Philly ethics board fines City Council members, state senator

The city ethics board has entered settlements with the political committee's for two City Council members, including Council President Darrell L. Clarke, and a state senator regarding campaign finance violations stemming from missed filing deadlines.

"None of this appears to be deliberate," Shane Creamer, executive director of the ethics board, said. "I think these are just mistakes of omission and just bookkeeping and filing mistakes."

The political committee for State Sen. Vincent Hughes has been fined $1,500 for failing to file a campaign finance report by a June 18 deadline, according to the ethics board agreement. The committee filed the report on July 26, about a month after being contacted by the ethics board.

City Councilman Bobby Henon's political committee and its treasurer have been jointly fined $3,000 for failing to file four reports, due between May 5 and May 15, for contributions that had to be accounted for within 24 hours. The committee also filed a report in June that that left out "a substantial amount" of the contributions received during the filing period, according to the ethics board agreement.

The political committee for Council President Darrell Clarke has been fined $1,500 for failing to report two contributions that had to be reported to the ethics board within 24 hours of being received.

Creamer said settlements related to missed filing deadlines have been fairly common this year. He said the board has entered 44 settlements in 2015, 31 which involved missed reports.

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