Check and balance

Clerk wants criminal investigation over county commissioner campaign finance fees, bounced check

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Late campaign finance reports and a bounced check may have Ingham County Commissioner Bryan Crenshaw facing a criminal investigation and charges.

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat, has asked state officials to investigate whether Crenshaw, also a Democrat, may have committed perjury when he signed his campaign finance compliance affidavit on Jan. 2. The requests for investigation were made by letter on Jan. 20 to the Michigan State Police and the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit.

“Something happened that doesn’t pass the smell test,” Byrum said in an interview. “I am under the belief that the committee was not in compliance at the time Commissioner Crenshaw signed the document.”

For Bryum, the issue is the timing of a check used to pay off campaign finance fees and fines.

“I believe that Commissioner Crenshaw waited too long to take care of his campaign finance obligations,” Byrum says. “I believe that Commissioner Crenshaw wrote a check he knew or should have known would not be valid. I believe that Commissioner Crenshaw should have known that, when we signed the affidavit of campaign finance compliance, he was not in compliance.”

The document in question is an affidavit saying that the campaign committees they operated were fully compliant with the law, and any fines or fees had been paid. The affidavit is signed under the penalty of perjury — a five-year felony in Michigan — and are required for all elected office holders in the state.

Crenshaw says the bounced check was a simple oversight, which he quickly remedied.

Byrum tells officials Crenshaw filed for re-election to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners on April 15 of last year, and on April 29 was mailed detailed information on campaign finance reporting deadlines and responsibilities.

“Mr Crenshaw then received numerous additional notifications from my office regarding his accruing late filing fees,” Byrum wrote in her letters to officials. “On October 28, 2014, Mr. Crenshaw was notified that the total amount had grown to $1,350.”

In order to take office, Crenshaw had to file all his reports and pay any fees and fines. Dec. 30, Crenshaw sought a payment plan from the county, something Byrum declined. On Jan. 2, Crenshaw paid the $1,350 debt with the county, records show, and immediately signed his affidavit and took his oath. On Jan. 15 the check Crenshaw wrote was returned for nonsufficient funds.

Crenshaw admits he failed to keep up on his campaign finance reporting requirements. He also says the returned check was the result of his own oversight. He opened his campaign committee account on Jan. 2.

He says “family and friends” contributed $1,275 towards his debts, and he intended to transfer the remaining $75 to cover the balance of the debt to the new account for his committee at the MSU Federal Credit Union.

“I forgot to transfer the money from my account,” Crenshaw says. “I had thought I had done that, but apparently, I had not done that.”

Crenshaw took a cashier’s check for $1,375 to the county on Jan. 27, a week after formal notice of the returned check was sent to him by the county. He provided the additional $25 fee for the returned check, meaning he loaned his campaign committee $100.

As for why he failed to file his required reports, or request a waiver — committees and candidates that expect to raise or spend less than $1000 can be exempted from reporting requirements — because “2014 was a hard year for me.”

He cites the unexpected death of a relative and business issues as examples of how his attention was diverted.

“It was really tough on me. I failed to do what I needed to do campaignwise,” Crenshaw said. “It was my error for not checking with the clerk.”

Crenshaw, 40, was appointed to the board of commissioners in August 2013 to fill a vacancy created when former Commissioner Deb DeLeon resigned to accept a job out of the area. He takes home about $13,000 a year for his post as a commissioner. He is otherwise unemployed.

When Crenshaw was appointed, he served as the director of the Eaton Rapids Senior Center, a nonprofit agency. He was appointed to the Lansing School Board to fill a vacancy in 1999, but chose not to stand for election for that seat. He also served in the Granholm administration in different roles.

Byrum says Crenshaw is not the first politician she has referred to the state officials. She says since taking office in 2012 she has referred five campaign committees to state officials, and seven campaigns to the county treasurer for collection of past due fees and fines. Three of the referrals to state officials resulted in warning letters from the Secretary of State’s Election Bureau. None of the referrals resulted in criminal prosecution for those involved.

Collecting past due fees and fines has been worse, she says.

“I believe only one or two of the committees that have been referred to the county treasurer have made payments to the County,” she said.

For campaign finance expert Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Byrum’s actions are good for democracy.

“I understand that Ms. Byrum has a strict law and order approach to campaign reporting — I think that´s good, as long as it’s pursued impartially,” Robinson said in an email to City Pulse. “That said, this whole sequence of events isn´t a great recommendation for a county commissioner.”

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