Mayor Mourra is Guilty of Violating FPPC Regulations
Double Standard on Council FPPC Rules Called Into Question
After investigation as a result of a Tattler inquiry, Emeryville’s mayor has been found guilty of violating California Fair Political Practices Commission regulations, the FPPC recently announced. The investigation found Emeryville mayor David Mourra guilty of “violations” but they found the violations were “de minimus” and because the mayor had since corrected his violations, they would not take action against him. Earlier, the FPPC had also found Emeryville City Council member Kalimah Priforce guilty of violations that he (Priforce) had also corrected. Like Mayor Mourra, the FPPC dropped their investigation against Mr Priforce because he had also since corrected his violations.
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| Emeryville Mayor David Mourra Guilty of violating FPPC regulations. |
Regardless of the guilty verdicts from the FPPC against Mr Mourra and Mr Priforce, the finding against Mr Priforce was cited as a reason to conduct an investigation of him by the City Council and ultimately to censure and sanction him for violations of Emeryville's Code of Ethics. The City Council was notably aware at the time of the censure and sanction against Councilman Priforce he had corrected his FPPC violations.
The letter about Mayor Mourra from the FPPC to the Tattler by James M Lindsay, the Chief Enforcement Officer for the State sanctioned agency, was unequivocal: Emeryville’s mayor is guilty of rules violations but because Mr Mourra had corrected his violations after the agency received a Tattler complaint that sparked their investigation, the FPPC would “not pursue an enforcement action in this matter”. Mayor Mourra for his part, diminished the FPPC letter the Tattler received and to which he was cc’ed, when he was asked to comment for the public’s benefit. He has made no statement on the matter since.
After Mayor Mourra failed to complete all his FPPC required filings, the Tattler filed a complaint with the agency resulting in a February story where it was reported he had an ongoing FPPC investigation against him. Council member Priforce's late filings on the other hand, were made public by Mr Priforce himself, it should be noted.
No City Council member has yet initiated an inquiry into Mayor Mourra’s FPPC violations, drawing questions about the propriety of the Council’s Priforce investigation and action. Because FPPC violations were used as the primary reason for the Priforce Council investigation and punishment, notably the same violations that the Mayor is guilty of, citizens would have a natural reason to inquire about the seeming double standard but the Tattler could not get a responce from any Council member, the City Manager or the City Attorney for this story.
Because a double standard with regard to FPPC violations by Council members would be unethical and possibly illegal , the Tattler will continue to investigate this story.
