Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is now more than a week late in filing his state-mandated campaign disclosures and remains the only city council candidate who has yet to file.
The disclosures, which list campaign contributions and expenses from July 1 through Sept. 24, were due to the city clerk’s office by close of business Sept. 29.
While Pulido remains the only council candidate out of the 10 required to submit disclosures who still hadn’t filed by close-of-business Thursday, two others were late. Councilman Roman Reyna filed his the day after the deadline, and Ward 3 candidate David De Leon filed Thursday morning, almost a week late.
De Leon said his late filing was his own fault.
“I did receive my report from my treasurer last week to submit to the city clerk’s office, and I failed to forward that document to the city clerk,” De Leon said.
Pulido, who declined a reporter’s request for comment, has a checkered history when it comes to his financial disclosures.
In 2015, he was fined $13,000 for failing to disclose his financial ties to the owner of a city vendor, NAPA Orange County Auto Parts, and then illegally voting in favor of a contract for the firm to provide equipment for the city’s vehicle fleet.
The fine was the ultimate result of a Voice of OC investigation that found Pulido netted nearly a $200,000 profit from a property swap with Rupen James Akoubian, the owner of NAPA Orange County Auto Parts.
In 2014, Voice of OC reported that $15,750 in debt had disappeared from Pulido’s campaign forms with no record of whether the debt was paid off or forgiven. He was ultimately fined $1,366 for failing to report expenses that the debt represented.
In 2003, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered Pulido to pay $1,000 for failing to disclose his financial interests just outside the city’s borders.
Earlier this year, Pulido was over a month late in filing his personal financial interest disclosure, known as a Form 700. He ended up filing it soon after being contacted about the tardiness by a Voice of OC reporter.
Late filings of the disclosures, officially known as a Form 460, carry relatively modest fines of $10 for each day they’re late.
This year, the state Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) asked city clerks across California to report late filers. The FPPC has in turn reached out to the delinquent candidates and urged them to submit the paperwork, said agency spokesman Jay Wierenga.
If candidates still don’t file, the FPPC ratchets up the pressure by threatening its own fine, which starts at $200, Wiernega said.
The goal, he said, is to get info out “that people need and deserve and are entitled to before the election.”
Nick Gerda covers county government and Santa Ana for Voice of OC. You can contact him at ngerda@voiceofoc.org.