The Alaska Public Offices Commission has ordered former Anchorage School Board candidate Bob Griffin to pay a $5,700 fine for campaign disclosure violations.
They gave him months to fix his reports but he never did, says the APOC staff report.
Griffin, who did not participate in a Jan. 12 hearing on his case, said Tuesday that he thinks the order is fair, and plans to pay the fine.
"I apologize to the APOC staff that I wasn't responsive to them," Griffin said. "They have a job to do, and I wasn't helpful. I should have done a better job."
Besides the fine, the state commission ordered that Griffin attend an APOC candidate training program before he runs for public office again. But Griffin said he won't be running again.
"I think I can make contributions in other ways."
Griffin ran against incumbent School Board member Pat Higgins in the April, 2011, city election and lost.
In July, Mayor Dan Sullivan appointed Griffin to the city Budget Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations on the city and school budgets.
The APOC staff report said Griffin:
• Failed to file accurate reports in three cases.
• Accepted a cash contribution that was over the $100 allowed, and also kept anonymous cash contributions of $64. He failed to return or forfeit to the state the illegal contributions.
• Kept a small amount -- $15.61 -- in his campaign account long after the campaign, when the account was supposed to be closed out.
The staff could not determine how Griffin spent surplus funds after the campaign, but most were taken from the account through ATM withdrawals.
Griffin told the staff the money went to pay campaign debts, but that couldn't be substantiated, the staff report said.
Griffin's records showed that most of the campaign money was dispersed in a timely way, but there were irregularities, the staff report said. For instance, deposits did not match reported contributions. And "cash withdrawals were made from ATMS in various states."
Griffin told APOC staff that "he transferred money from his personal checking account into the campaign account to access cash on work layovers in Hawaii and California because his personal bank cards were not working," the report says.
The $5,700 fine includes a $4,000 civil penalty and $1,700 to pay staff costs.
Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA
Anchorage Daily News