The Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) has found the Parkville mayor and her re-election campaign violated several campaign finance laws last year.
The MEC findings were released last week and cited Nan Johnston and her campaign on four counts of filing inaccurate or late disclosures of contributions and expenditures. Johnston was re-elected as mayor of Parkville last April.
MEC issued Johnston and her campaign a $5,242 fine, but with payment of $524 within the next 45 days the remainder will be waived. Johnston is also required to file corrected reports, which Johnston said in a statement will be filed this week.
“The MEC did not discover any willful disregard of campaign finance law by me or my campaign,” Johnston said in the statement. “They did find that some contributions were reported late and some others that were reported incorrectly. I have reviewed and agree with their findings.”
According to the MEC report, the campaign filed a statement of limited activity in lieu of a full campaign disclosure report, failed to file two 24-hour notices of late campaign contributions in a timely manner, failed to report contributions received from developer Don Julian and others in a timely manner and failed to report some expenditures in a timely manner.
Johnston said she had consulted with Mike Reid, himself a former director of compliance with the MEC, to attempt to ensure her campaign reports were correctly filed.
“Despite Mr. Reid’s experience, errors were made,” Johnston said. “While I relied on Mr. Reid’s expertise to file reports on the campaign’s behalf, I accept responsibility for not reviewing them more closely.”
The complaint was filed by Jason Maki of the Citizens for a Better Parkville political action group. A complaint filed with the MEC in March 2019 was dismissed. The secondary complaint, filed in August 2019, ended in the ruling released last week.
In the wake of the report, Maki has called for Johnston to resign her position as mayor.
While the MEC findings state there is probable cause the campaign violated sections of state statute regarding campaign finance law, the stipulations do not suggest removal from office. If there are any additional findings of violations of campaign finance law within the next two years, Johnston and her campaign will be forced to pay the remainder of the $5,242 fine.