Last year, former Councilor-At-Large Peter Yacobellis upended Montclair’s political playing field with the decision to fold his bid for mayor in the May 14 election, and did so again ― barely eight weeks later ― when he announced he had resigned his post on the dais and was already on his way to a new home in Washington state.
Immediately following the premature conclusion of his first and only term on the Township Council, Yacobellis filed his most recent campaign finance report, dated Oct. 15. He began that quarter with $7,651 remaining from a formidable $112,264 war chest.
But by the end of May, more than a week after the election and seven months since leaving office, Yacobellis had not filed a report with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission outlining how the remnants of his political cannon had been spent.
“I thought at least the first quarter would have been filed by now,” Yacobellis said on Friday, noting that he’d submitted the last of his paperwork to his campaign treasurer, Kim Szezorak and that the final reports should be posted to ELEC’s website within the next two weeks.
In a letter to the editor of non-profit news outlet Montclair Local, resident Lauren Berman questioned expenses outlined in the October filing, including a $1,763 payment to Apple computers ― a MacBook Pro sells for $1,715 after California sales tax is added ― just six days after he’d folded his mayoral bid, and $690 paid to The Economist one day earlier.
ELEC guidelines permit a sitting official to use campaign funds for the execution of their elected duties, with some provisos: including a prohibition on the operating expenses of a government provided workspace, which Montclair’s councilors don’t have, while supplies for an official’s home office pass the commission’s smell test, as long as their use facilitates township business.
“There’s a tail on stuff in terms of winding things down,” Yacobellis said of the countless payments that would appear to have been not just paid but incurred in the months between his decision to drop-out of this month’s race and the vacation of his council seat.
For instance, the whopping $690 payment to The Economist was the renewal of a three-month subscription that was automatically deducted from his account, he said. Shortly after speaking with The Record/NorthJersey.com, the former candidate said he had contacted the magazine’s publisher and would receive a credit for the subscription and donate the pile of past issues that have likely piled up in his campaign’s PO Box to the public library.
A laundry list of conspicuous uses, including three separate tabs at local eateries labeled as food for staff, of which he had none by the time the meals occurred, and eight tabs at similar establishments chalked up to “fundraising,” which Yacobellis said were “thank you” lunches with supporters and former campaign staffers, despite some occurring as many as five weeks after the close of his campaign.
“There was a lag on all this,” he said of the timing. “The people who volunteered or were working on my campaign found out an hour before the general public. There were a couple weeks of shock and awe for some people, and then me scheduling time to sit down with people and talk them through” his decision.
Another expense, $107 for the printing of new checks in late-September were for issuing refunds to donors. A $1,000 payment to Laptop Upcycle for “office supplies,” was a clerical error and, in fact, a charitable contribution, which the non-profit organization confirmed.
A $329 storage space in Bloomfield was used to house leftover campaign materials that had accumulated in the house he shared with his former domestic partner, as the couple ended their relationship and Yacobellis relocated to the Pacific Northwest.
Aside from their latency, the expenses could fall within bounds of ELEC’s “six permissible uses” of campaign funds, which can strike a fine line between campaign and personal use when their accounting is left only to a couple words on paper, and if Yacobellis’ recollections are accurate.
The next filing will show how the remaining funds were disbursed, according to Yacobellis, who said the “lag” allowed outstanding obligations to surpass the remaining $7,000 and required him to dip into his own pockets to settle-up with his treasurer and the web service that hosted his “Peter for Montclair” email.
“There’s just a tail when you’re writing checks and covering things.” he said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ex-Montclair councilman answers questions about his campaign finances
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