The campaign manager for one of the parties competing in student government elections has resigned, throwing the party’s finances into disarray and forcing them to suspend campaigning on March 10 due to multiple financial disclosure violations.
The Synergy Party had “mass amounts of wrong allocations,” including no
accounting for sales tax or thousands of dollars of contributions and
misallocation of all of their t-shirts and banners, according to Monika
Mitchell, the Associated financial auditor for the elections. Sean Halls, their
campaign manager, had not been tracking a penny of the party’s finances,
despite months of assuring them that he was, said Clint Hugie, Synergy’s
presidential candidate. According to the grievances, the party is more than
$800 over budget when the sales tax is added in.
“He screwed us,” said Liz Oldroyd, the party’s senior class president, at a
financial disclosure hearing held in the Union Den on Thursday night. The
party leaders were forced to do Hall’s job mere hours before the disclosures
were due, causing them to be turned in more than 12 hours late, she said.
Where as The Synergy Party’s mistakes were largely due to their former
campaign manager, Go Party Campaign Manager Cameron Beech attributed errors to
the party’s campaign accountant, poor math or miscommunication for putting
the party more than $100 over budget.
For instance, three legislative candidates’ total donations were not
separated based on donor. Beech said that the incorrect documentation was
due to misunderstandings between himself and their campaign accountant,
Luiza Franca, who were communicating via e-mail. Various points of The Go
Party’s platform are founded on active communication between students and
their government.
Franca also failed to turn in several forms and receipts with their
financial disclosures. Jeff Sbiah, the party’s vice-presidential candidate,
said the accountant is in Las Vegas, and the party leaders did not check her
books before they were turned in because they “trusted her to do the right
thing,” Sbiah said.
The GO Party lost a handful of posters and cannot campaign from 7 a.m. to noon on Tuesday.
Other minor errors in The Go Party’s disclosures included counting posters twice and basic mathematical errors. Dave Martini, an
Elections Council member, said that parties must not wait until the last
minute to take care of disclosures, which can cause such simple mistakes.
Beech assured the council that his party made their “frustrating” mistakes a
week ahead of schedule.
By comparison, The Revolution Party walked out of Thursday’s hearing
with fewer violations. The party’s financial grievances included misallocations
for not accounting for empty Revolution Assembly candidate seats, and missing
receipts. Their mistakes will cost them several posters.
However, the party did make one unusual mistake. When the party turned in
its financial disclosures, they’d failed to note the fee for filing their
disclosures in the documents. They won’t be able to campaign on the morning
of March 10 as a punishment.
“I believe we’re the only one in history,” said Mitch Christensen, the
party’s campaign manager.