3 violated campaign finance rules

Candidates cite clerical errors on forms that were fixed; city attorney plans to pursue sanctions

Three citywide candidates loaned their campaigns more money than allowed by the city charter, the City Attorney's Office announced Thursday night, saying civil actions would be filed against all three for the violations.

All three candidates — Dan Miles, a candidate for city auditor, Gerrie Schipske, a candidate for city attorney, and Nick Liddi, a candidate for prosecutor — say the mistakes on the Form 460 reports were clerical errors that have been rectified.

City Attorney Charles Parkin's office said Thursday it had retained Best, Best & Krieger LLP to handle the violations. Parkin is not running for election, but his assistant city attorney, Dawn McIntosh, is on the ballot.

These are the first campaign finance reports, which were released April 29. There is one more filing deadline before the June 7 primary. There were no charges of violations in the last municipal election in 2020.

The city attorney's letter says that, “at a minimum, civil actions will be filed for violations of the Long Beach Campaign Reform Act.” The act allows the city to seek no more than three times the amount of the unlawful contribution in penalties.

Serious violations can lead to criminal filings, but that option is not mentioned in the city attorney's letter.

McIntosh's opponent, Schipske, reported that she had loaned her campaign $50,000. Candidates for city attorney, city prosecutor and city auditor are only allowed to loan $15,000 to their campaigns. Schipske also had one donor give $859.38 — the maximum donation is $600.

“I am totally aware of the loan limits Long Beach has set,” Schipske said in a statement. “I immediately contacted my treasurer, who corrected what the report should have initially shown. A total of $15,000 had been loaned to the committee and the remainder of the $50,000 was to be posted as a $35,000 contribution. At no time was there any intent to violate the Municipal Code limitations. The amounts loaned and contributed were unfortunately not distinguished in the report. My treasurer apologized but I accept full responsibility for the filing.”

Schipske said the excess donation actually was two donations from a married couple, with each person making one donation.

Liddi's Form 460 showed that he had loaned his campaign $34,100. Liddi also said his treasurer, David L. Gould, had put a donation down as a loan.

“Through no fault of Mr. Liddi,