Two complaints about alleged campaign finance violations were dropped at a special called meeting of the city’s Ethics Review Commission, but they could be filed again in the future.
Adam Haynes, a member of the Planning Commission, filed the complaints, the first of which was against Mike Siegel, the recently elected City Council member for District 7 who won by 206 votes in a runoff election. This complaint claimed Siegel had accepted contributions exceeding the city’s limit. Siegel has corrected his campaign finance report and clarified that the contributions complied with regulations.
The second complaint was against Zach Faddis, president of the urbanist organization AURA. This complaint raised claims of violations of City Code chapters regarding campaign finance, conformity with the election code and political committees. As the Austin Monitor previously reported, the complaint against Siegel alleges that AURA contributed to Siegel’s campaign by “direct(ing) money, goods, services, or other things of value.”
The ethics commission held a special called meeting to address the complaints on Feb. 6. After calling the meeting to order and finding a quorum, the commission went into a closed executive session that lasted 96 minutes, in which they “took up and discussed legal issues related to (the complaints),” said Chair Michael Lovins. However, once the commissioners returned from the executive closed session and prepared to start the preliminary hearing, Haynes was not present at the meeting.
Under the rules for preliminary hearings, the complainant is required to attend the hearing in order for their complaint to go forward. The commission mistakenly believed that Haynes had appeared at the meeting before the executive closed session, noting in the record that he did not sign up to speak (which is not required) or fill out an oath form to be certified by the commission under Texas Government Code Sec. 602.002.
Because of Haynes’ absence, the commission took a 12-minute recess. During that time, a city employee stepped into the lobby and called for Haynes, but no one responded.
“Essentially, we have done what we could to make sure (Haynes’) rights were protected and it was not just he stepped out for a moment and would be back. So at this point, given that he is not here and he is required to be here, do we have a motion to dismiss his complaint?” Lovins asked after returning from recess.
Haynes told the Austin Monitor he was absent because he never received notice of his complaints being heard at the Feb. 6 meeting.
“I didn’t find out about it until the next day,” Haynes said.
Commissioner Haksoon Andrea Low motioned to dismiss both of Haynes’ complaints without prejudice “because the complainant, Adam Haynes, is not present as required by the Austin Code and Ordinance Section 2-7-44.” Each motion passed unanimously.
Because the complaints were dismissed without prejudice, Haynes can bring them forward again to the Ethics Review Commission. Haynes said he would likely do so.
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City of Austin Ethics Review Commission: The Ethics Review Commission is charged with review of, among other issues, ethics complaints leveled against City of Austin boards and commission members. They meet quarterly.
