Councilman says he’s being unfairly tried in the press by critics
City Councilman Mike Feinstein this week responded publicly to Green Party allegations that he allegedly misappropriated $30,000 in campaign donations, but he hasn’t provided evidence as to where the money went.
Feinstein on Monday told Surfsantamonica.com, a Web site that reports local news, that his political adversaries have appointed themselves “judge and jury.”
“My core objection is that I am being denied due process by being unnecessarily tried in the press, as a result of a few reckless insinuations and innuendoes,” Feinstein told the Web site. “I’ve decided to take the high road in analyzing this situation and not speculate upon the motivations of those few individuals behind this dispute.
4B9,“Unfortunately, their actions have made it possible to blow something entirely out of proportion in the public’s eye, which should have remained an internal party matter," he added. “There is no reason to treat me this way, when I have done so much to build this party, including back when many of those involved today were in their Green Party diapers.”
Feinstein on Tuesday declined to comment to the Daily Press.
National and state Green Party leaders have been asking Feinstein for two years what he did with about $30,000 in donations he allegedly deposited into a private bank account at a credit union. Specifically, party leaders want to know details surrounding a $10,000 donation made out to the Los Angeles County Green Party on Jan. 13, 2001.
Feinstein has been asked repeatedly and privately within the party, to provide bank records detailing how the money was spent or if it was properly disclosed under state election laws.
“We have asked him for months and months what’s happening with the check,” said Bob Morris, an L.A. County Green Party Co-Chair and Treasurer. “And we keep hearing he’s going to have a full report in a month. I believe the last time I heard that was three months ago.”
In his interview with Surfsantamonica.com, Feinstein said he is following the letter of the law even though he has been “tardy” in turning his political finance forms into California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the state agency that regulates political parties and donations.
A spokesman for the FPPC would not comment whether or not Feinstein is following the state’s disclosure laws, but he did say almost all disclosures are required to take place every six to 12 months. The spokesman said he did not know of any campaign laws that permit disclosures to be made every two years, as in Feinstein’s case.
Morris along with other Greens, dismiss Feinstein’s claim that a handful of people in the party are out to exact political revenge.
“It’s absurd,” Morris said. “He’s been given every possible opportunity to respond (privately) and he’s refused. It’s just more and more people are getting more than annoyed at Mike for his refusal to explain anything about the Pico office or the checks.”
The money was reportedly used to pay rent and bills for an office at 2809 Pico Blvd. that is used as a local Green Party headquarters, Feinstein has said. However, party leaders say the office has never been recognized by the state Green Party.
Feinstein told Surfsantamonica.com that the donor of the $10,000 check, Silver Lake resident Bill Pietz, made an “honest mistake” in not realizing that the money was intended to help support the Pico Boulevard office.
297,“Pietz gave the money to run the office,” Feinstein told the Web site. “He gave it to a friend, who gave it to me. He didn't know at the time there was a difference between a (county) council account and (a local) office account. There’s all this hoopla because people didn’t know where the money went.”
Pietz said he wasn’t confused at all about where he wanted his donation to go.
“I made out my check and intended it to go to the L.A. County Green Party,” Pietz said. “The authorized body to deal with it would have been the county council. While one of us may have been confused, it wasn’t me.”
“I made out my check and intended it to go to the L.A. County Green Party.” — — BILL PIETZ Green Party donor
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 12, 2003. Read the original PDF.