California Political Treasurers Association
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Greetings!
The next CPTA meeting will be held in Long Beach on Friday, March 22nd at the Hotel Maya, 700 Queensway Drive from 10am to 4pm. Lunch will be served. Stacy Owens will soon be sending out an evite with pertinent details.
The meeting agenda will include a presentation on the formation of the Long Beach Ethics Commission. Bobby Reed with efundraisingconnections.com will provide members with an overview of his firm's services.
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Legislative Update
by Branché Jones
Earlier this month the Governor introduced his proposed budget and with this action the Legislature is back in full action and beginning to hold budget committee hearings. The hearings will go on until May when the Governor releases his May Revise, which will reflect the state’s updated fiscal situation.
Additionally, February 22nd is the bill introduction deadline. So over that weekend we should know what bills will be heard in the legislature. As we discussed in our November meeting, everyone should keep their eyes open for the bills that the FPPC will introduce. I know that draft language is circulating and along with Laura Stephen, I met with Philip Ung to discuss it.
Shortly, we will see the final language but in short the bills do the following things: one will be an omnibus cleanup bill. This bill should contain minor and clarifying amendments that may not be considered non-substantive. Another bill will codify parts of Commission regulations into the Act by requiring bank accounts for all committees. It will also require principal officer signatures on Statement of Organization, codify candidate controlled ballot measure committee regulations and require treasurer attestation on knowledge of liability form.
There may be other bills dealing with campaign disclosure requirements and bills dealing with annual registration fees and penalties under Section 84101.5., disclosure of campaign bank account numbers, and Secretary of State late fines and Commission penalties.
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ON THE MOVE!
BettyAnn Downing’s last day as a full time employee with Olson, Hagel is February 15
th
. She is not done working yet so will be looking for other things to do in the politics/public policy/non-profit/business worlds, such as perhaps political fundraising, event planning, bookkeeping and administrative projects for individuals, small businesses and small non-profits, writing and similar on an as-needed, short-term project and/or part-time basis. The City of Long Beach will be establishing a new Ethics Commission and she hopes to be able to help with that.
After three election cycles Kristin Lippstreau has decided to change career paths and February 15th is her last day at Nielsen Merksamer. Things she will miss: free drinks from Netfile; things she will not miss: everything else! Kristin has set her sights on Austin, Texas and hopes to help turn Texas blue!
And coming onboard at Nielsen Merksamer is Mia Brumfield, formerly of Olson Hagel.
Gary Crummit has announced moving his offices to 249 East Ocean Blvd., Suite 670, Long Beach, CA 90802. His email address and phone number remain the same.
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2019 CPTA MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
The 2019 renewals are due
February 28,
2019.
If payment is not received by the due date you will be removed from the CPTA roster and "unsubscribed" from all communications.
The annual membership fee is $125 per member. You may pay individually or as a firm. If your firm is adding or deleting a member please notify Nancy Haley (nhaley@thinkcpa.com) of the changes and provide her with the email address for each new member.
Pay
online
via this link:
Alternatively you may send a check to Nancy Haley payable to CPTA c/o Scott & Cronin, 330 Encinitas Blvd., Suite 101, Encinitas, CA 92024. Please note the name of the renewing member(s) in the memo field.
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SAVE THE DATE
The 20th Annual CPTA Conference will be held in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center from
Wednesday, August 7th through Saturday, August 10th.
You may reserve your rooms for the event directly with Marriott reservations no later than
Friday, July 5, 2019
at 1‐800‐393‐2510
or via the link below:
A separate CPTA Conference fee will be due prior to the event.
Additional information to follow.
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DID YOU KNOW?
The Federal Election Commission has
announced
contribution limits
for 2019-2020. The new “per election” limits are effective for the 2019-2020 election cycle and the calendar year limits were effective January 1, 2019.
The FEC increased the amount an individual may contribute to a candidate to $2,800 per election, increased from $2,700. Because the primary and general count as separate elections, individuals may give $5,600 per candidate per election cycle.
The limit on contributions from individuals to national party committees also increased from $33,900 to $35,500 per year. This increase also affects the limit on contributions to additional specialized accounts of the party committees, which were first allowed through
legislation passed
in 2014. Each of these accounts can receive contributions that are triple the amount that can be given to the main party account, or $106,500 per account per year.
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CPTA Web Site: www.cpta.info
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CPTA Meeting minutes and copies of newsletters are posted on the CPTA website. If you need a login and password to access the Members Only section, please contact Marissa Quaranta. Marissa's email is mquaranta@seowenscompany.com.
