By JERRY RODRIGUEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Spenders big and small made up the first round of campaign finance reports, which candidates running in local elections turned in on Thursday.
Joe D. Gonzalez, the former superintendent at both San Benito CISD and Donna ISD is seeking the Place 4 San Benito City Commission seat to be vacated by Celeste Zepeda Sanchez. Gonzalez reported political contributions totaling $480, of which $200 were contributed by Steve Brady, $100 from Ronnie Garcia, and $180 from Charlie R. Wilson. Gonzalez’s total expenditures amounted to $2,016.70, all spent at Chuy’s Custom Sports as an “advertising expense.”
His opponent, Gavino Sotelo, was able to raise $550 contributions. Fred Garza donated $200 to his campaign as did Maria Montalvo, Emiliano Sotelo gave $150, and $1,000 was contributed from a “personal loan.” His total expenditures amounted to $1,377.38, of which all but $0.27 was spent at Chuy’s Custom Sports.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the April 15 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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I am no expert on this, but following are my three cents worth!!!!
FYI, a candidate can legally make a “personal loan” to his “campaign fund”.
What this means is that as the campaign receives more campaign contributions, the candidate can pay himself/herself back from the “campaign fund”.
By the way, all “Candidate Campaign Finance Reports” are available for personal inspection at the City Secretary office during regular business hours!
Once they are filed, they become part of the public domain! It is boring stuff but you have the opportunity to discover all the contributions that were reported.
Bottom line, “all” money expenditures have to be disclosed “how” or “why” the monies were spent!
The reporter, Jerry Rodriguez (no relation), reported/summarized it correctly.
Personally, I am “Moving Forward >>>>” and supporting “Gavino Sotelo for Commissioner Place #4”
The article never mentions personal funds. I guess, I must have had read the wrong article. lol I guess no one ever beats the editor.
Author
I think you might have misunderstood me. Candidates obviously have the option to pay for expenses out of pocket, yes, but the manner in which you suggest it be reported is not necessary nor required, not to mention most likely incorrect. It is on Schedule G of the campaign finance reports where candidates list expenses made from their personal funds, under the conveniently titled “Political Expenditures Made From Personal Funds” …not under a loan to oneself. This is what I was attempting to explain.
In this case, Mr. Gonzalez reported, under Schedule G, $1,536.70 from his personal funds spent at Chuy’s, which is also where he spent the $480 contributed to his campaign. Hence “total expenditures” of $2,016.70 being reported. That is exactly what the article states and what I’ve stated here.
I hope this adequately addresses the questions you’ve presented.
You are wrong sir. Candidates have the option of paying for expenses “out of pocket” meaning from his or her personal money or yes from personal loan from a financial institution. In other words, they lend themselves the money to pay for expenses. In this case you have stated in this blog that Mr. Gonzalez spent $2,16.70 from his own pocket, yet no where does your story read that Mr. reported or filed this as “out of pocket”. The $480 dollars In-kind contributions don’t count towards “out of pocket” expenses. I ask again, if Mr. Gonzalez received $480 in in-kind contributions and spent over $2,016.70 dollars at Chuys, then where did this money come from? Where did the report say it was “out of pocket”? Just asking
Author
Jesus, I can’t speak for Mr. Gonzalez, but I can tell you that a “loan to himself” wouldn’t be reported because there is no such thing. You may be confusing this with a personal loan, which is when an individual borrows money from a bank or other type of financial institution on the understanding that it’ll be paid back plus interest. According to the Texas Ethics Commission, candidates can report expenditures made from personal funds, which is what Mr. Gonzalez did, but there is no requirement to report this as a contribution.
Concerning your question about how the $480 were spent, if you read the article it clearly states that all was spent at Chuy’s Custom Sports. Now if you do a little math, you can also figure out how much Mr. Gonzalez spent out of pocket. Subtract $480 from the $2,016.70 in total expenditures and that gives you $1,536.70.
The numbers provided by Mr. Gonzalez didn’t make sense to me either. If all his expenses were made out of pocket to Chuy Sports, why wasn’t it reported as a loan to himself then? And if so, how did he spend the $480 dollars he received in contributions? This just doesn’t seem right to me.
Author
There really is no issue here to catch or question. All it means is that those expenses were made out of pocket. Keep in mind that the expenditures a candidate reports do not necessarily correlate with their contributions, especially since candidates can obviously pay for campaign expenses using their own personal funds – as is the case here. Also, candidates have an option to reimburse expenses made from personal funds so long as they report said expenses. And before you ask, Mr. Gonzalez opted not to seek reimbursement in his campaign finance report.
You’re 0 for 2 here, R.R.
I would never buy from Chuys Custom Sports. They buy from this guy to get his support. Big mistake!
Question: How is it that Joe D. Gonzalez reports only receiving $480 dollars in contributions and reports expenditures of $2,016.70? Where did the other money come from? And why wasn’t it reported? This really sounds fishy to me. As always the SB News didn’t catch this or questioned it. Editor????
Looks like Chuy’s Custom Sports won this race.