Month: October 2022

OctOctober 31, 2022 31October 31, 2022
2022October 31, 2022

Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Seven – The Final StretchElection 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Seven – The Final Stretch

Nelly Bly Investigations

ELECTION 2022
Trail of donations Part seven
The final stretch

We have entered the final stretch of this insane election. Once again, we are here simply to keep track of the money. 

Be sure to read to the very end of this post, there is important information about one particular candidate that you must know about before you vote.

We have the candidate financial reporting that was due on 10/27 and these is lots of information to discuss so let’s jump right in … All our City Council election info is from this page

First up is all our City Council candidates

Let’s go to Nikki Perez first.   

You may recall that Nikki raised $14K out of the gate and boasted about her fundraising. Her numbers through 10/22 show that she was able to keep up her fundraising but spent more than she took in at this late stage. Her ending cash balance is $6400 but this includes a loan Nikki made to the campaign of $3K. So cash on hand is minimal for this final week. 

Next is Zizette Mullins who has been the fundraising queen of this election.

She brought in a whopping $72K in donations and has an ending cash balance of $44K. So, the question is …. why is she sitting on this much money so late in the campaign? Will every Burbank resident now receive a special gift in the mail, maybe a Mullins potholder? Otherwise it’s hard to understand why she would keep raising money without any plan to spend it.

Next up is Tamala Takahaski who is running for the second time for City Council.

It appears that Tamala has given up on fundraising and has become focused on campaigning at this late stage as she took in only about $2500. She has received a total of $14.6K in donations and has spent most of it with only $2200 cash on hand. Plus there is that 6K in outstanding debts (loans). 

Incumbent Sharon Springer is up next.

Sharon has also lost steam in her fundraising and gained only $4.1K. Her donations total is a healthy $31K, but she has under $3700 cash on hand. She is also debt heavy with the campaign owing a $4500 loan that was made by … Sharon Springer.

And as you might expect with any exciting race, the one who started the slowest is the one gaining fast.  Let’s look at the filing for Carmenita Helligar.

Carmenita raised $5500 this period making her grand fundraising total about $9K. What is interesting is how much cash she now has on hand – almost $6K. Her campaign debit is only $500 which is a loan she made. So Carmenita now has more cash on hand than the other candidates except for Bank of Mullins. Let’s see how she spends that amount during this final week of campaigning.

And on to the School Board Candidates …

We are definitely seeing much smaller amounts for the School Board candidates – except for the one that you would expect. We also don’t have the October filings posted yet as it is the County of Los Angeles, not the Burbank City Clerk, that supervises the School Board election and they get them up when they get them up. You can find the filings here.

Some of these numbers are the same that we reported on in a prior post but there are some new filings so we will repeat the prior info if it is the only info available.

Let’s start with Larry Applebaum who was voted OUT and now wants to be voted BACK IN. Larry has raised $2900 and ended September with a remaining balance of $992. 

James Morrison has only added $304 to his fundraising in two months of campaigning with a total of $2840. But he is almost at the same amount of total fundraising as Applebaum who has a great deal more experience handling a campaign. He has a remaining balance of $2536 that needs to be spent now or never.

Brian Smith raised $4484 and has spent $2993, leaving $2190. Of note, these three candidates do not have any campaign debt, meaning loans, that need to be paid back.

There are no new reports available for Char Tabet and Michael Morgan though it is clear they are spending money on their campaigns. Maybe LA County can get around soon to sharing their filings. But look who has shown up! The mystery candidate who evidently does live in Burbank but who apparently hates all of us too much to actually campaign. Maybe, if you want, you can now email or call him?

And now we get to Abby Pontzer Kumkar, the “I work for Green Dot Charter Schools but have no vested interest in bring Charter Schools to Burbank” candidate.

Let’s let her filings speak for themselves:

So – lots and lots and lots of Charter school money flooding this campaign at the final stretch.

