Mason ELEC Violations up to $14.3 Million in Fines

Yep!  GA was getting calls on this... the amount of total fines is in fact, far greater than reported.

First, hats off to my journalist colleague, Da Horsey, for being the only media outlet to itemize the violations cited in the ELEC complaints served to Beth Mason, Ricky Mason, Ines Garcia Keim and others in the 2009 Mason mayoral campaign, and to identify that $6,800 fine is per violation- not count.  At 387 violations, Da Horsey got us to $2,640,066.

Well that is correct, but... a close reading of the complaints tells us fines are tabulated per person- in other words, each person is responsible for each and every  "reporting transaction"  or "each expenditure which has not been reported in the manner or in the time prescribed by the Act of Commission regulations".

Here are the applicable paragraphs:

Mason ELEC Complaint- 2009 Municipal Campaign
Mason ELEC Complaint- 2011 Municipal Campaign

You following Joint and several liability does not apply; respondents are not "jointly and severally liable for a tortious act."   Nope.

Each person is fined for each "reporting transaction."

Horsey's spreadsheet neatly itemized the "transactions":

credit: MSV


The actual "not to exceed" fines per individual, based on ELEC's $6,800/transaction, are as follows:

Beth Mason:          $2,640,066
Edward Lombard: $2,157,266
Raul Morales:        $2,157,266
Anthony Pasquale: $2,157,266
Vincent Addeo:      $2,157,266
Ines Garcia Keim:  $2,143,666
Richard G. Mason: $   965,600
 GRAND  TOTAL:         $14,378,396

GA was told The Mason Reporter had covered this story... I couldn't find it.  I guess that's what happens when Beth Mason buys 2 years of page-3 ads and G-d knows what else.

Well, The Mason Reporter did do a political cover story this week.

Last Wednesday at the City Council,  Ravi Bhalla hacked a loogie and his tissue missed the garbage can. (Technically it bounced off the edge) After the meeting Bhalla got 3 fines from the HPD, 2 police complaints, was held in custody until the morning- they shackled him to a chair. After they unshackled him in the morning, he had to write "I will not chuck my snot at the City Council" 1,000 times on an HPD chalkboard.  Dean DeChiaro covered the whole thing, and will publish Ravi's mug shots and the guilty tissue- loogies and all (that cost an extra Mason ad-buy).

Yep, that's The Mason Reporter's above-the-fold story.  Right above the one about Ravi dropping his carkeys.

Well, it's only a matter of time until this hits an actual newspaper.

Comments

  1. PolitickerNJ links to GA as the journalistic source, Mason and Fishboy's heads must be EXPLODING!!!!

    http://www.politickernj.com/back_room/masons-elec-mess-hoboken

    ReplyDelete

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