Price is down with FPPC

FPPC is investigating committee funding the DA Price recall, Board of Supervisors to determine recall's next step today; Three seek BART Board appointment; Bacon campaign focuses on Fremont's finances

The Alameda County Administration Building on Oak Street in Oakland is going to busy today with protesters on both sides of the DA Pamela Price recall, along with those in favor of sheriff’s oversight.

COUNTY NEWS

PRICE RECALL

—PRICE POINT—The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), the state’s campaign finance watchdog, is investigating the group that is funding the recall effort against Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.

—The complaint made on Dec. 7 by Protect the Win for Public Safety, the campaign to oppose the Price recall, charged the committee originally named Reviving the Bay Area with failing to report its early set of donors and erroneously creating a general-purpose committee for their effort to oust Price from office.

—More than five months later, the FPPC sent a letter to Protect the Win on April 19 notifying them that an investigation into the matters is being initiated.

—The December letter asserts that Reviving the Bay Area failed to report at least $48,000 in contributions prior to a Sept. 30 quarterly deadline.

—“The Reviving Committee has therefore illegally hid the source of its funds at least through Sept. 30 from the public, a serious violation of fundamental campaign laws,” James Sutton, the attorney representing Protect the Win, wrote to the FPPC on Dec. 7.

—The amount of money raised by Reviving the Bay Area prior to Sept. 30, it was later learned in year-end campaign reports, is actually $250,000, an amount the FPPC will have great concerns about, if the allegations are proven.

—At least, one of the complaints was addressed by Reviving the Bay Area back in November.

—Price’s complaint asserts that Reviving the Bay Area is not a general-purpose campaign committee because all of its campaign finance donations flowed to a single source—the recall of Price.

—The committee’s name was changed to “Supporters of Recall Pamela Price” on Nov. 16..

—In the end, Supporters of Recall Pamela Price has contributed more than $2 million to Save Alameda For Everyone (SAFE), the committee leading the day-to-day campaign to recall Price.

—SAFE successfully initiated a recall special election against Price on April 15, according to the county registrar. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors have until May 14 to decide the date of the special election.

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