And … Who is Arthur Rock who put $3K into this campaign? Aunt Nelly looked him up and YIKES!

https://48hills.org/2022/01/what-the-big-money-behind-the-school-board-recall-means/  

What about Stacy Schusterman? GEEZ!   https://chartergrowthfund.org/person/stacy-schusterman/

And how about Rock and Schusterman together? OMG!  https://oaklandside.org/2020/10/15/oakland-school-board-campaign-finance-charter-schools/

Your vote is your power – if you want charter schools in Burbank,

you now know who to vote for.

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OctOctober 23, 2022 23October 23, 2022
2022October 23, 2022

Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Six – The Wizard is REVEALED (kind of)Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Six – The Wizard is REVEALED (kind of)

Nelly Bly Investigations

ELECTION 2022
Trail of donations Part Six
the wizard is revealed (kind of)

Your Aunt Nelly is a modest lady. She doesn’t do these investigations for fame or glory. They are done because, frankly, no one else will do them.

But every once in a while, Nelly has to keep things in perspective because she might get a swelled head. For example, her article on the mysterious new PAC Burbank Neighbors for Affordability Supporting Nikki Perez for Burbank City Council was published on the afternoon of Friday October 14th.  One of the big questions we asked was where are the required campaign finance filings for the very expensive mailer that was just sent to Burbank voters from this PAC? We promised to be on PAC WATCH 2022 to see when those filings would appear.

And appear they did. 

Two filings were made for this PAC. The first was at 5:30 pm, and the second was at 6:01 pm. Both done on MONDAY OCTOBER 17th.

Now, you could say this is just a mammoth coincidence. You could say that the Sutton Boys always planned to file their required information on that day. You could tisk tisk your Aunt Nelly for being oh so silly. Or – you could let her think that certain people read her post, had a “holy crap” moment, and jumped into action over the weekend to made sure that filing was done as quickly as humanly possible.

Please, let us enjoy this moment.

So Let’s Plunge Into The Filings …

There is a whole lot left unsaid and not reported here. Let’s dissect the forms so we can see what we know and what we don’t know.

First is the form that was filed on 10/17/22 at 5:30 pm regarding expenditures:

Here is page one of the Form 496 that is used for reporting Independent Expenditures. The code LIT means campaign literature and mailings, so this is in regard to what we will refer to as the Ruby Slippers Mailer that hit Burbank mailboxes around mid October. Now, this says that the money was spent on the mailer on 10/14. We know that can’t be the case as we all received the mailer before 10/14. (What happened on 10/14? Oh yeah, THIS happened.) The total spent on the mailer was $27,594.34. Remember that number as we will return to it shortly.

Here is page two of that same Form 496. Looky here, Todd David has joined the chat. Remember him? The Special Advisor for Housing Action Coalition that we met in our prior post? (Yes that link is going to keep appearing cause you really should read that post first.) He made a personal loan to this PAC of $8,000. The form says, plain as day, “Contribution is a loan to Committee.” Let’s find out more about loans to committees straight from the Fair Political Practices Commission or FPPC:

Now, Nelly is the first to admit that she is no expert on campaign reporting. But this says that a Form 460 must be used to report loans to the committee. This PAC has not filed a Form 460, at least not as of this report (Hello, Sutton Boys? Isn’t this what you get paid the big bucks for?) Now, back to the Form 496 pictured above – the column asking for the interest rate was left blank, which gives the impression the loan was given interest free. 

Let’s move on to review the second form that was also filed on 10/17, this is the one filed at 6:01 pm.

This Form 497 is a special form and is required when $1000 or over is donated to a political committee like this one. But even more important, a Form 497 BY LAW must be filed within 24 hours of the day the contribution is made. 

So.

We have Todd David giving his loan of $8,000 on 10/14. We have two other donors giving a total of $20,000 on 10/17. Did they get people to do all the work on that Ruby Slippers mailer based on a handshake and a promise? Because otherwise that mailer would have to have been paid for prior to this $28k coming in to the bank account. Also, how lovely it is that the $20K was donated on 10/17, which was the date of this filing.

All these donations with the loan add up to $28,000. Remember that reported cost of the mailer? Let me remind you, it was $27,594.34. Did they spend the money first so they would know exactly the right amount to collect in time for this filing? And why is that expense for the mailer not itemized? Who actually got paid for that mailer and how much was each vendor paid?

