Former Petaluma City Council member Gabe Kearney hit with campaign fines

Former Petaluma City Council member Gabe Kearney has been fined nearly $1,500 for a series of campaign finance violations that became an albatross around Kearney’s neck during his failed 2020 re-election bid.

The fines, issued last month by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, center on Kearney’s failure to file key campaign statements and other financial reports on time. Some of the violations stemmed from Kearney’s 2016 campaign, when he failed to properly file campaign statements.

Kearney, who served 10 years on the City Council, winning two elections, said he made a mistake in filing the necessary paperwork.

“I was pretty upfront about it in the campaign when it happened,” Kearney said, referring to when the violations were brought to light. “I filed the paperwork wrong, corrected it and moved on.”

Although he was originally accused of 16 distinct violations, Kearney was ultimately cited with six violations, including two counts each of failing to file timely statements of economic interest and failure to file timely semi-annual campaign statements.

Details about the violations, including the commission’s decision to reduce the number of violations to which it applied fines, were not immediately available, and a commission spokesperson said those details wouldn’t be made public until the case was officially closed in the next few weeks.

The $1,373 in fines, which Kearney has just recently paid with private funds, closes a contentious chapter in Petaluma political history, when a slate of progressive candidates and their backers successfully challenged for seats on the Petaluma City Council, including Kearney’s.

Pointing to news coverage and progressive groups in town, Kearney said the campaign finance violations were largely mischaracterized.

“They made it seem like I was a the worst offender ever,” Kearney said. “I wasn’t accused of taking illegal contributions. I just filled out the wrong paperwork.”

The Fair Political Practices Commission reviews 1,500 to 2,500 cases throughout the state each year, and finds violations in roughly half of those cases. The commission first found probable cause that Kearney had committed campaign finance violations in May 2020, according to commission records online.

Four of the six violations stem from Kearney’s 2016 campaign, during which he is accused of failing to timely file a pre-election campaign statement and two semi-annual campaign statements, and failing to properly amend the committee’s statement of organization.

Labeled a Tier One infraction, each violation came with a fine range of $200-$800, depending on how quickly the problem is addressed, plus 1% of money raised during the statement period. Kearney’s fines totaled $973.

Kearney was also cited for failing to timely file two statements of economic interest, annual filings that detail gifts, income and investments of California elected officials meant to curb conflicts of interest.

Those Tier One violations also come with a range of fines from $200-$800. Kearney was fined $400 for the two violations.

In the phone interview Tuesday, Kearney said he has enjoyed his time out of the spotlight after the explosive 2020 campaign, and his 10 years on the City Council. And though he wouldn’t rule out another run for office, he said he won’t run for a seat on Petaluma City Council in 2022.

“I have no intention of running in 2022,” Kearney said. “Anybody who says they’re going to run right now, not knowing what the districts are going to look like, is foolish.”

Tyler Silvy is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at tyler.silvy@arguscourier.com, 707-776-8458, or @tylersilvy on Twitter.