>> This file contains archived live captions of the open meeting of the Federal Election Commission held on March 5, 2015.  This file is not a transcript of the meeting, and it has not been reviewed for accuracy or approved by the Federal Election Commission.


The open meeting of the Federal Election Commission for Thursday, March 5th will come to order. Um, we have some late submitted documents. Mr. Vice Chair?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we waive the rules on the submission of agenda documents in order to consider agenda documents numbers 15-10-B-2, and agenda document number 15-10-C.
>>Okay. Are there any questions or comments with respect to the motion? If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. Commissioner Goodman? Your vote? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Okay, that's unanimous. Correction, item one is correction and approval of the minutes. Mr. Vice Chairman?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. I move approval of the minutes for the meeting on February 12th, 2015 as set forth in agenda document 15-14-A.
>>Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on the motion? If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. Madam Secretary, the motion is adopted unanimously. The item number two, the first item on the agenda is Make Your Laws Pack Inc., opinion AO, opinion request 2014-20 submitted by Make Your Laws Pack Inc. by Si, who is the President and Treasurer. I understand that Si, the requester, is attending by telephone.
>>That's correct.
>>That's correct.
>>Welcome, Si. Thank you for being on the phone. We have Nevins Stipanovik and Amy Rostene available from OGC to discuss the matter. I understand that, Nevin, you will be providing us with a brief update. Thank you.
>>Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioners. This advisory opinion request was held over from the last open session to consider new information provided by the requester. Specifically, the requester clarified that Make Your Laws Pack plans to engage in state and local, as well as federal electoral activities. Agenda document 15-10-B-2 is revised draft B, which clarifies that a requester may accept uncompensated services from foreign national volunteers regarding of whether it engages in federal, state or local, excuse me, regardless of whether it engages in federal, state or local electoral activities. Agenda document 15-10-C is a new draft C that was just circulated. The requester filed two comments on the revised draft B, and should the Commission approve this draft or draft C, we ask for authority to make technical and conforming amendments. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
>>Thank you. Are there any questions of council? Comments? Si, I have a question for you, sir. If this matter is held over one week, would you, for our next open meeting, would you be able to attend by telephone?
>>Um, when would the next meeting be?
>>It's next Thursday at 10:00 a.m.
>>I believe I should be able to do that, yes.
>>You can be available? The reason I'm asking is that while I support draft B, since we have just received, actually, we delayed the meeting today to be able to receive version C, draft C, I think that it would be appropriate, one, for the public to be able to comment on this version with sufficient time, as well as for us to be able to read it and consider it carefully. Excuse me, Si, did you have a comment?
>>Agreed. If you would like, if you could use the discussion today -- I can probably, but next week will be easier.
>>Yeah, I appreciate that. My view is, for one thing, we have another meeting after this, an executive session, so it would be, I think, prudent for us, with the number of items that we must address, I believe it would be prudent for us to postpone it for a week to take a look at it, unless other Commissioners have other views on this matter. I haven't had an opportunity to review it myself. Okay, in that case, we will put this over until next Thursday at 10:00 o'clock. Thank you. Thank you, Si. We'll talk to you then.
>>Thank you, Madam Chair.
>>Thank you. I don't believe we need an extension. I think we're within the time period.
>>Yes, okay.
>>Thank you very much. Okay, the next item is item number three, audit division recommendation memorandum on the Republican Party of Orange County, federal RPOC A-11-23. Good afternoon, everybody. We have, um, Zuzanna Pashios, Robert Morcum and Kendrick Smith of the audit division here. Would you like to make a presentation, or should we just go forward?
>>Whatever is best with you.
>>Do you have anything additional that you'd like to add?
>>Nothing additional as far as the opening since the last meeting.
>>All right, thank you. Are there any questions? Commissioner Goodman?
>>Yes, I just have a, it's as much maybe a legal question as it is specifically audit. It looked like, from the audit report, that the Orange County Republicans have attempted to begin reverse engineering this transaction, is that right? I mean, have they reported a debt?
>>They reported the transfers as a debt, yes.
>>Okay, so, what they've essentially started doing is reporting a debt from their federal account to their 11 account?
>>Correct.