We know Mr. David. And we know Bay Area Housing Action Coalition. We know this organization has both a 501(c)3 entity and a 501(c)4 entity. It would be illegal for a 501(c)3 nonprofit to donate to a PAC, so this entity that gave the $10K must be the dark money 501(c)4 entity. It is likely we will never be able to track down where that money originated from.

But. 

We can try to do that with the other entry on that form.

BUILDING A STRONGER CALIFORNIA, SPONSORED BY SOUTHWEST REGIONAL COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS, Committee no. 870169. Based on the information on the California Secretary of State website, this PAC has been around for at least 20 years and had a bunch of different names over time.

It looks like it has evolved to expand its scope beyond Southern California and wants to get involved in all of California. Based on their last reporting on 9/28/22, they certainly have the funds to achieve that goal:

Let’s travel over to the website transparencyusa.org which, like opensecrets.org, tracks how the money comes and goes. You can find this info here:

 

There is lots to sort through for this Carpenters Union PAC. But let’s not go down that rabbit hole (um, go down that yellow brick road?) and stay focused on why they would donate to this PAC for this candidate. The Carpenters Union PAC donates to many Democratic candidates here in California. And that name you would expect to see is certainly on the list.

Kinda odd that this first contribution on 4/4 is just a few days before the LA Kickoff event by HAC here in Los Angeles that was attended by Assemblymember Laura Friedman. Must be another coincidence.

But we really don’t know why this Carpenters Union with millions of dollars at its disposal and which donates heavily to Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party would give $10K to help this candidate in this Burbank election. Yes, we could say that Nikki Perez supports affordable housing and the local carpenters would benefit from an increase in construction in Burbank. Yes, we could say that Nikki would support the union and help them get contracts for new construction here in Burbank. 

BUT here is the thing … candidates have to be, again by law, completely separate from anything that is done by an independent PAC that is formed with the sole purpose in getting them elected. Nikki cannot take any action based on any actions, promises or even statements made by this PAC. So, once again we ask – why did HAC and the Carpenters Union PAC pay $10K each and Todd David give $8K in a no interest loan to get Nikki Perez elected? Who is behind all this with a vested interest in getting Nikki elected? Who brought all this together and made sure that Nikki benefited and made sure Nikki kept away from anything to do with this PAC and this mailer?

You should know by now that your Aunt Nelly is nothing but determined to get answers to these questions so we have one thing to say to those who are behind all this:

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OctOctober 14, 2022 14October 14, 2022
2022October 14, 2022

Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Five – Nikki and Lions and Bears Oh MyElection 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Five – Nikki and Lions and Bears Oh My

Nelly Bly Investigations

ELECTION 2022
Trail of donations Part five
Nikki and lions and bears oh my

Burbank has always had PACs involved in our elections whether you noticed or not. Burbank Teachers Association, Firefighters Union, Burbank Police Officers Association and other assorted special interests have always spent lots of money over the years through political action committees trying to influence your vote. In fact, today Nelly got a mailer from Burbank Teachers Association Fund for Children in Public Education PAC pushing their endorsement of Brian Smith.

Did you get a mailer back in 2020 pushing Paul Herman for City Council? That came from the California Apartment Association Housing Solutions Committee. Their filings show that they were formed specifically to support Paul Herman and raised a whopping $115,000 which was donated by two other PACs, California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure Committee and California Apartment Association PAC. 

2022 marked the appearance of a new PAC named Blue Values Burbank that touted its home grown nature and transparency. It didn’t file in Burbank but their filing is available on the State Secretary of State website. It is mostly financed by 2020 City Council candidate Linda Bessin though there are lots of small dollar donations from Burbank folks included. They have social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and it looks like those were started around the beginning of this year. They wrote questionnaires that were sent to the City Council and School Board candidates that asked pretty good questions and the answers were posted on their website though it looks like several candidates (Zizette Mullins, James Morrison and Abby Pontzer Kamkar) decided not to participate. Evidently they got under one crotchety old MAGA’s skin. This guy called into Public Comment one night and said that they need to take their commie hands off of Burbank’s gun stores. Anyway, it looks like they chose the obvious slate of Progressive City Council candidates to endorse and decided to place their chips on that wild card School Board candidate Michael Morgan.

