Some news of interest from the LA Times:
The state Fair Political Practices Commission is expected to fine the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not properly reporting about $37,000 worth of contributions to pass California’s ban on same-sex marriages.
The commission will fine the Salt Lake City-based church $5,538 for failing to report the numerous contributions. The fine comes in response to a complaint filed in November 2008 by Fred Karger, a gay-rights activist and co-founder of Californians Against Hate, who accused the Mormon Church of failing to report the value of the work it did to support Proposition 8.
“The investigation revealed that the church unintentionally failed to file daily reports detailing approximately $37,000 in non-monetary contributions,” a statement on the church’s website read. “The amount of contributions not reported represented the cost of staff time spent by church employees on activities to help the Yes on 8 committee during the final two weeks of the election.”
The church said it cooperated in the investigation and expected the matter to be resolved this week.
Roman Porter, executive director of the political practices commission, said a determination to adopt that proposed fine will be considered Thursday when the commission meets.
A lot of bloggers are making a bigger deal of this than they should, in my opinion. For one, a fine of $5,538 is a drop in the bucket for the church. And second, the impropriety appears to be an innocent oversight. But Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization), disagrees:
“Thanks to Fred Karger’s dogged pursuit of the truth, we now know the Mormon Church not only violated the law in its election work to pass Prop 8, it most likely did so purposely” said Solmonese. “It’s just not credible that a multi-billion dollar, sophisticated organization like the LDS Church didn’t know or understand the election law requirements. California requires early disclosure so voters know who’s behind these referendum fights and clearly, the Mormon Church worked overtime to keep their full involvement hidden from the people of California.”
“It’s just not credible that a multi-billion dollar, sophisticated organization like the LDS Church didn’t know or understand the election law requirements.”
Probably true. But not out of the norm for a multi-billion dollar organization to not know all of the “at work” stuff done by employees who spend their employer’s money on personal, totally unrelated to pet projects. I am certain this goes on in all big organizations including the LDS church.