So now our city clerk is the judge of what is ‘intentional’ or ‘unintentional’?

The city clerk’s new decision making aid

Curious story in the AL today about campaign finance disclosures;

City Clerk Lorie Hogstad said there’s no penalty for errors in the disclosure form as long as they’re not intentional. Candidates can file updates that are placed online alongside the originals, Hogstad said by email.

So Lorie, please explain how you know if it is intentional or not? Did you use a magic 8-Ball? So you are telling me, let’s take the mayor for example, that a man who marketed a subprime credit card doesn’t understand disclosures? There are pages and pages of disclosures on those applications. He clearly understands them, and not listing his revenue was very INTENTIONAL.

Now let’s compare him to a candidate who did file their disclosures;

State law requires all candidates to disclose any enterprise that provided at least $2,000 in income or more than 10 percent of their family income during the past year.

On one end of that spectrum, Schwan included a three-page list of 57 different individual municipal bonds she owns. On the other end is Huether, who listed general categories of investments: “mutual funds, stocks, bonds, investment property, ethanol, municipal bonds, money markets, annuities, IRAs.” In each of those, Huether said he is a “common shareholder” with no “advisory, consulting or voting role.”

Schwan asked Hogstad for guidance and was told she should list each bond. Gathering all that took several days.

“I wanted to make sure I was in complete compliance with the statement of financial interest,” Schwan said.

I know for a fact that Schwan’s question about what to disclose was probably brought before the city attorney. So why wasn’t this same advice granted to Huether, the city attorney’s boss? And if it was, why did it differ from what Schwan was told. Apparently if you ‘Play Stupid’ you don’t have to comply with the rules. Ignorance of the law is not excuse, and I am sure any judge in this county would agree with me.

I will give Schwan props for following the rules and for having the common sense to know ignorance, or pretend ignorance is no excuse. The mayor, not so much.