Inspector general: Campaign laws broken
Pompano Beach Mayor Hardin accused of violating finance rules again
POMPANO BEACH — Pompano Beach Mayor Rex Hardin has violated campaign finance laws again, the Broward Office of Inspector General said Wednesday.
It’s the second time in three years the office has found Hardin breached election laws. In 2016, inspectors also documented campaign violations, and Hardin had to pay a $1,300 fine.
In the current case, Hardin broke campaign finance laws for both the City Commission election and the mayor’s race last year, the inspector general found.
The inspector general’s office has referred the case to the Florida Elections Commission and the Broward State Attorney’s Office.
Hardin has served on the commission for 14 years. He said Wednesday he disputes the inspector general’s findings.
“I disagree with a lot of stuff in that report and plan to work it out with the FEC,” Hardin said. “The report reads more like a novel than a fact-finding document. They used the most inflammatory language they could. Their conclusions are wrong.”
The State Attorney’s Office is examining the case, a state attorney’s spokeswoman said.
“We received the paperwork today and will review it and make a decision,” she said.
Firebirds Wood Fired
Hardin withdrew from his November 2018 campaign for city commissioner to run for mayor. The inspector general’s office determined Hardin moved money donated to his commission race to his mayoral account, which is not allowed by law, and did not release the proper campaign activity reports until three months after the deadline.
When he entered the mayor’s race, Hardin’s company, Cypress Printing Center, billed the campaign $17,751.45, but the campaign reimbursed the company only $12,149.85.
Hardin told investigators the difference consisted of “in-kind contributions from himself despite the fact that he, personally, did not provide the campaign with anything
of value, other than his services, to influence the results of the election.”
According to election laws, such volunteer services are not allowed to come from the candidate and if they came from his company, they could not exceed $1,000.
Hardin said 11 of his voluntary contributions to the campaign were loans, “when he did not, in fact, make such loans,” the investigation found.
Hardin also made a false report, according to the inspector general’s report. He said he transferred $5,737.70 in leftover campaign monies in February of this year to his office account, but investigators found he made that transfer six months after he said he did, which was six months after the deadline.
The inspector general’s office said this is only a partial list.
“We identified other campaign finance violations, including numerous errors that Mayor Hardin addressed in amended reports he filed on the eve of his interview with our office,” the report says.
In the previous case, the inspector general’s office found probable cause for criminal charges against Hardin. The investigation found Hardin improperly profited from printing his campaign materials and improperly used his campaign account to pay $2,465 for Christmas cards, postage and a $102 family lunch at Smokey Bones.
The state Elections Commission agreed he broke campaign laws by certifying an unfinished finance report as complete.
But the State Attorney’s Office declined to go forward with any charges, finding his campaign practices were negligent but not criminal.