Do I understand correctly what was reported in the newspapers? After more than a year of investigation of Remy O’Neill and her Road Worriers organization, has our city attorney actually come up with nothing more than three petty reporting deficiencies, each involving a $200 joint contribution check? As I understand it (and it is hard to understand) there may have been a technical failure to report, as I am told the election ordinance requires that the makers of the $200 checks, in addition to having made $100 contributions along with their sons’, daughters’ or friends’ $100 contributions, had additionally acted as an “intermediary” for those contributions — whatever that means.
As a Malibu taxpayer, I am outraged at our city attorney’s gross waste of city funds on what looks like politically motivated investigations. City Attorney Christi Hogin owes Malibu and its citizens answers to a few pertinent questions. For a start, Ms. Hogin should answer (with full explanation) the following:
If technical reporting deficiencies as to three $200 contributions is all you ended up with at the end of over a year of investigation, on what legitimate suspicions did you start the inquiry, and what was the necessity for a full year of discovery?
Is it a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion to bring a criminal misdemeanor charge against Remy O’Neill, considering: (1) the seriousness (or lack thereof) of the alleged offenses, (2) the difficulty of proving that these alleged technical violations were made “knowingly and willfully” (also with what motivations?), (3) the fact that Ms. O’Neill long ago made her books and records available to the city attorney and asked repeatedly for a meeting with the city attorney for the purpose of correcting any reporting errors or omissions, and (4) Ms. O’Neill’s reputation for integrity in the community?
Why couldn’t this matter of reporting of contribution “intermediaries” have been settled administratively long ago (by amended filings, perhaps?) and now a year later, why is this still not an option?
David Andersen