Wood apologizes

FRIDAY, Aug. 7 — Lansing City Councilwoman Carol Wood has reimbursed the city of Lansing for some of the ads she placed with taxpayer funds that included her campaign web address.    

Wood said Thursday she has repaid the city $125 for an advertisement that ran in the monthly newsletter of the Lansing Association for Human Rights. The amount covers five ads from this year.    

Wood said she is still determining how much more she owes the city for the ad, which appeared as long ago as January 2013. The publication’s rate card said the ad is $25 per insertion.    

Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum sent a letter to state election officials Tuesday raising concerns about the ad because it did not show up as an expense on Wood’s campaign finance report.    

Wood admitted to the error in a phone call with City Pulse Tuesday. On Wednesday she posted an apology on her Facebook page to her supporters.    

“Because I used my city council account to pay for the ad which is a permissible expenditure, the ad should not have included the link to my campaign website,” Wood posted. ”I apologize for this error. I take ethics issues very seriously, and I take full responsibility for this mistake. I will be removing the link to my website from future versions of the ad, and will immediately reimburse the city from my campaign account.”    

The apology was “liked” by 123 people by Friday morning, and received 38 comments, all supportive.       

“I wrote a check for $125 to cover from Feb. to July,” Wood told City Pulse on Thursday. “January was a free month and May a free month.”    

That only covers 2015. Wood told City Pulse Tuesday the ad had been running for “years.”    

“I am following up on that now,” Wood said, “but I wanted to take care of this year’s first and some of those were paid by me from my own checking account when my council account was used for other things.”    

It is unclear what, if any, actions state election officials will take against Wood.