PAC under state investigation avoids pre-election disclosure requirement
by Dave Waddell | Posted December 1, 2016
BCAA flier
A political action committee, under state investigation for its 2014 activities, again produced a slew of negative advertising this election year, flooding the mails with attacks on liberal candidates for Chico City Council.
The PAC, called Butte County Awareness and Accountability, is the subject of an ongoing probe by the Fair Political Practices Commission that resulted from a ChicoSol story that can be read here. Tom Kozik, a member of the Chico Municipal Airport Commission, is the PAC’s founder and treasurer. For years, Kozik was a leader of the Tea Party in Chico.
In 2016, two conservative PACs – Kozik’s committee, as well as a separate PAC headed up by ex-police chief Mike Maloney — distributed a total of four negative mailers, including two that solely attacked Councilman Randall Stone.read more
by Natalie Charlesworth | Posted November 19, 2016
Nov. 8, 2016: I sat in math class, frantically checking the presidential election polls every chance that I got. The numbers were so close. Hillary, Trump, Hillary again, and then back to Trump. Jumbled thoughts like ping-pong balls bounced back and forth in my mind. My palms, sweaty. My anxiety increasingly getting worse. I began to wonder, why I had even decided to attend class that day? I then put my phone down and got back to what I should have been doing –focusing on math.
As I walked into the house later that evening, I saw my mom sitting on the couch. I could tell just by looking at her that she was nervous. Her freckled face pale, and her eyes watery. We sat in silence for awhile, not knowing what to say. The first words spoken came from my mouth: “Donald Trump isn’t even the scariest part of this election; it’s that his blatant racism, homophobia and misogyny wasn’t a deal breaker for his supporters. Instead of putting them off, they have interpreted his words as validation to say or do whatever they want.’’read more
Across the country Wednesday morning people woke up to face the unexpected. It’s fair to say that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters alike were dealing with shock.
It seems all along there was a “silent vote” for the former reality TV star that gave him the edge he needed to beat Clinton. Pollsters were not aware. Political pundits were not aware. The best research a campaign could buy could not identify the hidden resentment harbored by thousands who were not visible among the raucous Trump base.
So on the morning after the election as people turned on their radios and TVs and opened their newspapers, they were reminded that the United States is not the country they might have thought it was. For millions of Americans it was a terrifying wake up call.read more
While waiting for coffee recently, I became fixated on a mentally ill homeless man. He lay on his side in the shuttered entrance to what last was a Walgreens at East Avenue and the Esplanade. Every few seconds, the old, bearded, agitated man would flail his arms toward someone or something that was tormenting him but wasn’t really there. His situation – common across our country – struck me as just so sad and seemingly hopeless.
Yesterday, upon my return for coffee, I noticed that some sort of contraption covered by a blue tarp had taken the man’s place in the entrance. Attached to that tarp was a message, hand-lettered in pencil with more anger than planning: “Stay the Fuck out or else Little Bitches.”
When I look at that sign – and think about its message and its author – I see the face of an angry someone at a Trump rally.
But, really, the meanness of the message is not so different from that sent by the majority of the Chico City Council over the past couple of years: Roust the homeless out of sight; they’re bad for business.
Recently, a noted housing-first advocate from Utah spoke to a packed community meeting at Bidwell Presbyterian Church about solutions to the chronic problem of homelessness. The presentation was attended by council liberals Tami Ritter, Ann Schwab and Randall Stone — all of whom are seeking re-election today, as is conservative Vice Mayor Sean Morgan.
It was telling that none of the council’s four conservatives – Morgan, Mayor Mark Sorensen, Reanette Fillmer or Andrew Coolidge – cared enough to attend that homelessness meeting. Fillmer, who has publicly expressed insensitivity toward homeless in the past, later wrote a letter excusing herself for being MIA that the Chico Enterprise-Record dutifully published. The letter was nonsensical, just like everything else I’ve read written by Fillmer.
