OREM — A complaint about how Utah County Republican Party officials handled donations received during recent party caucuses may result in changes to make sure donations are properly recorded and reported.
The complaint was filed with the County Central Committee on Saturday by Arthur Brady, Republican chairman of Orem Precinct 3. Brady claims party officials combined donations totalling $22,000 made by those who attended more than 200 precinct caucus meetings March 23 and destroyed the envelopes in which the donations were made, along with information about who had donated the money and how much had been donated. That information, by law, should appear on campaign finance forms.
Brady declined to comment on the substance of the complaint until the County Central Committee meets May 20 to consider the issue.
"I'm not trying to be difficult," Brady said Tuesday. "I think this is a housekeeping issue, and I'd rather not comment on it until the process runs it course. It's a party thing."
But Mark Cluff, vice chairman of the central committee, said the complaint probably will prompt changes in how such donations are handled.
"We recognize it as a concern. It is something that shouldn't happen, and we hope it will never happen again," Cluff said. "That's what we are going to talk about and come up with a resolution for that."
Cluff said the committee meets Thursday but won't be able to give the complaint an official hearing until its May 20 meeting because committee bylaws require a two-week waiting period for such complaints.
In the complaint, Brady said party leaders told him that recording the information would have taken too much time, that information on many of the envelopes was incomplete and that none of the donations received from the caucus meetings were over the $50 limit that must be reported on campaign financial statements required by state law.
Brady refutes that final statement.
"I have personal knowledge of three individual contributions on precinct caucus night exceeding $50, and it's unlikely that Orem (Precinct) 3 was alone among 242 Utah County precincts in receiving such contributions," he said in the complaint.
The other problem is that the $50 figure is cumulative for a given year, which would mean donor records should be maintained throughout a campaign to identify those who break the $50 threshold with multiple donations.
In addition, the complaint says that many of the envelopes contained pledges from party members rather than donations, and destroying them makes it impossible to follow up on possible sources of campaign funding.
In the complaint, Brady expresses concern that party resources were mishandled. He also said he believes party leaders aren't taking the issue seriously.
e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com