PAC with ties to Rendell is fined $15,750

A political committee with ties to Gov. Rendell has agreed to pay $15,750 in fines to the Philadelphia Board of Ethics to settle a nearly month-old lawsuit.

In doing so, the Pennsylvanians for Better Leadership PAC also acknowledged that it violated the city's campaign finance rules 20 times.

Richard Glazer, the ethics board's chairman, called the settlement "another chapter in the continuing saga of business as usual with no sincere effort at compliance."

Glazer said during yesterday's monthly Ethics Board meeting that "there is something not quite right about a system that essentially invites the well-financed and powerful, in this case Gov. Rendell, to direct contributions to city candidates through a PAC without public disclosure. To do this with impunity tends to undermine the ability to follow the political money through the system and the transformational goal of transparency."

The current treasurer of the PAC, founded in 2003, is Charles Breslin, a longtime Rendell friend. Breslin was named treasurer on March 6, after the lawsuit was filed.

All the violations occurred while Kevin C. Watson was in that position. Watson, recently fired as a legislative aide to Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, was asked to resign his post as the PAC treasurer.

The Ethics Board's executive director, Shane Creamer, called the violations "a case of sloppy bookkeeping" and said the PAC had no intent to deceive the public.

Among the violations, the PAC failed to disclose donations it made to three Democrats who ran for mayor in 2007: U.S. Rep. Bob Brady ($5,000), U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah ($2,000) and State Rep. Dwight Evans ($10,000). It also did not list campaign money it gave to the campaign committees of City Councilman Bill Green ($1,000), Councilman Darrell Clarke ($5,000), and former Councilman Juan Ramos ($5,000).

The PAC failed as well to reveal several contributions it received, including two totaling $30,000 from insurance executive Andre Duggin, a Republican and one of Rendell's longtime financial backers.

Rendell himself gave the PAC $155,000 in 2007, making him the committee's biggest funder by far. His contributions were not at issue in the lawsuit because they either had been disclosed or disclosure was not yet required.

The Ethics Board fined the PAC between $250 and $1,500 for each violation. Under the settlement, the PAC will pay the $15,570 fine in five installments, the last in September 2010.

"I take the campaign-finance laws very seriously and can attest to the willingness of the Ethics Board to recognize that mistakes do happen, and the ultimate goal should be transparency and full disclosure for the public good," Breslin said in a statement. "My job moving forward is to make certain that the PAC operates as it should - in the light of day."