The state watchdog in charge of overseeing political fundraising is proposing changes to make things more forgiving to rookie politicians.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Alaska Public Offices Commission approved a first draft of regulations that waive fines for late or incomplete campaign disclosures if the person is a first-time filer, was called to military duty or there were technical problems that prevented filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find ways to be more educational and less punitive,\u201d said Paul Dauphinais, director of the commission.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s records show that most campaign violations are committed by people unfamiliar with the process. \u201cWe get a number of people who don\u2019t know they even have to report,\u201d Dauphinais said.<\/p>\n
To curtail that problem, APOC has conducted a series of educational forums and workshops in recent years. Those efforts appear to have been successful: \u201cComplaint activity has experienced a general downward trend since 2010,\u201d APOC\u2019s draft biennial report states.<\/p>\n
This year, only nine election complaints were filed, the lowest figure since 2007.<\/p>\n
Last year, however, APOC\u2019s budget was slashed by nearly a third: from $1.46 million in fiscal year 2015 to just $1.03 million this year. Of the commission\u2019s 14 listed positions, five are vacant and most are likely to remain so.<\/p>\n
Dauphinais said the new procedures would allow APOC staff to settle complaints earlier in the process. \u201cWe are able to decrease fines or mitigate fines very early,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That matters because the staff time adds up as complaints escalate. By the time a complaint reaches the full commission for a vote, \u201cit\u2019s a very time-consuming task,\u201d Dauphinais said.<\/p>\n
The commission already reduces or waives fines based on extenuating circumstances. <\/p>\n
Kenneth Kirk, chairman of the commission, said during Thursday\u2019s meeting that the commission is also proposing statutory changes to the Alaska Legislature. \u201cWe did send this year a set of proposed statutory changes along with some regulatory changes we\u2019re trying to make,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The regulation changes, which do not have to go through the Legislature, will be open for public comment by the end of the year, and comments will be taken through Jan. 29. The commission will then take verbal comments on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n
After that, the proposal will go to the Department of Law and other state agencies for review.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a starting point,\u201d Dauphinais said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state watchdog in charge of overseeing political fundraising is proposing changes to make things more forgiving to rookie politicians. On Thursday, the Alaska Public Offices Commission approved a first draft of regulations that waive fines for late or incomplete campaign disclosures if the person is a first-time filer, was called to military duty or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7884"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}