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Q&A
Council Member Restler questions CFB on campaign staff payment rules
3:01:09
·
3 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler engages in a Q&A session with Paul Seamus Ryan, Executive Director of the NYC Campaign Finance Board, about the rules and regulations regarding payment to campaign staff members. They discuss the definition of volunteers, circumstances under which staff can be unpaid, and potential red flags for the CFB.
- Clarification on the definition of volunteers and when unpaid work might be considered an in-kind contribution
- Discussion of how the CFB views unpaid staff who are registered lobbyists or who worked on previous campaigns
- Emphasis on the fact-dependent nature of CFB's analyses and the importance of filing complaints for suspected violations
Lincoln Restler
3:01:09
I'll just do one more topic.
3:01:11
The CF I'm just could you help clarify for me CFB rules regarding payment to staff members who work on a campaign?
3:01:20
Under what circumstances can a campaign staff be unpaid?
3:02:31
So just to make sure I'm following you plainly, a volunteer has a full time job that they're paid for, but they're for the time that they should be at that full time job, they're working those same hours on the campaign and volunteering their time.
3:02:45
That is inherently an in kind contribution from the entity where that is allowing those staff members to work on the campaign.
3:03:30
Would unpaid staff members who are registered lobbyists raise alarm bells for the CFB?
3:04:02
And if an individual worked on a campaign in a previous cycle and is now choosing to volunteer their time, would that raise alarm bells for the CFB?
3:04:21
There are many other topics that I would like to ask you about, but I think I have probably gone for long enough for the moment.
3:04:28
So we'll pass it over to colleagues and circle back if time allows.
Paul Seamus Ryan
3:01:26
It's a great question and as a general matter, people who people are not only permitted to volunteer for campaigns, but in my personal view that is a good thing for democracy, people volunteering for campaigns.
3:01:42
Volunteers are not making in kind contributions to their volunteer efforts.
3:01:48
So long as an individual is uncompensated, period, working for a campaign for free they are exempt from the definition of contribution under both the act and under board rules.
3:01:58
However the important thing to emphasize here is that they are uncompensated.
3:02:02
If an individual is compensated by someone other than the campaign or an entity other than the campaign to perform campaign work, they're not a volunteer.
3:02:11
They're being paid by someone and that someone who's paying them is making an in kind contribution to the campaign.
3:02:17
So those are, you know, that's how this sort of plays out.
3:02:20
That's how the both the existing provision of the Campaign Finance Act and the board's rules apply to that type of conduct.
3:02:27
Volunteers have to be unpaid.
3:02:29
That's the definition of volunteers.
3:02:53
You know, it's a fact dependent analysis, so I will certainly allow you your interpretation of the law and your application of that law to the hypothetical or maybe not hypothetical facts in your But the reality is that if someone is paying a person to do work for a campaign, that person is making an in kind contribution to the campaign.
3:03:13
The fact dependent analysis depends on does the employer require time sheets?
3:03:18
Is the person filling out those time sheets?
3:03:20
What does the employer do?
3:03:21
I fill out a time sheet.
3:03:22
If I were working for a campaign when I was supposed to be working for the taxpayers of the City Of New York, I would be violating the law.
3:03:38
Alarm bells, no.
3:03:40
I wouldn't say that.
3:03:41
Again, our job is to apply the laws that exist today to the facts that are known to us.
3:03:47
And when members of the public suspect that something fishy is going on with the campaign, suspect that something potentially illegal is going on with the campaign, the appropriate course of action is to file a complaint with us with us which gives us the opportunity to look into it, to investigate.
3:04:13
That alone, no.
3:04:14
Not not knowing more facts, no.
3:04:15
I can't say.
3:04:16
So people change what they do with their time and their lives pretty routinely.
Eric Dinowitz
3:04:20
Okay.