>>Okay. Is there an alternative way to reverse engineer it? And that is for the Orange County's leaven fund, to reimburse the leaven fund of the California State Republican Party of the same amount, $73,000, would that also set things right? I mean, I understand what's done is done, but would that be another way to reverse engineer or pay the debt, essentially?
>>We'd have to think about that more and discuss it with council.
>>Okay. Ms. Stevenson, do you have any idea, what they're trying to do is, what they've tried to do thus far is acknowledge the position taken by the auditors thus far, and they're, you know, they're trying to make things right, and I think we're all for them trying to make things right, and I'm just looking for the ways in which to do it. One would be for the federal account to reimburse the leaven account, but couldn't they also raise leaven funds into their leaven account and then pay back the leaven account of the California Republican Party?
>>For the record, Margaret Foreman, OGC. Um, in theory, that could be possible. It's my understanding that the committee at this time might not have its own leaven funds, at least sufficient leaven funds to do this.
>>Well, apparently, it may be a debt, that's what their federal account has already done. They don't have the federal money to reimburse $73,000 apparently to the leaven, so they're reporting the debt of their federal account to their leaven account. Couldn't the leaven account report a debt to the California State Republican Party, then go out and raise it? By the way, this is trying to make things right. I'm just saying wouldn't that be an alternative way to reverse engineer the transfer of leaven funds from the California State Party to the Orange County Republican Party?
>>We'd have to give it more thought. We'd have to take a look at the law and the reporting mechanisms and so forth for that.
>>Okay. Unclear then at this point? Okay. I'll just express, it seems to me it would be a reasonable alternative, and that we ought to let the Orange County Republicans know that if they're trying to make things right, and they were, in the midst of the audit, they started reporting this debt, I think that we ought to alert them that there's more than one way to make things right, if that's their objective, to try to, you know, reverse engineer the leaven fund transfers.
>>Okay, well, this matter is, as I understand, its statute of limitations imperiled, so, you know, rather than, I would entertain a motion. Is there a motion? Commissioner?
>>I'll make a motion. I move approval of the audit division recommendations as set forth in the audit division recommendation memorandum on the Republican Party of Orange County.
>>Vice Chair?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. I will support the motion, but I, first, want to address some of the issues that were brought up by council for the Republican Party of Orange County. You know, I've stated it before, and it continues to be my position, that McCain Finegold, the burdens that it placed upon state and local political party committees in particular, I think, have been, in many instances, um, unfortunate, and I think, in many cases, don't make a lot of sense. I think that they have had to bear a disproportionate amount of the weight of the regulatory burdens that are imposed by that act. However, they are, as it stands right now, they haven't been overturned by court in McConnell. The last word on the issue that's specifically here before us on leaven accounts, they did uphold the home-grown requirement, where in order to raise leaven funds, you have to, the party unit that is actually disbursing them can only use monies that they have raised themselves, monies can't be transferred to them that then are spent for voter registration, for example, and I'm not sure, just from a policy matter, how much I agree with that, but, um, the statute couldn't, is very, very clear on this matter about how, um, these funds have to be raised in a home-grown fashion, and, so, um, as a Commissioner, I just, I see that my hands are pretty much tied on this, I don't see that I have a lot of discretion, even if I am sympathetic to the underlying concern about what this actually means in practice for these parties and how it leads to some, I would say some unusual or some results that I think are less than optimal, but, um, having said that, I will support the motion, but I want to know that the comments that were submitted by the party's council were well taken.
>>Thank you. Commissioner Walther, did you want to, oh, I thought you did. Are there any other comments on the motion? If not, um, the motion is to approve the audit, approve the recommendation. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. Okay, it's unanimous. The next item on the agenda is audit division item number four, audit division recommendation memorandum on the South Dakota Democratic Party, A-11-20. We have Jim Miller and Douglas Kodish from audit, and also Tom, I failed to identify you in the last item. I understand that Mr. Miller will be giving a brief introduction to this matter.
