By Thomas Henkel, Ph.D, CHL-PAC Treasurer
The Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT) was organized in 2014 to advocate for good governance for the Town of Chapel Hill and to identify and support candidates for Mayor and the Town Council. Since these election efforts would require raising and spending money, CHALT organized and registered a Political Action Committee (CHALT-PAC) with the NC State Board of Elections (SBE) in accordance with the NC Election Law. The Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer at that time completed the required training provided by the SBE. In 2017, the name of the PAC was changed to the Chapel Hill Leadership PAC, and I assumed the position of Treasurer. CHALT was involved in more activities than simply electioneering, and it was deemed advisable to ensure that any monies raised by CHALT were properly segregated between election and non-election activities and to avoid any confusion about the nature of CHALT as an organization.
A PAC is required. A PAC is required to submit periodic campaign finance reports to the SBE and to county boards of election which administer county and municipal elections. Since Chapel Hill is located in both Orange and Durham counties, the CHL-PAC reports are sent to both the Orange and Durham County Boards of Elections in addition to the SBE. These reports include the following information:
- The bank account in which PAC funds are maintained.
- The name, address, phone number, employment information, and amount/type/date of a donation from each person who gives money to the PAC.
- All disbursements by the PAC with the name, address, phone number, business information, and the amount/type/date/purpose of a payment.
The Campaign Finance Manual issued by the SBE notes the following:
If a contributor fails to provide the required information, the treasurer must report whatever information is in the committee’s possession. Reports must be amended if contributor information is received after the contribution has been disclosed.
Therefore, individual campaign finance reports may be amended from time to time as appropriate, as I have done since 2017.
An erroneous charge. Triangle Blog Blog recently alleged that CHALT’s campaign finance report is missing $3,840, and that other problems were noted by their authors. The Year End Semi-Annual report which I, as the CHL-PAC Treasurer submitted, was attached, with a partial page of form CRO-1100 shown in the body of their report. That campaign finance report accurately shows the bank balance, all donors and donations, and all disbursements for the entire election period from July 1st to December 31, 2023. There is no missing amount of $3,840. The TBB authors are either deliberately making untrue statements about the CHL-PAC financial disclosure reports, or else they have problems with arithmetic. (I assume the latter, as they certainly would not want to be accused of being liable for making false public statements.)
The Pre-Election report attached to the TBB report is incomplete because it was an amendment to the complete Pre-Election report submitted earlier. The amended CRO 1210 page corrected the information for one of the donors, in accordance with the SBE rules. The 35-Day report was similarly amended to describe the in-kind service by one of the CHALT members, which was reported to me after the fact.
Charles Humble was the Assistant Treasurer for the CHL-PAC until June 2023, when he resigned to become the Campaign Manager of a candidate for Town Council. It is contrary to the election rules for political action committees to coordinate with candidate committees, so one person cannot be Assistant Treasurer for a PAC and Campaign Manager for a Candidate.
The TBB accusation that I have been fined for late submission of campaign finance reports is false, as such payments would have been shown on subsequent reports. No reports show payments of any SBE fines.
All campaign finance reports are public information, and all the CHL-PAC reports can be found at this website: https://cf.ncsbe.gov/CFOrgLkup/DocumentGeneralResult/?SID=STA-135AH3-C-001&OGID=31074.
In conclusion, any honest assessment of the CHL-PAC will show that its treasurer has followed the rules throughout its history.