San Diego's Ethics Commission announced yesterday that it would audit the records of more campaign fundraising committees over the next two years than it has in the past four.
Employees of the City Clerk's Office randomly drew 21 committee names from a hat Thursday night as commissioners made game show jokes at a monthly meeting. The theatrical process takes place in public every couple of years.
Records set for scrutiny include those of Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Council members Kevin Faulconer, Ben Hueso, Tony Young and Donna Frye. It will be Frye's third audit since random selections began in 2003.
The only other elected official to face a repeat audit is Young, now chosen twice. Four campaign committees were singled out in 2003 for the first batch of audits. Sixteen committees were selected in 2005 as the program expanded.
Starting with Sanders and the other current elected officials, the commission's auditor will review receipts, checks, contracts, bank statements and invoices from each committee for violations of ethical and financial laws.
Sanctions can be costly. Young was fined $10,000 this year, and City Attorney Michael Aguirre was fined $9,000 in 2005 for a range of campaign violations uncovered in the audits.
New audits will be released as they are completed over the next two years. Targets include mayoral candidates Sanders, Frye, Myke Shelby and Richard Rider. Pat Shea and Steve Francis, who also ran for mayor, were spared.
Unsuccessful council candidates facing audits in District 2 include Lorena Gonzalez, Rich Grosch, Ian Trowbridge and Pat Zaharpoulous and in District 8, Luis Acle, Remy Bermudez and Lincoln Pickard.
Hueso and Bermudez each had two campaign committees chosen for audits.
Committees established by former Councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet for re-election in 2006 will also be audited. They resigned in 2005 following federal corruption convictions. Zucchet was later acquitted, and Inzunza is awaiting an appeal.
The remaining campaign committees selected for scrutiny are San Diegans for City Hall Reform, a committee that championed Sanders' 2006 ballot measures to outsource more city jobs and require voter approval for future pension increases; Citizens Against Corruption, a committee opposed to the outsourcing measure; and San Diegans for Mt. Soledad National War Memorial, a committee formed to support the transfer of the Mount Soledad Cross to the federal government in 2005.
Matthew Hall: (619) 542-4599; matthew.hall@uniontrib.com
