BART to pay $7,500 campaign fine.

SACRAMENTO >> BART will have to pay a $7,500 fine for illegally using taxpayers’ money on YouTube videos and social media posts to promote its $3.5 billion bond, Measure RR, state regulators said Monday in a preliminary ruling.

State law prohibits public agencies from using public funds to campaign for any candidate or ballot measure, though they can provide factual information. Using public resources to express advocacy or opposition, however, qualifies as “an independent expenditure,” which must be registered with the state, attor-

“I’m disappointed because they didn’t directly address many of the allegations I made. This looked to me like a slap on the wrist.” — Jason Bezis, Lafayette attorney and blogger

neys for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), said in a court filing.

So, although BART spent at least $365,100 on technical documents and a website related to Measure RR to inform votes and riders about the measure, it was $7,791.66 the agency spent on two YouTube videos that elicited the fines, which won’t be paid out until the commission finalizes the ruling at its upcoming meeting on Dec. 20.

BART didn’t register the expenditures on the videos with the state, the attorneys said. The 2016 Measure RR to fund repairs and upgrades on the system passed with more than 70 percent of the vote in BART’s three-county district; it needed 66 percent.

BART said it’s intention was to educate the public about the need for the ballot measure and what the plan for repairing and upgrading the system would fund, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in a statement Monday.

“We were diligent to keep all material educational, never suggesting how people should vote,” Trost said.

But, Lafayette attorney and blogger Jason Bezis, who first filed the complaint in Oct. 2016, disagreed. And so did state regulators. Bezis called the ruling “very significant” but said the FPPC didn’t go far enough.

“I’m disappointed because they didn’t directly address many of the allegations I made,” he said. “This looked to me like a slap on the wrist.”

Bezis alleged BART improperly used district resources by hosting a press conference earlier that year in which a cadre of public officials and community advocates touted the measure’s merits. The conference, which was posted on BART’s YouTube page, followed a meeting where BART’s governing board voted to place the bond on the ballot.

A BART employee announced each speaker, who stood at a BART-branded podium in front of a backdrop bearing BART’s logo, and BART’s employees shot, edited and uploaded the video.

Bezis also filed two supplemental complaints further alleging BART improperly coordinated with Warriors’ player Draymond Green, who starred in a YouTube video urging voters to support Measure RR, and that BART was campaigning in other YouTube videos it posted.

But the video starring Green doesn’t appear in the list of violations. Instead, the court filings focus on two other YouTube videos, for which the district paid a total of $7,791.66, that the commission said constituted advocacy in support for the multi-billiondollar bond.

One featured riders complaining about BART’s aging system and urging their fellow passengers to support the bond. A second video, called “It’s time to rebuild,” which Bezis did highlight in his complaint, borrowed the campaign’s slogan for Measure RR and declared BART was “no longer reliable” and that the measure would “keep our riders safe.”

“By borrowing the voices and the sympathy of its customers, BART campaigned for Measure RR,” the filing reads, adding that BART should have included a disclosure saying the agency paid for those ads and then should have registered the expenditures with the state.

BART’s social media posts amounted to more campaign violations. The social media posts were “clearly campaign material,” the attorneys said in their filing.

That was the second complaint against the transit agency over ethics violations. State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, one of BART’s staunchest critics, alleged in October 2016 similar campaign breaches, including emails sent to riders, social media messaging and a text message describing Measure RR. The FPPC declined to investigate those allegations.

But Bezis said BART’s actions were far too common. He’s hoping the state legislature will conduct public oversight hearings about what he described as a “pattern of misuse of public funds by transportation agencies as they seek tax increases.”

Bezis pointed to Regional Measure 3, the $3 toll hike voters approved in June, and said he believes the agency misused public funds in that campaign, as did the Alameda County Transportation Commission in its pitch for a 2014 sales tax increase and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority in its failed attempt at sales tax increase in 2016.

And, that’s bad for voters, he said.

“(Voters) are being duped,” Bezis said. “Many transportation agencies are skating right up to the legal line on these tax increases, and I’d argue they’re crossing it.”