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Chacha Guerra
The years in the field of campaign finance compliance have been more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. Let me take you back to a time when copiers did not collate, leaving us to manually lay out each sheet in consecutive order as if dealing a deck of cards. Computers didn’t begin to play a role in the process of all this data we collected. We turned to our electric typewriters to generate a campaign report to then hand-deliver to the Secretary of State and don’t forget the 2 copies that had to be post-marked no later than the deadline date and mailed to the Los Angeles and Sacramento Counties’ Register Recorders Offices to avoid late filing fees.
Since I’m telling you how campaign finance was introduced to me, let me start at the beginning. Not many of you may know that I worked as a teller at Wells Fargo Bank. I worked with Sheila Scally who at that time was a Loan Officer. It wasn’t long before I knew banking was not for me when I was approached by a customer inquiring if I would be interested in working for a Law Firm under her supervision. We scheduled an interview for later that week. It’s not uncommon for bank tellers to get job offers. So before my interview, I asked several individuals I worked with for their advice. I was 19 at the time and I wanted to confirm this Law Firm was solvent to afford employing me for as long as I wanted to stay with them. My investigation concluded that they were stable and the advice I received supported my initial decision that this would be a good opportunity.
I had no accounting degree, no knowledge of campaign disclosure or anything connected to the process. My first week I spent reconciling bank statements of the many clients Dobbs and Nielsen managed in their Sacramento Office. Each day, I learned something new, but after three years I thought, “Where can this job possibly take me?” Sometimes all you have to do is ask the question and somehow it’s revealed to you. That following year, 1984, was a presidential year that pushed the political campaign world into full throttle. After that year, it became apparent that campaign finance was not going away, but rather becoming more complex. My experience and knowledge in this field would continue to grow as the FPPC and FEC continued to regulate Finance Reform. I didn’t realize it when first hired, but thank you “Watergate” for providing the reason state and government agencies established regulations on campaign finance allowing individuals like me to be employed.
During my first 11 years working in campaign finance, I worked under the tutelage of some well known Law Firms and a CPA Firm in Sacramento. These included the following: Dobbs & Nielsen; Nielsen, Hodgson, Parinello and Mueller; Nielsen, Merksamer, et al; Eichman & Kowslowski; and Olson, Hagel, et al. Each firm provided me with a portfolio of diverse clients to manage their campaign records and file their FPPC and FEC campaign reports. I must say that I have Chuck Bell to thank for the first 10 years of my career and Lance Olson for the remaining years. They welcomed my questions, encouraged me to learn everything I could about campaign finance, and on several occasions asked for my input when addressing the FPPC or FEC on how best to disclose a new and different campaign activity. So much has changed from those early years in campaign finance. The Internet allows us now to have information at our fingertips. Computers are a MUST and eventually we will be paperless.
The following 27 years, I have been fortunate enough to work at the California Democratic Party. I have had the opportunity to work under 6 Chairs while interacting with Attorneys who are experts in the field of campaign finance and along the way continuing my education in this field. During these years, the accounting and compliance department has continued to improve its procedures by taking input from each team member. I have had the privilege to work with a great team of people, some who are no longer with me, Doug Ackman, Parvinder Kang, Keiko Williams and some who work alongside me now are AJ, Amy, Alyssa, Gisela and Alena.
During my time at the California Democratic Party, my eldest daughter, Corrine worked in the accounting and compliance department while she was getting her college degree. Corrine was a great asset to our team, but I knew her aspirations to work in the medical field would prevail. Corrine is now employed by Mercy Hospital as an in-home care registered nurse. Several years later, my other daughter, Alyssa applied for a position in our accounting and compliance department and was hired. She has been working with me since the 2014 General Election. During 2016, Alyssa had the opportunity to manage the California DNC Delegation Process and trainings. During each of my daughters’ time at the California Democratic Party, I attended the Democratic National Conventions. First with Corrine at the 2004 DNC Convention in Boston, MA and then 12 years later with Alyssa at the 2016 DNC Convention in Philadelphia, PA.
It has been a remarkable journey this world of Finance Reform that included my growth as a single woman, to a married woman, to a mother, and now a grandmother. I’m thankful for all my yesterdays, this moment now and I look forward to all the tomorrows to come.
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To add a new member for your firm or to revise your current members - contact Nancy Haley, the CPTA Treasurer. Nancy's email address is nhaley@thinkcpa.com.
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