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FACT: The San Diego Ethics Commission fined the professional campaign treasurer, not Marni. The treasurer took full responsibility for the late filing of supplemental forms for 27 contributions to Marni’s legal defense fund. These forms, called Disclosure of Pending Matters forms, are filed with the City Clerk on top of a fund's regular campaign finance reports. The commission resolved the matter in 2023, after the treasurer agreed to a fine.
FACT: Every contribution was reported on time. The settlement notes that the legal defense fund filed its regular campaign finance reports, which list all contributions, by the deadline. For five of the late forms, the Commission also found that the same information "was available to the public through the lobbyist disclosure forms."
Act. A sworn complaint filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission in 2024 claimed that Desmond failed to properly report his role in a ballot measure committee, and violated conflict-of-interest rules when that committee received a $5,000 contribution from a developer who also leased property Desmond had voted to fund months earlier. As of this month, the case remained listed as “opened and pending” on the FPPC’s complaint and case information portal.
Desmond is funded by real estate developers, who have given him more than $144,000. He has faced multiple ethics complaints for allegedly voting to benefit donors, going back to 2018, when he was mayor of San Marcos and a local realtor filed a complaint over council votes on issues affecting donors to his supervisor campaign. Desmond also faced criticism for budgeting $240,000 to “remodel and renovate his downtown and district office space” shortly after he took office at the county.
Fact vs Fiction
Fact vs. Fiction: Jim Desmond's False Attack on Marni von Wilpert
Jim Desmond is 100% MAGA, and he is attacking Marni von Wilpert over a paperwork matter the San Diego Ethics Commission fully resolved in 2023. He is doing it to distract from his own record of pay-to-play politics, including an ongoing state investigation into a developer who donated money after Desmond voted to give that same developer's company county funding. Here are the facts.
FICTION: “27 Ethics Violations”
FACT: The San Diego Ethics Commission fined the professional campaign treasurer, not Marni. The treasurer took full responsibility for the late filing of supplemental forms for 27 contributions to Marni’s legal defense fund. These forms, called Disclosure of Pending Matters forms, are filed with the City Clerk on top of a fund's regular campaign finance reports. The commission resolved the matter in 2023, after the treasurer agreed to a fine.
FICTION: “Undisclosed donations”
FACT: Every contribution was reported on time. The settlement notes that the legal defense fund filed its regular campaign finance reports, which list all contributions, by the deadline. For five of the late forms, the Commission also found that the same information "was available to the public through the lobbyist disclosure forms."
FICTION: “Fined by the ethics commission”
FACT: The Ethics Commission's own settlement says otherwise. It states that Marni, "a first-time candidate for elective office, reasonably relied on" her professional treasurer to file the forms on time, and that the treasurer "has, therefore, taken full responsibility for the violations." Marni and her treasurer "fully cooperated with the Ethics Commission investigation."
THE FACTS ABOUT JIM DESMOND
Jim Desmond is a multi-millionaire who has cozied up to developers, and he is under an ongoing investigation for multiple alleged violations of the California Political Reform
Act. A sworn complaint filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission in 2024 claimed that Desmond failed to properly report his role in a ballot measure committee, and violated conflict-of-interest rules when that committee received a $5,000 contribution from a developer who also leased property Desmond had voted to fund months earlier. As of this month, the case remained listed as “opened and pending” on the FPPC’s complaint and case information portal.
Desmond is funded by real estate developers, who have given him more than $144,000. He has faced multiple ethics complaints for allegedly voting to benefit donors, going back to 2018, when he was mayor of San Marcos and a local realtor filed a complaint over council votes on issues affecting donors to his supervisor campaign. Desmond also faced criticism for budgeting $240,000 to “remodel and renovate his downtown and district office space” shortly after he took office at the county.
Marni von Wilpert has spent her career fighting for working people. She served as a civil prosecutor in the City Attorney’s Office, where she sued special interests ripping us off – price gougers during the pandemic, corporate polluters for toxic dumping, and the opioid industry for the addiction and devastation they caused.
SOURCES
San Diego Ethics Commission, Stipulation, Decision and Order, Case No. 22-29 (May 11, 2023)