Today’s Election Day, and I just want to say that those we elect to our Chico City Council make a difference in how we as a community treat the least fortunate among us.
This commentary was penned by ChicoSol News Director Dave Waddell.
Seemingly undeterred by a state investigation into its activities, a political action committee is following a script in this year’s Chico City Council race that is similar to the one that brought scrutiny to its politicking two years ago.
The PAC, called Butte County Awareness and Accountability, widely distributed a mailer in recent days that lambasts council liberals Ann Schwab, Tami Ritter and Randall Stone. All three face re-election Nov. 8, along with conservative Vice Mayor Sean Morgan.
The state Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) opened an investigation in August into Butte County Awareness and Accountability and its treasurer, Thomas Kozik, as a result of a ChicoSol story that can be read here.
The bulk of Butte County Awareness and Accountability’s spending during the past couple of years has been to produce and mail slick hit pieces aimed at City Council liberals.
The FPPC does not comment on active investigations, but ChicoSol reported that Kozik’s PAC appeared to violate state law by filing its campaign disclosure reports with the Butte County elections office in Oroville, rather than with Chico’s elections office. Kozik did not return a message seeking comment for this story and had previously declined to comment on the FPPC investigation, which can be read about here.
This year’s flier from the PAC focuses on one issue: Schwab, Ritter and Stone’s short-lived support for roundabouts on the Esplanade, Chico’s iconic, tree-lined thoroughfare. In April, the liberal trio joined conservative Mayor Mark Sorensen in approving the roundabouts, but all except Schwab quickly backed off in the face of a major public backlash. The flier claims the three liberals “voted to DESTROY” the Esplanade.
In 2014, Butte County Awareness and Accountability mailed two text-heavy fliers attacking former Chico Mayor Scott Gruendl, who was defeated that election in his bid for a fourth council term.
The financial disclosures Kozik has submitted through Thursday for the Nov. 8 election show that this year his PAC had raised $8,750 and spent about $4,500. The PAC says it paid almost $3,000 to produce and mail a flier — presumably the “Save the Esplanade!” mailer, although it doesn’t specify.
In 2014, about 78 percent of Butte County Awareness and Accountability’s spending went for the two Gruendl mailers. State law requires that if a PAC spends 70 percent or more of its funds in a city race, its fundraising and spending reports should be filed with that city. Instead, Kozik has sent the PAC’s disclosures to the Butte County elections office.
However, unlike two years ago, Kozik recently began submitting to the city elections office “courtesy copies” of his PAC’s disclosure forms for 2016, said Dani Rogers, deputy city clerk. The forms may be viewed here.
As was the case in 2014, Butte County Awareness and Accountability’s biggest donor this year has been Chico developer Wayne Cook, who has given the PAC $3,500 of the $8,750 it has raised to date. Two years ago, Cook donated $5,000 of the $11,162 that Butte County Awareness and Accountability spent.
Butte County Supervisor Larry Wahl also has contributed to the PAC, donating $500 this year.
Cook, who received $2 million in loans from the City Council while building the Hotel Diamond downtown, acknowledged previously that the ads he helped finance against Gruendl turned out to be “pretty harsh.”
Kozik was a leader of the Tea Party in Chico as recently as 2014 but says he no longer is involved with the right-wing group. He was appointed to the Chico Municipal Airport Commission by the City Council in early 2015.
In establishing Butte County Awareness and Accountability in September 2014, Kozik claimed the PAC was a “general purpose committee.” However, in spending the largest part of its funds going after Gruendl, the PAC seemed to behave like a different classification of committee. State reporting forms distinguish between a general purpose committee and one “primarily formed to support or oppose specific candidates or measures in a single election.”
Jay Wierenga, the FPPC’s communications director in Sacramento, has said that while he can’t comment on the Kozik case, PAC treasurers are required by law to submit truthful filings.
“(PACs) are supposed to file at the proper location, based on the type of committee, and where and how they are spending and raising the money,” Wierenga said.
Penalties range up to a $5,000 fine for each violation of the state Political Reform Act.