Whether you like or hate these PACs, they are at least transparent about what they are and where their money is coming from. And they show that Burbank people know how to communicate with Burbank people. And if you are not from here, the results can be straight from OMG and WTF land. 

Once upon a time there was a law firm

The Sutton Law Firm has the adorable website name of https://campaignlawyers.com/.

Their site says the firm specializes “in political and election law and litigation, representing businesses, individuals, candidates, ballot measures, PACs, and nonprofit organizations involved in the political and legislative processes on the local, state and national levels. The firm seeks to help its clients achieve their political and legislative goals while avoiding legal pitfalls.”

Why should you care about The Sutton Law Firm?  No, it’s not because someone there clearly has
a weird Wizard of Oz fetish

Selected Burbank residents just received a mailer from a political action committee called “Burbank Neighbors for Affordability Supporting Nikki Perez for Burbank City Council 2022.” This is the mailer pictured at the top of this post with the picture of Dorothy’s ruby slippers and the tagline “Burbank is a long way from Kansas”.  Huh?

This clearly out of touch mailer prompted your intrepid reporter’s curiosity. Who would write this inane tagline? Does this person actually live in Burbank? Who or what is this PAC that is trying to get Nikki Perez elected but evidently threw darts at a dartboard to decide what to put on the mailer?

To the Burbankca.gov website we go to find the filings!

Here is the Form 410 which is the initial filing that declares the existence of the political action committee. This was filed on 9/22/22 – less than a month ago. Did the people behind this suddenly decide to form a PAC? OR – did they delay their filings as much as possible to avoid prying eyes like those of your Ms. Nelly?

We see the treasurer is identified as Matthew C. Alvarez and the assistant treasurer is James R. Sutton. 

Where can we find these gentlemen? Why, at The Sutton Law Firm!

Well that’s ok, right? Because they definitely raised lots of money to pay for this Oz mailer and filings will show who paid those dollars to finance it and who is behind this PAC.  As we saw with all the candidate filings, those campaigns that raise money prior to the required filing at the end of September would have to declare those amounts and who paid them. So let’s go to the Sutton Boys filing that should show donations and expenditures through 9/24/22 and …. well well well

The PAC designed a mailer, sent it to a printer, bought the data of Burbank voters, had those voters’ addresses imprinted on the mailer, added postage and had it all delivered to our Burbank post offices. And it didn’t cost them a cent. And it appears that Mr. Sutton and Mr. Alvarez are assistant treasurer and treasurer of the PAC out of the goodness of their hearts and not accepting any payment for their services.

Now, it is possible that all this was paid for with a massive donation that came in on 9/25/22 to avoid having to put it on this filing. All that work to do the design, buy the data, have the printing done, buy the postage, etc. to get that mailer delivered to Burbank residents could have started on 9/25/22 to have the mailers arrive at homes in the middle of October. The treasurers could be deferring their salary until the PAC actually has money to pay them. But that would be kinda shady, don’t you think? There are rules about having to do a separate filing for large donations received within 90 days of an election day. When will we see that filing from this PAC?

In case you think that the wrong Sutton and Alvarez has been identified, on the Form 450 they give their email address as campaign@campaignlawyers.com, which goes straight to The Sutton Law Firm website name.

But wait, we are leaving out of this discussion someone very important so let’s correct that now … the Form 410 identifies Todd David as a principal officer of the PAC. Who is Todd David?

And here is Mr. David’s business card:

First, what is HAC? Housing Action Coalition is a Bay Area nonprofit that has both a 501(c)3 arm and a dark money 501(c)4 division. 

Gosh this sounds good – a nonprofit coalition of all types dedicated to tackling the housing shortage. Makes sense that they would be behind a mailer that talks about affordable housing. But let’s ask some questions: Who are these home builders who are funding this organization? Who are these tech companies and are they more concerned about their employees rather than the public good? Those highlighted words in the description don’t go to any links and just promote an illusion of transparency. Here is their list of “business members“. While there are some nonprofits listed, we see developer after developer, lawfirms and lobbyists, Verizon, Google, Facebook, banks and venture capitalists. 

