FPPC fines agency over late filings : (California Powergate )

The Sacramento Bee ^ | March 15, 2002 | Gary Delsohn

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A state agency -- not the individuals working for it -- was fined $69,500 Thursday for filing late potential conflict-of-interest statements during last year's electricity crisis.

In a decision Secretary of State Bill Jones called "an outrage and an affront to the taxpayers," the California Fair Political Practices Commission levied its first-ever fine against another state agency -- the Department of Water Resources -- for violating the state's Political Reform Act.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[jocko12]

SMOOTH MOVE GOV.EXLAX,HOW MUCH MORE OF THE TAX PAYERS MONEY ARE YOU GOING TO WASTE BEFORE NOV. ELECTION!!!!

[quimby]

"It is an outrage," Jones told reporters called to a press conference at his office. The ruling, he said, "makes a mockery of the commission's duty to protect the people of California from illegal and unethical conduct by public employees."

Jones is right. These fines are nothing more that paper pushing. Fines paid by taxpayers are phoney.

[monkeyshine]

He said the $69,500 comes from DWR's current budget and goes back to the state to be used for other services.

How absurd. One state agency fines another state agency, and the fine goes to boost the expenditures of a third state agency. Is this bizarro world? Someone should be fired, someone should be in jail. Someone should be impeached. Something!

Someone should be held responsible for breaking the law... not the "state", which only pays the fine to itself, and thus has no incentive to not break the law that everyone else must obey.

[lafroste]

Someone should be held responsible for breaking the law... not the "state", which only pays the fine to itself,

I often find myself in the position of being fined by a state agency, while I myself work for another agency. In my case, part of my job is contending with these fines which are automatically assessed for technical violations of state issued operating permits. Also, it should be noted that violations of those permits are, for all practical purposes, impossible to predict and impossible to fully avoid. Sometimes I joke that the other agency needs to boost its revenue, thus fines mine. I always thought that apportionment of state funds was the responsibility of the legislature however.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LOL!

That seems to be what is going on here!