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THE SUN
Youngs disqualified from city commission race BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@ amisun.com
ANNA MARIA – The Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office has disqualified City Commission candidate David Youngs because he failed to open a separate bank account for campaign contributions and expenditures. Youngs was notified of the decision on Tuesday, July 12, after paying his qualifying fee on Monday, June 13, the first day of the city’s two week qualifying period. “Why did they come up with this a month later, when it’s too late to do anything about it?” Youngs said when discussing the turn of events that will prevent him from being a candidate in the city elections in November. “What happened was I used the wrong checking account. There’s a rule that you have to use your campaign account, but it wasn’t documented in the materials I was given. I complained to Mike Bennett (Supervisor of Elections) about it, and he said, you’re right, but too bad anyway." Youngs said he was informed of this action right before he attended last week’s Planning and Zoning Board meeting. “I’m disappointed, but the only thing I can do is run again. I’m on the Planning and Zoning Board, so I plan on continuing that. I’m not giving up on helping the city, it’s just that I’ll be doing it in a different role than I thought I would be because I was pretty sure I would win,” he said. When asked if he would now throw his support to another candidate, Youngs said, “Yes, Brian Seymour. That’s who I intend to support and I’ve already told him that.” Later in the week, Assistant Supervisor of Elec-
tions Scott Farrington discussed the disqualification and what might Youngs be done to avoid similar occurrences in the future. He was asked why Holmes Beach Commissioner Marvin Grossman’s qualifying fee was rejected for a similar reason immediately upon receipt, but Youngs’ check was accepted, and he was given the indication that he had qualified to run. “Quite frankly, when we accepted the check the person that accepted it did not notice it was a personal check. We didn’t figure it out until he turned in his campaign finance report and requested a waiver on his report.
There was no activity on his account because there was no account, so there was a waiver on his report. When we see those waivers, we look for a campaign expenditure. We started looking at the copy of the check we had and realized it was from a personal account.” Farrington said the disqualification was not based on a complaint filed by another candidate or anyone else, yet similar to Grossman, who presented his check at the last minute, there is no recourse for corrective action. Farrington also was asked about Youngs’ assertion that the literature he received prior to the qualifying period lacked certain details in regard to campaign accounts. “There is a form in there that says all campaign
expenditures must come from a campaign account. What isn’t in there and what we will add is a statement that specifically states a qualifying check must be drawn off a campaign account,” Farrington said. “The sheet on campaign accounts specifies that all campaign expenditures must come from that account. Where we think we can clarify a little further is identifying that a qualifying fee is a campaign expenditure and we’ll list that under the qualifying section as well,” he said. Youngs disqualification means the race for the two seats on the Anna Maria City Commission will now feature three candidates: Seymour and incumbent Commissioners Nancy Yetter and Chuck Webb.
JULY 20, 2016