How much money does HAC take in?

Let’s go to their Form 990, which is the tax return filed by nonprofits. 990’s are public record. Their most recent public return is from 2019:

So the vast majority of their expenses are salaries.  And the vast majority of that goes to Todd David.

A quick review of their website doesn’t immediately reveal why HAC would care about a Burbank City Council race. But that has never stopped your intrepid reporter and some additional sleuthing revealed something very very interesting. First we see a statement from Mr. David talking about how for the first time HAC is expanding from the Bay Area into LA County:

Then we found that HAC had an “LA Kickoff Event” earlier this year:

And there she is. Assemblymember Laura Friedman. Friedman’s name appears on almost every one of our posts in some capacity as clearly she wants to be deeply involved in Burbank politics and the money that funds them and to influence our votes as much as possible. We know from Nikki’s campaign filings that Laura, her staff and her contacts have all contributed heavily to Nikki’s campaign. Does this mean that Friedman is behind connecting HAC to the Perez campaign and therefore the setting up and funding of this PAC? We don’t know cause … their filings say nothing. So we will remain on PAC WATCH 2022 to see what is revealed. 

Meanwhile, look up in the sky!

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OctOctober 10, 2022 10October 10, 2022
2022October 10, 2022

Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Four – That WILD School Board RaceElection 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Four – That WILD School Board Race

Nelly Bly Investigations

ELECTION 2022
Trail of donations Part four
That wild school board race

This year’s BUSD Board of Education election has two open seats and if anyone tells you they know how this race will turn out, make them put money on it to prove they know.

Will the voters of Burbank choose familiarity and experience, even if they are still furious about decisions the incumbent and former incumbent have made?

Will they make their decision based on showing support for more diversity on the Board?

Will they go with the candidate who has the support of the Republican Burbank establishment? The Democratic Burbank Establishment?

Will they just say “ah hell let’s burn it all down” and go with the wild card candidate?

There is one thing we do know and this was made clear at the recent League of Women Voters forum for the School Board candidates. The entire community is fed up with the disrespectful antics and toxic behavior of the current Board. You could hear the collective sigh of relief when each candidate pledged to show respect to others and strive to set an example of good behavior for our children. No one was in denial about this current debacle of a Board, not even the incumbent running for reelection.

But hey – here is a Public Service Announcement: In 2024, there will be three openings on School Board, and those three wildly unpopular incumbents will likely be exercising their grandious ambitions of running for City Council, Assembly, or whatever political position that is their ultimate goal. You can start now, it is not too early, to think about running or talk to those who would make great candidates about whether they would run. If you don’t like how the School Board is handling itself or running the District, then it is up to the community to find and support those who can make a difference.

The BUSD election is administered by the County of Los Angeles rather than the Burbank City Clerk’s office. To see the candidate’s filings, go HERE, click on School Districts, then scroll down and click on Burbank Unified School District.

Let’s take our first look at the Candidates for the BUSD Board of Education 

Here is long time incumbent, Charlene “Char” Tabet.  

If you are a parent or just a concerned resident, you felt or saw the tremendous anger focused on Char as a result of the botched beginning of the school year in January 2022. Many of Nelly’s friends and neighbors still blame Char as School Board President for the fact that they did not know until late the evening before whether there would be in-person classes taking place the next morning and the resulting anxiety and chaos.

So – how has this affected Char’s fundraising?

Well, the answer is we don’t know. Other than a Form 470, which is an initial statement of candidacy, there is no record of any filings by Char, so there is no Form 460, which is the form that discloses a campaign’s finances. She also is inactive on social media. So let’s take a look at Char’s website to see who has come out in support of her.

There is Sharon Springer, whom Char endorsed for City Council.

There is the ubiquitous Laura Friedman, and also Nick Schultz who evidentally only endorses who Laura endorses.

And we have School Board Member Emily Weisberg, who has also endorsed Abby Pontzer Kamkar for School Board. So, with two openings on School Board, Weisberg has decided to make her endorsements and they are for the two women candidates. Sounds good. So why is she hosting a meet and greet for Kamkar and a candidate-who-is-not-Char? 

