Frozen out
Indicted Councilman Ken Oliver’s campaign finance troubles continue.
Oliver’s campaign account is now frozen after his campaign treasurer, Robert Gregory, who is also a member of the county planning board, quit. State law requires that each campaign account have a treasurer before it can raise or spend money.
“The treasurer is required to handle all of the funds,” said Jared DeMarinis, director of candidacy and campaign finance at the State Board of Elections.
DeMarinis said Gregory sent the board a letter of resignation Nov. 4, about a week after Patuxent Publishing Co., publisher of this Web site and the Towson Times and Owings Mills Times, reported that Oliver was the target of a grand jury investigation led by the state prosecutor.
That grand jury handed up an eight-count indictment that included two felony counts of theft for loans Oliver wrote to himself and his wife. The money came out of his campaign account, according to state campaign finance records.
Oliver’s campaign committee also is incurring penalties for failure to file his 2009 annual report, which was due Jan. 21. The penalty for not filing is $20 per day for the first six days and $10 per day thereafter to a maximum of $250. Failure to file and pay the penalties also is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and or a fine of up to $25,000.
Oliver has incurred two other fines totaling $250 each for failure to file two reports last year.
Candidates are not allowed to file for re-election until the fines are paid and the reports are brought up to date. State law requires that the campaign appoint a replacement treasurer in a timely manner, though DeMarinis acknowledged that the law is vague on how long it too long to wait.
“Usually the issue resolves itself pretty quickly because the campaign wants to start raising or spending money,” DeMarinis said.