ELECTION LAW WAS VIOLATED; STATE RULES AGAINST ZONE COMMITTEE

The Missouri Campaign Review Board apparently has concurred with a complaint filed against the committee that promoted a ballot initiative on city ward elections.

In October, former Cape Girardeau city councilman Curtis Smith filed the complaint, which cites 11 violations of state campaign disclosure laws. The complaint was filed against the "Elect a Neighbor Committee."

Smith said Friday that he received a letter from the Campaign Review Board that said the board had voted that the committee did violate disclosure laws.

Marion Sinnett, administrator of the Campaign Review Board, said the board now will send its findings to Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

He refused to comment on the content of the board's findings.

"That information has been shipped to the prosecuting attorney, and it's kind of up to him what he wants to make available to the public," Sinnett said. "All I can tell you is the board voted that violations did occur, and we've forwarded that to the prosecutor."

Swingle said Friday he's yet to receive the state's findings, and won't decide what action he'll take, if any, until he does.

The prosecutor said the few disclosure complaints he's dealt with in the past generally involved only minor infractions, such as a complainant seeking action against an opponent who missed a filing deadline.

"In those cases I didn't feel it warranted filing criminal charges," he said. "It was the type of thing that a jury would probably look at and say, `what's the big deal?'"

Some of the violations cited in Smith's complaint included:

The committee failed to file disclosure reports, despite spending more than $1,000 and receiving contributions of more than $1,000.

The committee failed to put disclaimers on some advertising and put "deceptive or misleading disclaimers" on others.

The law requires that all connected organizations, individuals or corporations report expenditures. None were reported.

The committee had no official bank account as required by law.

The committee failed to appoint a treasurer as required by law.

The committee failed to file reports seven and 40 days prior to the election, as required by law.

The committee wasn't registered under an official name with the state as required by law.

Although Swingle received a copy of Smith's complaint, he said he's only "scanned the document.

"I just took a quick look at it with the idea that I would study it closer if the secretary of state's office found a violation did occur," he said. "If I hear from them, I'll review it and take a closer look at it."

Those who worked with the "Elect a Neighbor Committee" and spearheaded the initial petition drive to put the charter amendment on the ballot have denied any intentional wrongdoing.

In a letter to the editor published Nov. 30 by the Southeast Missourian, two proponents Miki Gudermuth and Opal McManus dismissed Smith's complaint as an effort merely to thwart the will of voters who approved the measure.

But Smith said the Campaign Review Board's finding reconfirmed his own convictions that the committee attempted to conceal its motives and backers in the campaign.

"It makes me feel good that what I did at least up to this point was correct," Smith said. "There must be something there or they wouldn't have gone ahead and passed it on to the prosecuting attorney.

"Hopefully, he'll take some action and we'll get this resolved either to have the charter amendment nullified or at least get a decent measure on the ballot."

Voters overwhelmingly supported the ward election issue Nov. 3, which changed the city charter by dividing the city into six wards from which council members will be elected in lieu of the current at-large system.

The system will be implemented in the city's next general election in April 1994, but city officials first want to resolve legal and technical problems with the ward election measure.

A Zone Election Committee, a group of 22 citizens, currently is working to "clean up" the measure by drawing ward boundary lines to assure equal representation and further amending sections of the charter that deal with elections.

Although Smith has said he favors repeal of the measure approved by voters in November, he said Friday he would be satisfied with a "cleaned-up" version of the charter amendment being resubmitted to voters.

"At least then voters could make an intelligent decision and know some of the underlying motives of the people behind it," he said.