Let’s take a look at Abby Pontzer Kamkar 

Abby started her campaign as someone unknown to the commumity and without disclosing that she is Chief of Staff of one of largest Charter School companies in the country.

This underestimated the tenacity of Burbank parents who immediately hit Google and found her job description that is posted here. Abby has spent her campaign reassuring voters that despite her current position she has no agenda to bring charters to Burbank. The fact that she has lived in Burbank for only three years also means that people wonder if she moved here just to run for this office.

Her other challenge has been addressing her history of working with BUSD Superintendent of Schools Matt Hill while they were both employed by LAUSD. This was during the time that Hill supervised the disastrous LAUSD IPad program. Abby has had to reiterate that her history with Hill will have no impact on her decision-making as a School Board member. But this concern remains and many students and parents name this as their number one concern about voting for her.

We saw big numbers raised by some of the City Council candidates. But those special interests that pour money into City Council elections just don’t feel the same about our schools. Here are the totals on Abby’s first filings:

There are 40 donations listed. 39 came from individuals and there was a $1000 donation from Leaders in Education.  

Donors are from Texas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, Illinois, and California. Donors are employed by a range of companies: Edtec (charter petition development); Education Growth Group (consulting); The Broad Center; Leadership for Educational Equity; Higher Ground Education; ExED; and other education consulting companies. What voters need to decide is whether having someone with this type of national network of consultants available would help or hurt BUSD. These companies make their money charging school districts for advice on how to educate kids. You can decide whether BUSD needs this advice or should save its money.

Abby is almost out of cash. Her big expenditures were for voter data from PDI and a $1000 payment for “campaign strategy” to … Leaders in Education.

Here is James Morrison’s first campaign filing: 

Not bad for a grassroots candidate with no political backing, no extensive professional connections and no prior experience doing campaign fundraising. As one would expect with a first time candidate, there are lots of donations from family members (as there should be). James does have more donations coming from Burbank residents than Abby does. He has kept his spending low, which also means that he might not be reaching voters as aggressively as he needs to. But he has that mutual event with Abby coming up so it looks like they are going to campaign as a slate. With Abby’s connections, that might bring in more donations for him. But it’s hard to tell if this decision is a good one for either of them.

And here is Larry Applebaum who served for 12 years on the Board of Education (2005-2017) and certainly knows the drill

And yet, as with Char, Larry did not file a Form 460. He does have a website where he brags about his “five facets” of education, and he also has an Instagram account. But it appears that he is not doing any fundraising or any active campaigning. This may mean that he feels his name recognition and past experience will be enough. But voters rejected him in 2017 and you have to wonder if Larry has made the effort to talk to voters as to why that happened. His Instagram account currently has only 7 posts and 65 followers.

Another newcomer is Brian Smith and it appears that he is the across the board establishment favorite candidate

There are some interesting details in Brian’s Form 460. 

Brian has a total of 22 donors and more Burbank donors are included than the other candidates who filed. Included are familiar Burbank Republican names such as Paul Herman, Barry Sarna, Roberta Reynolds and Linda Walmsley. Yet he is endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Let’s see if these endorsements help him with his fundraising in this crucial last month of the election. Brian’s biggest expenditure was $1900 to Woodland Hills Printing and this may have been for lawn signs. He has an Instagram account but, like Larry, doesn’t have much enthusiasm for it with only 7 posts and 115 followers.

And now we get to the wild card candidate, Michael Morgan

Michael started out as a “what the” candidate based on his job description as Megaverse Principal on the LA County candidate listing when it first rolled out. 

With only his website and with no social media, Michael was an enigma. But when the League of Women Voters forum took place, there was Michael holding his own and stating his case with intelligence, confidence and ease. 

