Overview:
Brandon Vang’s campaign manager is not satisfied with the city’s two-day investigation.
The Fresno City Attorney’s Office on Tuesday issued a $1,000 fine against the political group behind a controversial city election mailer.
Janz’s office shared copies of a letter he sent to the political group Fresno Future Forward, in which Janz concluded the group violated state and city campaign disclosure laws.
“Fresno Future Forward violated the California Political Reform Act and the Fresno Municipal Code 2-1105 by failing to timely file the appropriate disclosures with the Fresno City Clerk,” Janz says in the letter dated March 11.
Janz also shared updated campaign documents that identified the treasurer of Fresno Future Forward as Riley Moore. Efforts to reach Moore were not immediately successful Wednesday.
The fine comes a day after the City Attorney’s Office launched its investigation into a recent campaign mailer targeting Brandon Vang, a candidate in next week’s special Fresno City Council election.
The election mailer, a copy of which the Vang campaign shared with Fresnoland, accused Vang of committing statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl over 30 years ago when Vang was an adult. The mailer cites a 1993 lawsuit Fresno County filed against Vang to establish child support.
Vang has denied wrongdoing.
Reached for comment late Tuesday, Vang’s campaign manager Pedro Ramirez said they were not satisfied with the city’s two-day investigation, which they said failed to fully unmask the group.
He didn’t recognize Moore’s name and was hoping for more answers from the City Attorney’s office.
“It really doesn’t answer who in fact did it,” he said of Tuesday’s update. “They included the expenditure but they did not include who donated. Who actually paid into that?
“There’s still more questions.”
Ramirez added that he was unsure whether this represented the conclusion of the investigation.
Fresnoland reached out to Janz’s office to confirm whether any additional updates are expected.
Janz said other claims made by the Vang camp of misuse of city resources were “beyond the scope of this investigation.”
With early voting already underway, it’s unclear what, if any, effect the mailer could have on next Tuesday’s special election. Four candidates — including Vang — are campaigning to fill the Fresno City Council seat vacated last year by Luis Chavez, who was elected to the county Board of Supervisors.
All three of Vang’s opponents — Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, Jose Leon Barraza and Paul Condon — have denied involvement.
Fresnoland’s Rob Parsons contributed to this report.
