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DCWatch
Complaint to Office of Campaign Finance of
violations of DC campaign laws by Mayor Anthony Williams and Vincent Mark J. Policy
November 7, 2004

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DCWatch
1327 Girard Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009-4915
202-234-6982, fax 202-232-1215
http://www.dcwatch.com

November 7, 2003

Ms. Cecily Collier-Montgomery
Office of Campaign Finance
2000 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

Dear Ms. Collier-Montgomery:

This letter is a formal complaint of a violation of District of Columbia laws and regulations regarding election campaigns, lobbying, and conflict of interest by Mayor Anthony Williams and attorney/lobbyist Vincent Mark Policy.

Background

A political consultant to Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Thomas Lindenfeld, is currently suing Mayor Williams and Committee to Re-Elect Anthony "Tony" Williams (hereinafter "the Committee"), alleging that he had contracted to do work for Mayor Williams, both as an individual and as a candidate for office, and also for the Committee, and that Mayor Williams and the Committee have refused to pay debts that they owe him for his services (Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Case No. 02CA005119). In this suit, the Committee is being represented by Douglas J. Patton and the firm of Holland & Knight and Mayor Williams, as an individual, is being represented by Vincent Mark Policy, of the firm of Greenstein, DeLorme, and Luchs (see Attachment A).

To date, this case has required a significant number of hours of legal work that at normal rates would already have cost tens of thousands of dollars. Mr. Policy, however, by his own admission in a letter that he filed as a matter of public record in this case, is representing the Mayor at no charge and has endeavored to keep secret the fact that he is not charging a fee for his services (see Attachment B). Mr. Policy is registered as a lobbyist with the District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, and he represents the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) and the Washington, DC, Association of Realtors, among others, on matters before the DC government (see Attachment C).

Complaint

Mr. Policy’s representation of Mr. Williams at no charge constitutes a prohibited and illegal contribution to an elected official, and it would do so even if he were to represent Mr. Williams at a reduced or discounted fee.

Relevant Sections of the Code and Regulations

DC Code §1-1105.01(5) The term "gift" means a payment, subscription, advance, forebearance, rendering, or deposit of money, services, or anything of value, unless consideration of equal or greater value is received, for the purpose of influencing the actions of a public official in making or influencing the making of an administrative decision or legislative action, and shall not include a political contribution otherwise reported as required by law, a commercially reasonable loan made in the ordinary course of business, or a gift received from a member of the person’s household as defined by §1-1106.01(i)(4)

DC Code §1-1105.06(a) No registrant [as a lobbyist] or anyone acting on behalf of a registrant shall offer, give, or cause to be given a gift to an official in the legislative or executive branch or a member of his or her staff, that exceeds $100 in value in the aggregate in any calendar year. This section shall not be construed to restrict in any manner contributions authorized in §§1-1131.01 through 1-1131.02 and §1-1104.03.

DC Code §1-1106.01(c) No person shall offer or give to a public official or a member of a public official’s household, and no public official shall solicit or receive anything of value, including a gift, favor, service, loan gratuity, discount, hospitality, political contribution, or promise of future employment, based on any understanding that such public official’s actions or judgment or vote would be influenced thereby, or where it could reasonably be inferred that the thing of value would influence the public official in the discharge of his or her duties, or as a reward, except for political contributions publicly reported pursuant to §1-1102.06 and transactions made in the ordinary course of business of the person offering or giving the thing of value.

DC Code §1-1101.01(6)(B) Notwithstanding the foregoing, such term [campaign "contribution"] shall not be construed to include:

(1) Services provided without compensation, by individuals (including accountants and attorneys) volunteering a portion or all of their time on behalf of a candidate or political committee.

U.S. Code Title 2, Chapter 14, Subchapter 1, §431(6)(viii)(II) [The term "contribution" does not include any legal or accounting services rendered to or on behalf of] an authorized committee of a candidate or any other political committee, if the person paying for such services is the regular employer of the individual rendering such services and if such services are solely for the purpose of ensuring compliance with this Act or chapter 95 chapter 95 or chapter 96 of title 26, but amount paid or incurred by the regular employer for such legal or accounting services shall be reported in accordance with section 434(b) of this title by the committee receiving such services. . . .

Discussion

Mr. Policy is a registered lobbyist in the District of Columbia, and Mayor Anthony Williams is an elected official. As such, Mr. Policy is absolutely prohibited from giving to Mr. Williams, and Mr. Williams is absolutely prohibited from receiving from Mr. Policy, anything of value worth over one hundred dollars in any calendar year. This prohibition includes Mr. Policy’s legal services.

I contend that Mr. Policy’s pro bono representation of Mr. Williams also violates other sections of the elections and ethics laws and regulations of the District of Columbia. Certainly, individuals are not only entitled, but encouraged, to volunteer their time and services to political campaigns, and such volunteer efforts are not considered campaign contributions. However, Mr. Policy’s services are not and cannot be considered volunteer services to the Committee.

First, Mr. Policy is explicitly not representing the Committee, which has separate representation. He is representing Mr. Williams as an individual. Therefore, his services do not fulfill the legal requirement that the volunteer activities be performed for the political Committee.

Second, District and Federal law place special requirements and limitations on the type of professional volunteer activities that lawyers and accountants may perform for political committees. While these limitations are not explicitly spelled out in District law, District election officials have a well established practice of relying upon Federal law and regulations in order to interpret District election laws and regulations where they are vague or incomplete. And Federal election campaign laws clearly state that lawyers and accountants may volunteer their professional services to political campaigns only insofar as those services are dedicated to enabling campaigns to comply with election laws and regulations.

A lawyer (provided he or she is not a lobbyist) may freely volunteer legal advice and representation to a committee to keep it in compliance with election laws or to defend it against a complaint of having broken election laws. But the Lindenfeld complaint does not involve election law. It is a matter of contract law. Though some of the services that Mr. Lindenfeld provided related to Mayor Williams’s reelection, the dispute over payment of the bill has no relationship to election law. It is therefore outside of the legal area in which lawyers are permitted to volunteer their services to a political campaign.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above discussion, I am requesting the Office of Campaign Finance to investigate whether Mr. Policy’s donation of pro bono legal representation to Mr. Williams as an individual violates the election laws and regulations of the District of Columbia — including whether it constitutes an illegal donation of something of value by a lobbyist to an elected official, whether services that are explicitly provided to an elected official as an individual can be considered as having been provided to that individual’s political committee, and whether the representation that Mr. Policy is providing in this case falls within the boundaries of legal services that can legitimately be provided as volunteer services to a political campaign.

Sincerely yours,
Dorothy A. Brizill

cc: Mr. Benjamin Wilson, Chairman, D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics
Ms. Alice Miller, Executive Director, D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics
Mr. Kenneth McGhie, General Counsel, D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics

Subscribed and sworn or affirmed to by me this 7th day of November 2003.

My Commission Expires: __________________ ________________________________

Date Notary

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