Then we found out a bit more about his background and it is unconventional but one could argue it could be something unique that appeals to the New Burbank demographic:

And  – that’s all we got. Cause we can’t find any filings for Michael in the usual spots. So, like Char and Larry, he may be doing a no money raised nothing to report campaign. Voters may not want to work to find out about this candidate; on the other hand, they may be so fed up with the status quo, the deterorating schools, the exodus of teachers and administrators, the constant in-fighting and the outdated curriculum to say, ah hell, let’s go with the guy who is passionate and will try new things and is a former BUSD student who knows the district. Many voters may say things are so bad that let’s do the most drastic thing to try to shake things up and send a message. We don’t want the usual suspects. Or, they may say, let’s go with the safe and familiar despite our anger and unhappiness. Who knows?

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OctOctober 7, 2022 07October 7, 2022
2022October 7, 2022

Election 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Three – the rest of the packElection 2022 – Trail of Donations – Part Three – the rest of the pack

Nelly Bly Investigations

ELECTION 2022
Trail of donations Part THREE
The Rest of the pack

Once again, I am here simply to keep track of the money. There are strict laws regarding the documentation of how candidates and campaigns collect and spend money. Every cent has to be reported and accounted for.

As a service to my fellow Burbank residents, I will regularly report on these filings as they become public. These are all public record and, as a reminder. this reporter only shares information that is accessible to everyone. The filings reveal plenty of information about the candidate, their source of funding, and who exactly are the people giving the big dollars. This information should be known by voters because, as is usually the case, promises made by candidates on the campaign trail are rarely promises kept. So perhaps we should know who the candidates are talking to with the intention of making promises they will keep and, as a result, getting the funding they need for their campaigns.

We already looked at the big money City council candidate

so

what about the rest of the pack? 

Let’s go back to Nikki Perez, who had her second filing at the end of September.

You may recall that Nikki raised $14,000 out of the gate and boasted about her fundraising only to be left in the dust by Zizette Mullins’ $54,000. How is Nikki doing since then?

The period of 7/1/22 – 9/24/22 brought Nikki an additional $11.500. 

Here is the link and you want to look at the most current Form 460.

We see that Nikki’s donations this time around, as with last time around, primarily come from Democratic Party cronies who are mosting connected with Burbank Democratic Club and Assemblymember Laura Friedman.  

A new donor this filing was BUSD Board member Armond Aghakhanian who gave $250 and … um … hmm here he is with Laura and Anthony Portantino showing his strong support for a different candidate.

 

We also see a donation from the campaign of Assemblymember Jessie Gabriel of $500, and from Luz Rivas for Assembly which also gave $500.

But now we get into something tricky, and since Nikki’s campaign is using a professional campaign treasurer, it is something surprising to see.

The prior filing stated that Seamus Garrity, Principal District Representative for Friedman, donated $200. This new filing shows that Garrity donated an additional $200, but states that his total contributions for the year are only $200, not $400

We saw that Nick Schultz gave  $250 in the first filing, and then he donated another $250 in the second filing, but this again is not reflected in the column that is supposed to show his total donation for the year. Perhaps we will see an amended filing from the campaign very soon.   

And what is this – here is a $100 donation from Veritas Public Affairs Inc. What is that, you may ask? It is a professional lobbyist organization. 

Let’s take a look at how Nikki is spending this money that she has raised. It is primarily going to pay for her placement in the numerous “voter guides” that will clog your mailbox starting around now. Did you know that those guides are made by for profit companies and any candidate can be “endorsed ” by them if they pay them a fee? (The code “LIT” means campaign literature and mailings.) 

Nikki’s campaign is spending close to $5,000 on being placed in these voter guides. What is not seen on this filing is the cost of the mass mailing Burbank voters just received that was sent directly by her campaign. One look at the mailer begs the question – where is Nikki?

Next up is Tamala Takahaski who is running for the second time for City Council.

You saw that Tamala’s filing for 1/1/22 – 6/30/22 showed a total amount of donations of $6500 (and here is the link). Her second quarter filing ending 9/24/22 shows donations grew by only $5700 for a total collected so far of $12K. This is well below her 2020 pace when her final campaign amount was $29K. One might wonder if Tamala feels that she can spend her money differently and more frugally this time.

