SOS: Fouts possibly broke campaign rules
Warren mayor is to resolve complaint or it goes to AG
The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office determined that Warren Mayor Jim Fouts may have violated the state’s Campaign Finance Act by endorsing candidates at his State of the
City address in June, an address that was aired on Warren TV.
Fouts was directed to reach out to informally resolve the complaint. If it isn’t informally resolved by Feb. 28, the matter is to be referred to the state Attorney General’s Office with a request to prosecute criminal activities outlined in the act, according to a letter released Tuesday by the Warren City Council. The City Council’s attorney, Jeffrey Schroder, filed the complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office.
That date is months after Fouts is expected to leave office. He is term-limited and is not on the ballot to run for a fifth, four-year term as mayor in the Nov. 7 election. Fouts is asking a federal appeals court to review a lower court’s decision that dismissed his civil rights lawsuit requesting the August primary election for Warren mayor be decertified and a special mayoral election be held with his name on the ballot.
Jack Dolan, an attorney representing Fouts on the Campaign Finance Act matter, told the Free Press that there’s no finding of a violation and no basis, at this point, to impose a fine or to file charges.
“Our intention is to try to work with them to try to resolve this without further expense,” Dolan said, adding that the letter caused him concern.
Dolan said the State of the City address was sponsored and put on by the Warren Center
Line Chamber of Commerce, not the city of Warren. He said the city’s media department appeared and covered the address in the same fashion as TV stations and other news outlets.
“How far a reach will this be if this does end up being a violation?” Dolan asked, wondering if elected officials would be at the mercy of statements they make if invited to Rotary meetings, senior events or fundraisers and advocate for or against candidates and are covered by the local media from the local municipalities. “Is now that all potentially a violation?”
Warren City Council Secretary Mindy Moore said in the council’s release that the City Council will consider the matter at its Oct. 24 meeting and will consider a resolution to request that the Secretary of State’s Office issue the maximum fine of $20,000 “in order to deter future violations.”
“In addition, this matter should be referred to the Attorney General for criminal prosecution. In the past, the mayor received a small fine for these violations and obviously that doesn’t work — he did it again,” Moore said in the release.
She later added: “Using taxpayer resources to help political campaigns is a serious violation and we are hoping that our state officials bring an appropriate punishment to a repeat offender that thinks he is above the law.”
The City Council release included the fourpage letter the Secretary of State’s Office sent to Fouts, dated Oct. 16, indicating, in part, “The intermingling of the ‘official’ speech and the ‘campaign activities’ throughout the speech and PowerPoint presentation is enough to conclude that there was a violation of MCFA. Additionally, in your rebuttal you didn’t refute that city resources were utilized during the event, but instead allege that those employees would have been working regardless of whether or not the speech contained campaign activities.”
It also stated it “does not believe that the actions of Mr. Fouts endorsing candidates is covered by the exceptions to MCFA, but even if there is any ambiguity, the legislative intent was to provide neutrality in these circumstances.”