State confirms Gonsalves missed campaign filings

Says she has now provided required campaign finance reports

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The New York State Board of Elections acknowledged on Feb. 6 that Norma Gonsalves, the Nassau County Legislature’s presiding officer, repeatedly failed to make required campaign finance filings dating back to 2006.

Gonsalves violated state election law by failing to disclose political donors and campaign expenses involving one of her fundraising committees, said John Conklin, a spokesman for the Board of Elections.

Gonsalves, a Republican from East Meadow and the Legislature’s presiding officer since 2012, told the Herald that once she learned of the matter, she corrected it. Conklin also said, “As far as we can tell, the inventory is complete in terms of what she should file.”

“All fundraising information has historically been turned over to the Committee Treasurer for filing,” Gonsalves said in a prepared statement. “When I learned that the reports were not filed electronically with the state Board of Elections, I directed that corrective action be immediately taken. All requi-red reports have now been filed, and we are working with the Compliance Unit of the Board of Elections to ensure that my committee is fully compliant.”

Conklin said that the state’s two oversight boards, the State Compliance Unit — a Board of Elections agency — and an independent enforcement council, created last year, are in the process of investigating the matter.

The enforcement council, headed by Risa Sugarman, was created after the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption was dissolved last year, and is responsible for determining punishment for public officials who violate state election law, including failure to disclose campaign information.

Before the agency’s inception, Conklin said, the Board of Elections was responsible for ensuring that public officials disclosed campaign information, and the process began with a letter to the official informing him or her of a missed deadline. Five weeks later, if the filings were still not made, a second letter informed the official that a lawsuit was being prepared. A suit carried a maximum penalty of $1,000 for each missed filing, which are required twice a year.

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