As with Nikki, Tamala has Democratic Party support with contributions from the campaigns of Blanca Rubin for Assembly and Brotman for (Glendale) City Council. Dan Brotman also donated as an individual. And well looky here who showed up:

Upon further review, we may have found the answer as to why Tamala is not devoting as much time and energy to fundraising in 2022. She and her husband Yoshi are paying out of pocket for many of the campaign expenses as in kind donations. Yoshi paid for campaign items ($1700), Tamala paid directly for her candidate ballot statement ($1600), and these amounts added another $3300 to her total contributions. Again, all this is legal. 

Here is incumbent Sharon Springer’s first campaign filing: 

Sharon has raised a very healthy $22K in donations and certainly surpassed all other candidates in this quarter other than Zizette. She received donations from the campaigns of Blanca Rivas and Tom Umberg. We see a good amount of overlap with the donor list for the campaign of Zizette Mullins. Once again here is Bob Frutos, Emily Gabel, Paul Herman, Jay Geisenheimer, Barry Gussow, Steve Mora, Debbie Kutka, MH Properties aka David Donahue, Robert Ovrom and others. Added is former Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski, former School Board member Roberta Reynolds, and other members of the Old Timey Burbank Establishment.

The most unexpected thing on this report is how Sharon has spent her money so far. Out of the $7700 the campaign spent, almost $4K of that was for the campaign kick off event at Story Tavern. Even if the entire $22K was raised that night, that was a tremendous amount to spend on one event for a Burbank campaign. Sharon is saving money by acting as her own campaign treasure rather than paying a professional, but perhaps she needs someone else in that role to tell her “that’s not a good idea”.

And as you might expect, the candidate with the lowest amount raised is Carmenita Helligar. Here is her filing.

Why would you expect this? Because Carmenita is a candidate without a Burbank Republican operation or Old Timey Burbank Establishment or Democratic Party machine behind her like the other candidates. Currently, she has raised $3500. Once upon a time, that would have been a good start for a Burbank candidate. But once certain forces decided to flood money into Burbank City Council races, the dynamics changed.

Carmenita has an interesting mix of donors. The ten donors listed include the owner of Flappers, comedian Jeff Garlin, educators, a bank manager, company owners and the CEO of the Burbank Chamber. But Chamber CEO Jamie Keyser is the only donor Carmenita has who is connected to the Chamber, so it may be that Jamie has gone rogue to support a candidate that doesn’t fit the usual establishment mold. We will have to see if Jamie is able to work up support with the rest of the Chamber crowd and if they decide to gather behind the candidate who could be considered the underdog in the race. If Carmenita can spread her support with a grassroots effort to reach beyond the usual crowd of donors, she may have a chance to raise enough money to have a chance. Also, in contrast to Sharon’s $4K event, Carmenita spent $390 at the New Deal for her campaign kickoff. She acting as her own treasurer, like Sharon, but is spending within her means.

And now your aunt nelly would like a word with you

Yes, You, Burbank Voter Who Is Reading This Post.

We can look at and chat about and analyze and get snarky about the candidates and their finances. But there is a very important fact that YOU need to understand.

All of these special interests and party machines and people who want to control this election and therefore City Council and therefore Burbank are able to do so for one simple reason.

You Don’t Donate to the candidates you support.

Your vote is important and makes a difference. But if you want your candidate to win, to take on all these competing forces that want to influence this race, and to be able to reach out to as many Burbank voters as possible, you have to seriously consider donating. Small dollar donors are the backbone of any successful campaign. Give $10, $25, whatever you can give. Also talk to the people in your circle about who you support and why and encourage them to donate as well.

If the candidate you support is taking in the big bucks, that doesn’t mean your donation doesn’t mean anything. In fact, if more of the over 70,000 registered voters in Burbank donated to candidates, then perhaps your candidate wouldn’t have to worry about getting the special interest money that is needed to run a campaign in 2022.
This election is on 11/8 and you should be getting your ballot in the mail ANY MINUTE NOW. As you look at candidate websites and think about what you want for Burbank, also seriously think about hitting that “donate” button. I promise your Aunt Nelly won’t make fun of you in a post because you will be taking that vital step to help your candidate win.
Ok Your Aunt Nelly is done now

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