Incoming San Jose councilman fined $10,000 by city commission
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Incoming San Jose councilman fined $10,000 by city commission

By Ramona Giwargis rgiwargis@mercurynews.com

Friday, July 10, 2015 - 3:24 p.m.



SAN JOSE -- District 4 Councilman-elect Manh Nguyen hasn't yet taken his oath of office, but he's already in hot water with the city.

San Jose's Ethics Commission, a five-member panel tasked with monitoring city campaign laws, unanimously slapped Nguyen this week with a $10,000 fine, its largest penalty in nearly a decade, for filing 99 late campaign contribution forms for donations totaling $271,386 and failing to report an additional $11,634 in contributions. Most of the late or unreported contributions were "in-kind" donations of radio and television advertising from Nguyen's own Vietnamese-language media company, according to attorneys who evaluated complaints against Nguyen for the commission.

"It was pretty much an open and shut case that there were violations," said commission Chairman Michael Smith. "But we had discussions about figuring out the dollar amount of violations and how much to fine him."

Nguyen, who will be sworn in next month, was unavailable for comment Friday and his campaign manager, Peter Allen, declined to comment.

But a written response from Nguyen's campaign to the commission's attorneys appeared to blame the City Clerk's Office for the mishap, saying it gave inaccurate information about filing deadlines and requirements. To add to the confusion, Nguyen's camp said that a campaign reporting form underwent a name change and that the city's manual for candidates contained outdated information, giving the impression that they did not have to file that form.

To proceed under the City Clerk's directions and instructions and be penalized for doing so is quite perplexing and concerning," the Nguyen campaign response said.

Officials from the City Clerk's Office had no immediate response to that assertion Friday.

Smith said the Ethics Commission took the confusion into consideration, but stressed that it's not an excuse.

"They characterized this as a grass-roots campaign and they didn't have the money to hire a treasurer, so they relied solely on the advice of the City Clerk's Office," Smith said. "But ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking the law."

Smith said Nguyen has attempted to correct the problem by filing the required reports, but they're still incomplete or insufficient.

Smith said the commission had leeway to penalize Nguyen up to $5,000 per penalty or three times the total money involved for each violation -- whichever is higher. The commission's $10,000 fine was reasonable, Smith said, considering it could have been more than $100,000.

The issue was brought to light by a complaint filed from a San Jose resident, Tom Cochran. He can also make a report to the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, which could levy its own penalties, but it was unclear Friday whether he had done so.

The Ethics Commission on Wednesday also considered two other complaints related to Nguyen. One complaint, which accused Nguyen of misrepresenting his marital status on city documents, was identical to a complaint the commission threw out last month. They dismissed it a second time this week.

But the commission voted 3-2 to refer the third complaint, which alleged Nguyen lied about being an attorney on campaign materials, to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office for review. Smith and commissioner Adrian Gonzales voted no.

"It restores my faith that perhaps they're listening to our concerns," said Minh Q. Steven Dovan, the attorney who filed the complaint. "Holding yourself out as an attorney is not only a violation of the Penal Code, but also the Business and Professions code. I commend them for the action they took on my complaint."

Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.