Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.
On Sunday, January 21, I posted a blog about the first Glendale City Council Campaign Committee Financial Reports filed with the City Clerk on January 16th.
Today, Monday, January 22nd, Ms. Encinas emailed our neighbors copying my entire blog. Thank you, Ms. Encinas. The more people that get to read it, the more informed our community is. One of the blocks of information I provided was a review of Ms. Encinas’ Candidate Committee Financial Reports. Here is a copy of one of the report’s pages regarding contributions to her campaign.
Encinas
I made the following observation:
“Watch Encinas’ level of missing information in her reports. She fails to enter information that is required. Some of the contributors’ addresses and ALL job titles and employers are missing. These are glaring omissions of fact that are reporting requirements. If she can’t follow the state law for reporting requirements what else will she fail to report?”
Here is her response to our neighbors:
“Here is my response, I will bring unity not violence or hate ,but solutions and change for our yucca residents! It was my first time filing and I think I did an amazing job, the titles will be updated but nothing was missing from my reporting. We have so much to do, here in Glendale ,and I can wait to speak with each one of you!”-Lupe Encinas
I don’t think it was an “amazing job” and neither should you. The State crafted these reporting forms to make sure every candidate is as transparent as possible. It requires the job title and employer of every donation over $50 so that the public can learn what communities of interest are supporting a candidate. It requires cumulative totals of an individual’s campaign contributions as well as the Candidate ID Number. All of which are missing.
It’s not rocket science to fill out the reporting forms completely. When I ran for the office if a contributor had not supplied all the information required, I would call and ask for it.
This reporting form is required of every candidate running for public office in the State. There are many first-time filers who manage to do it right the first time.
Attention to detail is important, not just for reporting purposes. In one’s job as a Councilmember details are important. Especially when City Councilmembers are reviewing the annual city budget or reviewing the City Council workshop or voting agendas. By reviewing these items in detail, it provides a Councilmember the opportunity to reach out to appropriate staff if there are any questions about an item.
Also please note that in Ms. Encinas’ report, she fails to put the Committee ID Number on any of her pages. This is another necessary state requirement so that if the physical pages ever became comingled with another report, the correct pages could be easily identified and reassembled. She also fails to fill in the two right hand columns which ask for cumulative totals.
Again, more detail that was omitted from her campaign financial report.
Here is a page from incumbent Mayor Jerry Weiers’ report. It is done correctly and provides contrast to that which Ms. Encinas submitted.
Details do matter. Filing out forms correctly demonstrates a level of respect for the process of running for office. It can also forecast how a candidate will approach the job.
© Joyce Clark, 2024
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