Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed to pay a $13,000 fine on Friday for failing to timely report a dozen charitable payments made at his request by notable foundations and businesses, including Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile, between 2018 and 2024.
California’s political ethics law requires elected officials to report contributions made on their behalf within 30 days. On 18 occasions, the Fair Political Practices Commission said, Newsom and his 2018 campaign committee failed to make those reports on time, often submitting them several months late.
The commission noted that Newsom, who has worked in public office for more than 25 years, should have known better than to lose track of more than $14 million in payments. Newsom has filed more than 1,100 such reports since 2011, totaling more than $300 million, and eventually filed all of the reports before confronting authorities.
One payment from T-Mobile was more than $12 million — the other ranged from $5,000 to nearly $500,000 from Amazon. The Newsom campaign said some files were delayed because they had to rely on third parties to track down the necessary information.
“There is an inherent public harm to the non-disclosure of payments because the public is deprived of important information and deprived of a timely opportunity to scrutinize the payments,” the FPPC wrote in its settlement agreement with the governor.
The commission did not fine Newsom for missing several payments he requested to help the state during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is common for elected officials to ask companies to make charitable contributions to certain organizations, and such payments are not subject to the restrictions that apply to directing campaign contributions. The reporting requirements are designed to allow for timely public scrutiny of these “withheld payments,” which may be an attempt to curry favor with elected officials.
Concerns were raised when Newsom reported that he is requesting six times the payouts in 2020 as those reported by former Governor Jerry Brown during his last eight years in office combined.
A spokesman for Newsom defended the governor’s record of soliciting donations.
“This work, which connects private services with public needs, is what we need most in the entire government,” Nathan Click said in a statement.
Click noted that Newsom filed 1,000 other reports at the time, saying, “Many of those identified in the report were filed weeks later due to delays in receiving payment notices from recipients.”
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