Mayor admits campaign finance violations
Hardin to pay $2,250 fine from request to move funds in 2018
Pompano Beach Mayor Rex Hardin has agreed to pay a $2,250 fine for campaign finance violations from his mayoral run two years ago, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
Hardin, who was a city commissioner for 14 years before the 2018 election, said he had begun raising money for two potential races, one for mayor and another for a seat on the commission.
When the previous mayor, Lamar Fisher, decided to resign to take a seat on the Broward County Commission, Hardin said he sought approval from his commission race donors to transfer the funds to his mayoral race account.
That turned out to be against campaign finance rules, Hardin acknowledged in an interview Friday, because the mayoral account already existed while Hardin was fundraising for the commission race.
“Apparently I never should have had the mayoral account open in the first place,” Hardin said Friday.
Hardin conceded other accusations brought by the Inspector General, including a failure to formally terminate his 2018 commission campaign until three months after he was supposed to, improperly documenting a donation he made by paying his own printing company for campaign services, and certifying campaign finance reports as true even though they were incomplete.
The allegations were originally made public last October, but Hardin disputed them at the time.
This marks the second time Hardin has flubbed campaign finance reports.
An investigation into his 2016 campaign found probable cause that 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.