Riverhead Republicans trying to sort out cash contributions for board of elections report

Riverhead Republicans are scrambling to correct the Republican committee’s failure to properly disclose nearly $4,700 in cash contributions it took in at a golf outing last year.

The cash was initially not reported to the state board of elections in the appropriate campaign finance disclosure report, and the individual donors were not identified as required, according to Republican committee treasurer Mary Hartill.

State law requires political committees to file reports of their income and expenditures according to a timeline set by the board of elections. Each report covers a specific reporting period.

The cash taken in at the June 14, 2012 golf outing should have been included in the committee’s July 2012 periodic report, which covered the period between mid-January and mid-July, 2012.

But the cash, which was not in her possession, wasn’t deposited into the committee’s bank account until Aug. 22, 2012, Hartill said in an interview last week.

When she realized it wasn’t reported, Hartill amended the committee’s 2012 32-day pre-general election disclosure report to reflect the bank deposit of $4,695 on Aug. 22 2012. The report was amended on Aug. 5, 2013, according the state board of elections website.

But Hartill, an attorney, said she believes any cash that she cannot trace to a particular donor must be turned over to the state attorney general.

“After speaking with the board of elections, that is my opinion,” Hartill said.

“We have to go back and identify all the cash contributions. Everyone’s being very cooperative. We have all the records,” she said on Wednesday.

But an email Hartill sent to committee members on Saturday, asking for help identifying people who donated cash at the 2012 Republican golf outing, indicates the treasurer doesn’t have the documentation she believes she needs.

“At the 2012 Riverhead Republican Golf Outing we accepted cash donations. I need to document each donor and the amount donated,” Hartill wrote in the email to GOP committee members, a copy of which was obtained by RiverheadLOCAL. “As you know, cash donations may not exceed $100. Please let me know if you made a cash donation and the amount. If you know of someone who is not on the committee that made a cash donation, please let me know. I appreciate your cooperation,” she wrote.

State election law prohibits accepting cash contributions in excess of $100, and smaller cash donations should be itemized, according to N.Y. State Board of Elections spokesperson John Conklin.

“You can accept cash up to $100 but you have to know where it came from and you have to disclose that,” Conklin said in an interview last month. He also acknowledged that committees often lump smaller — under $100 — cash donations together and record them in their disclosure reports as “unitemized” contributions.

All cash is required by law to be deposited into the committee’s bank account, Conklin said.

Hartill’s inquiry is not the first time questions have been raised by a Republican committee treasurer about cash contributions made at party fundraisers.

Former GOP treasurer Trisha Burton questioned the reporting of cash contributions in the committee’s campaign disclosure reports for years prior to the tenure of her immediate predecessor in the post, Nancy Reyer. Reyer went on to become chairwoman of the committee and Burton assumed the role of treasurer in the fall of 2009.

In a letter to the state board of elections dated March 25, 2010, Burton wrote that she had filed amended reports for the years 2004 and 2005 and a late filing for the year 2006, when no reports at all had been filed by the committee.

She stated in the letter that the board of elections had informed her, upon her appointment as treasurer, that the committee’s bank account should have $10,000 more in it than it did. The BOE asked her to amend the committee’s reports for 2004 and 2005 and file reports for 2006, she wrote.

Burton informed the BOE that she could not obtain copies of any committee records from the treasurer during that time period, Russell Kratoville, who informed her that the committee’s financial records had been destroyed by a flood in his basement. She obtained copies of the committee’s bank records from Suffolk County National Bank and prepared the amended reports for the BOE using those records, she said.

Burton was advised to write the letter to the BOE by Suffolk County Republican chairman John Jay LaValle, in a meeting she and Reyer requested with him to discuss problems they found with the committee’s reports, according to Riverhead attorney and former Republican committee member William Andes Jr., who attended the meeting in LaValle’s office.

Reyer said in an interview this week neither the state nor the county board of elections replied to the March 2010 letter in any way.

Subsequent to the March 25, 2010 letter being sent, investigators from the Suffolk District Attorney’s office questioned various committee members, including Andes, who said he never heard anything about any charges brought against anyone as a result.

Committee chairman John Galla said in an Aug. 1 interview when he took the helm as chairman in March 2011, following the resignation of Nancy Reyer that January, he “wanted this stuff as bullet-proof as it could possibly be.”

Hartill took over as treasurer in September 2011 and plans to step aside as treasurer next month. She is waiting for the BOE to approve her resignation, as required by state law.

“I want to make sure the next treasurer gets perfect books,” she said. “We are still in the process of reviewing every entry to make sure the books are balanced.”

Committee vice chairman Mason Haas, who is considered most likely to succeed Galla as chairman, told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview last month Tammy Robinkoff would be taking over as committee treasurer.

Asked about inconsistencies in the committee’s handling of cash reporting in the past, Haas said, “I can’t do anything about the past. You can’t dwell on it. You must move forward.”

As of its most recent filing, the July 2013 periodic report, the Republican committee showed a closing balance of $15,152.32. It raised $5,940 during the period covered by the report, January 12 to July 11, including $175 in cash from raffle ticket sales at a January fundraiser.

The committee filed a “no activity” statement for the most recent reporting period, July 12 to Aug. 5, which was covered by the 32-day pre-primary report.

The Riverhead Town Democratic Committee, in its most recent filing — also the July 2013 periodic report — shows a closing balance of $15,550.10. It raised $19,401.11 during the six-month reporting period. None of the contributions was listed as cash, though there were four $20 donations listed without check numbers next to them. The report indicates the names of the donors, Angela DeVito for two and Diane Wilhelm for two.

“If we get cash I report it. If we spend cash I report it,” said Democratic chairwoman Marjorie Acevedo. “We don’t fool around. I’m very strict about that,” she said.