDo asking for an explanation for the missing $10,000? 

Nearly a month later, ProKanDo "found" the error on their own and reported it.   Why a month later is ProKanDo not answering questions about this matter from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Office instead?

Here is ProKanDo's letter, which was obtained from the Kansas Secretrary of State, sent to the Ethics Commission a month later:

Will the Kansas press ask any questions about this?  

One final note:  The Kansans for Justice and Equality Project PAC, chaired by Tiffany Muller in Topeka, failed to file their Receipts and Expenditures Report by the deadline on January 10, 2005.  This PAC took extra time and filed their report only a week ago on March 3, 2005.  Is it legal for this PAC to raise additional political funds, and spend additional dollars on political activities, such as the 2005 Topeka spring primary or general election, while their PAC report was not filed with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Office?  Perhaps the Ethics Commission should  investigate this matter.

K a n s a s M e a d o w l a r k @ e f g 2 . c o m