The Office of Campaign Finance took no action following a closed hearing Monday over irregularities in Council Chairman Kwame Brown’s finance reports from his 2008 campaign for an at-large council seat, nearly two weeks after an audit from the office slammed the reports.
OCF spokesman Wesley Williams said there are “still some unresolved issues” and additional hearings will be scheduled, likely for late next week.
An audit that was released earlier this month found that Brown didn’t report $133,000 in contributions and $203,000 in expenses.
Williams said Dawn Cromer, the treasurer for Brown’s 2008 campaign, spoke at the closed hearing, but would not elaborate on what was discussed.
Brown did not attend the hearing. His office referred calls to Fred Cooke, counsel for the campaign. Cooke declined to comment.
Cromer could not be reached for comment.
Brown’s father, Marshall Brown, showed up at the hearing, but was told to leave because he was not involved, Williams said.
“He was not allowed to participate,” he said.
Williams said the public and media were shut out of the hearing because it was “part of the investigative process.” He said that “all investigations are confidential until they are completed.”
Brown could face fines for reporting failures, and the case could also be sent to the Board of Elections and Ethics for referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Brown ran unopposed in the Democratic primary in 2008 and easily won the general election.
The OCF audit compared Brown’s reported figures with its records and found 53 unreported expenditures that totaled nearly $203,000 and 221 unreported contributions that totaled more than $133,000.
Auditors “determined that the reports, statements and responses filed by the Committee to Re-Elect Kwame R. Brown were not in substantial compliance with the Campaign Finance Act,” the report says.
A key finding was that the campaign paid a company owned by the treasurer of Brown’s 2004 campaign, Charles Hawkins, nearly $400,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts in 2008. Banner Consulting then paid Partners in Learning, which is owned by Che Brown, Kwame Brown’s brother, nearly $240,000 to provide the same services. At least $65,000 of the money Brown’s campaign paid to Banner went unreported, the audit says.
