Heard on the Tom/Toms
Stephen Frank, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 7/25/23 www.capoliticalreview.com
LAGOP: Budgeting that exceeds fingers and toes.
The good news is that as of the middle of July, LAGOP has almost $10K in the bank vs the $800 they had back in September when Tim O’Reilly took over. The bad news is the debt has grown and the LAGOP still owes $22K. The Chairman announced consideration of the budget as “The budget for the remaining part of this year”. The Treasurer pronounced it as “the annual budget”. That was the first indication of the dissonance that would follow.
The 2023 “annual budget” was presented as a one-page summary with 122K in revenue and 34K in expenses. Of the 122K in revenue, almost half—50K—is direct phone calls, which the members were told the Chairman and his designees make. In fact, members where regaled with tales of smoke-filled rooms and alcohol body washings defining the extent to which certain members were are having to go to make these calls.
Another $10K in revenue was projected from registration bounty at $1 per registration. It’s an abysmally low number but even 10,000 registrations in Los Angeles County may exhaust the underfunded CAGOP bounty pool. No one asked about registrations paid to date. Monthly member contributions of $27k and fundraiser event(s) of $35K rounded out the printed revenue number.
Expenses included $12K for an office that is rarely used at $1K per month and $10.5K for monthly meeting space rent. To date, the LAGOP has met 3 times in hotels. The other monthly meets are at restaurants with large meeting rooms that open on a Monday evening or Saturday morning. Members pay for dinner (or breakfast) with the LAGOP getting a cut. Would it not be better to go back to quarterly meetings of the County Committee?
The Treasurer proudly pointed out a “new” line item—Directors and Officers Liability Insurance of $3K and how total expenses were a “very modest” $34K. Unfortunately, there was no line item for contingency reserves as mandated by the LAGOP bylaws.
When pushed on the inadequacy of the email program budget with its stunningly small 30K in email addresses for a county with almost a million registered Republicans, the Treasurer proceeded to adjust the budget on the spot—doubling it from $4K to $8K. No mention was made of adjusting the totals and it was unclear if the change became part of the budget.
Outstanding debt was listed at $21,450. The year-to-date treasurer’s report for July broke that out as $3K for 15 months of unpaid accounting services all the way back to May, 2022. Hopefully, the accountant will file the semi-annual FEC and FPPC reports, although with $10K in the bank, I’d make sure he was fully paid and then some so those reports get filed on time.
The rest of the debt was for “staff”. $19,050 is owed to the former Executive Director and 2020-2022 Treasurer for six months of 2022 salary—an explanation for another time.
While there were many interesting moments during the debate, the most interesting came when a member compared the budget to the year-to-date Treasurer’s report for July.
The July Treasurer’s report listed an outstanding debt of $22,050, total expenses (payments through July) of $37,709 and donations of $43,079, all exceeding those proposed in the budget. And that triggered this revealing dialog:
Member: “According to the budget [the LAGOP is] going to spend [per the budget] $33,688. Correct?”,
“Hands-on” Chairman: “That is what the budget committee proposed.”
Member: “If you turn to the [monthly treasurer’s report], you’ll see that through six months, [the LAGOP] spent $37,708.”.
“Panicked” Treasurer: “No, Nope, Nope.”
Member: “That’s what [the July treasurer’s report] says—payments”.
Long Pause.
“Sensing trouble” Chairman: “So [member name], I have a motion and a second on the floor. Is there a change you want to make to the …”
Member: “Sounds like we’ve already spent more in six months that we budgeted for the whole year.”
Long Pause
Member: “I’m a totally recovered CPA, so don’t …”
Let’s distract them Chairman: “We’ll I appreciate that. And that’s why I went to law school, because once I exceed the number of fingers and toes I have, I can’t add anymore.”
[Laughter]
Looking for a way-out Chairman: “So, so the answer I’ve been given… When I start talking CPA stuff, I’m, I’m, ah…Treasurer’s report vs Budget…(turning to the Treasurer)… Ah, Ah. You may answer”.
“Word Salad” Treasurer: “Lemme try this answer [member]. Check this out. OK. Line 3 of the budget, “Fundraiser event”, that is the net, the profit from the fundraiser. The back of this page [year-to-date treasurer’s report for July] is a separate thing. It is a Treasurer’s report. It’s not part of the budget.” (emphasis mine)
“The back of the sheet was supposed to be a spreadsheet [of the budget]. It’s not. OK. So. What, the way this has been simplified in the budget is that there is an expenditure for a fundraiser, then there’s ticket sales or whatever and then there is a net profit and that is what is listed. Cool?”
Member: [Chuckling and shaking his head]: “OK!”.
And that Ladies and Gentlemen is why LAGOP year-to-date spending exceeds the annual budget.
They ran out of fingers and toes! They can’t add anymore. The budget means nothing. Cool?
This is a cautionary tale for the other 57 Counties. LAGOP is showing what NOT to do.
(Periodically the California Political News and Views will publish tidbits of political news, to keep you in the loop of what the pooh bahs know. The phrase “tom/tom’s” comes from my mentor, Lorelei Kinder who never passed a rumor, just called to tell me what she heard on the “TomTom’s”. This column is named in her honor.)
