State elections board Complaint targets NCGOP’s new finance director
That didn’t take long: 
In a letter to the State Board of Elections Chairman, Josh Howard, Civitas President, Francis De Luca asked the Board to investigate the campaign reporting practices of the North Carolina Clean Energy Business Alliance (NCCEBA) PAC – Kristin Laster, Treasurer.
Click Here to read the letter delivered to Howard and State Board of Elections’ Executive Director, Kim Strach on Friday, July 31, 2015.
De Luca said, “Our study of the campaign reports of the Alliance’s PAC found a disturbing pattern of discrepancies, errors, evasions, mistakes, questionable changes, missing information, the failure to file complete and timely reports, and apparent efforts to conceal or obscure spending and contributions.”
Hmmm. And she just got endorsed by the party’s Central Committee over the weekend. This is all pretty significant. Laster handled the money for this group. And now she’ll be handling the money for the North Carolina Republican Party. (Click HERE AND HERE to read some of our previous reporting on the party’s new finance director.)
One of the more juicy allegations in the DeLuca letter? :
[..] A more troubling matter is a disbursement in the amount of $1,000, reported as an operating expense to the Jason Saine Committee in the original report, was not included in the amended report. The original report listed the $1,000 expense as an operating expenditure not a “contribution to candidate or other committee,” indicating that this amount was used to pay for services rendered, in other words something Rep. Saine did for the PAC. While this expenditure to Rep. Saine disappeared in a later amended report, it is clear from the other omissions that some of the expenditures actually occurred but a decision was made to not report them. Rep.Saine reported this payment as a contribution on his disclosure reports but the PAC decided to omit this transaction completely.
Was this another example of not wanting to disclose, or is it simply incompetence? […]
Aw-kward.
She did NOT get endorsed. There was such an argument it was decided to have a 30 day “cooling off period” and have another meeting to discuss the issue. She serves at the pleasure of the Central Committee and can be removed anytime. The vote was to wait 30 days or remove immediately.
I think I am more upset about handling this way with a 30 day cooling off period. This goes back to what I am saying about our current parties operational structure
I am not one to complain but not offer solutions
Solution:
When a issue comes to the Central Committee that brings the level of disagreement that this has then a Executive Committee meeting should be called and happen as soon as proper notifications for the meeting can be satisfied. The Executive Committee is the body of the party when not in convention and every EXCOM member needs to fight back to control the party and keep reminding that the central committee that they work for us the party delegates and the EXCOM is this when not in convention…. Sorry If I keep saying this too many times but in marketing studies they say you have to say things at least 3 times in a ad for someone to pay attention.. so I will keep saying it until someone can make a argument that will change my thinking on this topic
There was no vote or motion on a 30 day cool off….. only vote was to vacate the hirings which was a ballot vote and failed 5-18. After a series of text and emails were presented to the CC it was evident that Hasan clearly recruited Laster and instructed Poole to hire her. Once the evidence was presented to whole room knew Hasan had just lied to the CC. Granted Hasan earlier in the meeting had asked for some nominal compensation my source said he wanted a $2000.00 a month apt plus expenses
if that is true and I am not questioning your information. I am just saying as someone fighting against the way past chairman’s turned highly paid chairman recieved a salary this information on top of these questionable hires is even more troubling
I have said I am not against a chairman getting paid a reasonable amount. I really think it should be the highest volunteer position in the party but I am willing to support a reasonable amount that every chairman would get paid and if they did not want to get paid they could them give it back to the party but I believe the process should be open and transparent and I believe any pay at all given to the Chairman or any elected party official should be its own line item in the annual budget so that it is spelled out easy for every executive committee member can find it without having to go searching election financial filings
I am also a little disturbed also if this is true that someone that would campaign for no salary would now be asking for one.. This starts a lack of trust unless they can make a very compelling case for the change and the process would have to be very transparent… I would call $2000 a month reasonable depending on how it was set up and that it was written into the plan of organization for every convention delegate to also have access to during future chairmanship elections
With respect to all these accusations concerning the Chairman’s truthfulness, it would be wise to first remember that the bulk of the CC did not vote for him, nor did the legislators of the Executive Committee, who fell in line behind the man who gave Collin’s nomination speech.
agreed that is why I started my post with “if that is true”
The real issue is not how this liberal woman came to be hired, but is getting rid of her N-O-W. Blame for her hiring can be sorted out later. Poole clearly ran a red herring on playing the issue of how she came to be hired in order to protect her,
A lobbyist does NOT need to be in charge of the organization’s finances. HELLO! Omg…. especially a lobbyist for the CCA! Wow!
Nicole,
The finance director is responsible for things like state convention (events) and large donors. The party finances are watched over by the NCGOP Treasurer. Our Current one is David Cozart. He is a good libertarian he will keep a good eye on things. He is no rocket scientist but a great guy.