Erie County NY Democrat Commissioner Jeremy Zellner Violating Election Law?

Erie County NY Board of Elections
Commissioner Jeremy Zellner

James J. Eagan

June 10th, 2019

Open Letter to Erie County Democrats

Dear fellow Democrats:

As reported by the Buffalo News this past Sunday, I filed a complaint with the Erie County Board of Elections regarding possible campaign finance violations by the Erie County Democratic Committee. Here is a link to a copy of the complaint for your review. Click here to view complaint

Please note the following:

• Commissioner Zellner refused to forward the complaint to the investigative division of the NYS board of Elections for review.

• Commissioner Zellner insists that he is not conflicted.

• Commissioner Zellner’s excuse is “clerical error” (dating back to 2012)

• There are credit card payments totaling $201,743.47. Only $101,813.14 of charges are accounted for and itemized. There are $105,930.53 of charges not accounted for.

• There are loan payments to M&T back dating back to 2012 and being made this year (from the Housekeeping account) that have never been listed as a liability on any filing.

• Commissioner Zellner made sure there was no clerical error relating the loan his own campaign committee made to the Party committee for $25,000.

• ECDC’s 2018 32 Day Pre-Special Committee Account filing lists a payment to I.C. Systems Inc.a Collection Agency, for $893.71 on 03/09/2018. This liability is not accounted for on any financial filing.

• Commissioner Zellner failed to itemize expenditures that are over $50. There are 153 expenditures over $50 totaling $49,370.17. As an example, ECDC spent $1,123.35 on 7/12/18, $1,823.69 on 7/13/17 and $2,438.38 on 7/11/16, all filed as unitemized. Where is this money being spent?

Where is the money? How is he spending your donations? We need transparency and accountability.

Sincerely,
Jim Eagan

ECDC Bylaws
“ARTICLE XI – FINANCIAL REPORTS”
“Section 1. Full compliance will be held with the disclosure and filling requirements of the New York State Election Law”
“Article 14 and any other applicable law(s); and a biennial financial report of the County Committee shall be prepared and shall be posted on the party’s website with notice thereof to be contained in the meeting notice of the biennial re- organization meeting. Such report shall be prepared by a five (5) member Financial Oversight Subcommittee of the Executive Committee, appointed by the chair and confirmed by the Executive Committee, and shall provide a detailed report on expenditures and receipts, as well as any debts entered into by the Executive Committee including the amounts, parties owed, terms and guarantors, as applicable”

“The Financial Oversight Committee shall also have the power to review or audit the financial affair of the party committee, including the “housekeeping” committee and subordinate committees and shall report, regularly to the Executive Committee about financial issues.”

An audit of the financial records, including the income, expenditures and outstanding liabilities of the party, shall “be conducted by an outside independent firm, on an annual basis, with the report to be submitted to the Executive”