Advisory
Neighborhood Commissioner Interpretative
for Advisory Neighborhood Commission Opinion 07-06
4B01
7106
Piney Branch Road, N.W. (Also by facsimile)
Washington,
D.C. 20012
Re: Use of Government Resources
Dear
Commissioner Green:
Thank
you for your letter of April 13, 2007, wherein you request a legal opinion
regarding a proposed Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) presentation
scheduled for the ANC public meeting on Thursday, April 26, 2007. You state that ANC 4B, under the aegis of the
Chairperson, the Honorable Blondine Hughes, invited “. . .two out of the
nineteen candidates for the May 1, 2007 Ward 4 Council election. . .to speak
[for five minutes each] during [the] April 26 public meeting.” You further state that, according to
Chairperson Hughes, “she is extending this invitation only to [these two (2)
Commissioners] due to their dual roles as both candidates and 4B
Commissioners.”
D.C.
Official Code §1-309.13(a) (2001 Edition) provides for each ANC to receive an
annual allocation of District funds, within which to operate. According to D.C. Official Code
§1-309.13(d)(1), the D.C. Auditor “shall audit the financial accounts of selected
Commissions and maintain a database of financial information of each Commission
for historical and expenditure trend analysis.”
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D.C.
Official Code §1-1106.51(a) (2001 Edition) states, in pertinent part:
No
resources of the District of Columbia government, including, the expenditure of
funds, the personal services of employees during their hours of work, and
nonpersonal services, including supplies, materials, equipment, office space,
facilities, telephones and other utilities, shall be used to support or oppose
any candidate for elected office, whether partisan or nonpartisan[.].
Frankly,
the statute prohibits the use of any District government resources for campaign
related activities. Moreover, the ANC
allocation is a concrete resource extended to an ANC to conduct its business, e.g.,
the distribution of notices regarding meetings and the assemblage of any
agenda.
Based
upon your representations, the ANC is wading perilously into prohibitive
waters. By “showcasing 2 of its own,”
the non-partisan ANC, as a whole, will be evidencing its support, in
contravention of the statute, of their 2 specific candidates for office in the
upcoming May 1, 2007 election. In the
opinion of the General Counsel to the D.C. City Council regarding the interpretation
of D.C. Official Code §1-1106.51, the “Council’s stated intention on adopting
this law was to prohibit government activity which advanced the support or
opposition for a specific candidate[.]”
(Emphasis added.)
Ergo,
if each candidate were extended the opportunity to individually make a presentation
at the April 26, 2007 ANC meeting as to their qualifications to serve as the
Ward 4 Member of the District of Columbia Council, it would be difficult to
determine, if at all, whether ANC 4B was supporting or opposing any one or two,
or many, candidates for office.
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Barring
an invitation to all candidates for office for the special election for Ward 4
Member of the District of Columbia City Council, this activity rises to the
level of prohibitive conduct contemplated under D.C. Official Code §1-1106.51.
The
foregoing is an Interpretative Opinion of the Director of the Office of
Campaign Finance. Pursuant to D.C.
Official Code §1-1103.05, you are entitled to request an Advisory Opinion from
the Board of Elections and Ethics on this transaction or activity. Should you have any additional questions,
please contact Kathy S. Williams, OCF General Counsel, on 202/671-0554.
Sincerely,
Cecily
E. Collier-Montgomery
Director
cc: The Honorable Cherita Whiting
Brian Flowers
General Counsel
District of Columbia City Council
Deborah Nichols
D.C. Auditor
Office of the D.C. Auditor
Members
Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE)
Gottlieb Simon
ANC Liaison
Gottlieb.simon@dc.gov
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Kenneth McGhie, Esq.
BOEE General Counsel
Kathy S. Williams
OCF General Counsel
William O. SanFord
Senior Staff Attorney