>>Thank you, Madam Chairman. Good afternoon, all. Before you is the audit division recommendation memorandum on the South Dakota Democratic Party, which recommends you approve the five findings as presented in the draft final audit report. The five findings presented were statement of financial activity, known as number one, number two is recordkeeping for employees, third one was reporting of coordinated party expenditures, and four was contributions from unregistered political committees, and the fifth one was disclosure of occupation and employer. We are, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
>>Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Comments? Is there a motion? Commissioner Weintraub?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is, we're going to go through our standard range of motions, dealing with the contract workers issue, but the first one, hopefully, will be uncontroversial. In A-11-20 South Dakota Democratic Party, I move approval of finding one, misstatement of financial activity, finding three, coording of party expenditures, finding four, contributions from unregistered political organizations, and finding five, disclosure of occupation/name of employer as set forth in agenda document number 15-11-A.
>>Thank you. Is there any discussion or comment about the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say I. All right, that is unanimous. Is there another motion?
>>I got another one.
>>Commissioner Weintraub?
>>I'm not going to win them all, but I'm going to make them all. In A-11-20 South Dakota Democratic Party, I move approval of finding two, recordkeeping for employees as set forth in agenda document number 15-11-A, subject to an amendment to include the $17,770 paid to contract workers.
>>All right. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. All those opposed? Madam Secretary, the motion fails by three to three. Is there another motion? Commissioner Weintraub?
>>Thank you. In A-11-20 South Dakota Democratic Party, I move approval of finding two, recordkeeping for employees as set forth in agenda document number 15-11-A, related to the $42,557 that the committee disclosed as having been paid with an allocation of federal and non-federal funds, and $2,399 that was paid from an exclusively non-federal account during periods in which the employee was also paid with federal funds. I further move that the Commission approve the audit division to include in the proposed final the audit report and additional issues section addressing the $15,187 for 100 percent non-federal payments.
>>Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. Okay, that passes unanimously. Thank you. Then the next item on the agenda is item number five, audit division recommendation memorandum on the Kentucky State Democratic Central Executive Committee, A-12 -O-5. Scott Dotsler and Kendrick Smith of the audit division, do you have a presentation?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do. Um, good afternoon, Commissioners. Before you is the Kentucky State Democratic Central Executive Committee, ADRM. It consists of one finding; recordkeeping for employees. We're prepared to answer any questions that you might have.
>>Thank you. Are there any questions for the auditor? No? Hearing none, is there a motion? Commissioner Weintraub?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. Same issue. Um, motion one in A-12-O-5, I move approval of the recommendation for the recordkeeping for employees, finding as set forth in agenda document number 15-12-A, subject to an amendment to include the $257,794.78 paid to contract workers.
>>Okay. Is there any discussion on the motion?
>>I'm sorry.
>>Commissioner Goodman?
>>Does that include the $12,283 paid exclusively with non-federal funds?
>>No, that's in the next motion.
>>That's in the next motion.
>>Subsequent motion.
>>This is just the contract workers issue.
>>Okay, any other questions? Okay, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. All those opposed? Madam Secretary, that fails three to three.
>>Try again.
>>Commissioner Weintraub?
>>Thank you, Madam Chair. In A-12-O-5, I move approval of the recommendation for the recordkeeping for employees finding as set forth in agenda document number 15-12-A, related to the $820,979 that the committee disclosed as having been paid with an allocation of federal and non-federal funds. I further move that the Commission direct the audit division to include in the proposed final audit report and additional issues section addressing the $12,283 for 100 percent non-federal payments.
>>Okay. Is there a comment or questions about this motion? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Then the final item on the agenda is item number six, audit division recommendation memorandum on the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee, agenda document number 15-13-A, and we have with us Camilla Reminske, Martin, are you Camilla?
>>Yes.
>>Sorry for mispronouncing your name. Martin Faven, and Tom Hindermister. Would you like to make a presentation, please?
>>Thank you. Good afternoon. Before you is the audit division recommendation memorandum on the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee Inc. There is one finding in this report, and it's on the net outstanding convention expenses, which indicates that the committee did not receive payments in excess of its entitlement. We're happy to answer any questions that you may have.
>>Thank you. I believe this item was, was this item approved on tally vote? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Secretary.
>>Yes, it was.
>>All right, so, no action is necessary at this time. Thank you very much for coming forward and giving the presentation. Thank you.
>>Thank you.
>>And the final item, item number seven, is management and administrative matters. Mr. Staff Director, are there any management or administrative matters that the Commission needs to discuss today?
>>Madam Chair, there are no such matters.
>>All right. Thank you all very much for coming. The meeting is adjourned. >>