Democratic hopeful in the 18th Middlesex District state representative seat, Lowell School Committee member Dominik Lay, responds to a question during an Aug. 24, 2022 debate ahead of the Sept. 6 primary, at the Lowell Senior Center. (JULIA MALAKIE/LOWELL SUN)
DOMINIK LAY had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last month. (Apologies to children’s book author Judith Viorst, from whom that line is appropriated.)
Not long after the current Lowell School Committee member filed a tort claim against the city for $100,000, the state Office of Campaign & Political Finance slapped Lay with notification that his unsuccessful State House campaign failed to comply with Massachusetts campaign finance law.
The Sept. 27 letter, which is addressed to “Lay Committee” and CC’s committee treasurer and Lowell resident Larry Haber, states that for the period from December 2021 through December 2022, an OCPF analysis “concluded that the Committee did not comply with M.G.L. c. 55, the Massachusetts campaign finance law.”
The alleged violations include:
• Expenditures made outside of the campaign bank account
• Deposit reports not file
• Expenditures not clarified
• 2022 year-end report not filed.
Lay and Haber’s alleged sloppy bookkeeping extends to his 2021 School Committee race. The OCPF letter signed by Director William Campbell states that excess cash contributions from a December 2021 fundraising event were not disclosed in a timely or complete manner to the Lowell Election Commission, also in violation campaign finance law.
“Based upon the findings of our review, we have determined that the Committee did not comply with the campaign finance law,” the three-page letter closed. “Please note that further instances of nondisclosure may result in referral to the Attorney General’s Office.”
Campaign finance law requires political committees to file timely campaign finance reports that accurately reflect the committee’s financial activity, and all contributions over $50 must be itemized in reports.
The OCPF letter noted that the “Committee has not filed deposit reports to disclose its contributors … totaling approximately $3,505,” and it instructed Lay to file the missing contributor information upon receipt of the letter.
The campaign regulatory office reached out to Lay nearly five months ago with a May 23 letter titled “Assessment of Civil Penalty: Final Notice.”
“On January 4, 2023, this office notified you of your obligation to file a year-end campaign finance disclosure report for the Lay Committee with OCPF by January 20, 2023. We also notified you that OCPF must assess a civil penalty of $25 per day up to $5,000 for any report that is filed late,” the May 23 letter states. “As of 11:59 p.m. on January 20, 2023 our records indicate that this report has not been filed. … You must pay the penalty personally; committee funds may not be used.”
Due to his failure to heed the May compliance letter, Lay has now been assessed a $5,000 penalty for the failure to file that 2022 year-end report. Campaign funds may not be used to pay that fine.
Lay and his treasurer, Haber, did not respond to a request for comment. However, Roland Milliard, Lay’s attorney on the tort case against the city, said by text on Saturday that the campaign bookkeeping will be updated.
“Mr. Lay has been in touch with the OCPF and has been given guidance on what he needs to do to correct the administrative missteps,” Milliard wrote. “He will take the necessary corrective action and is fully confident the matter will be closed.”
Interestingly, the $5,000 that Lay loaned his state representative campaign in July 2022, plus the $5,000 fine levied by OCPF, means that the 353 votes cast for him to lose the 18th Middlesex District Democratic primary cost Lay $28 each, an amount more than his average campaign donation.
Lay, who serves as state Sen. Ed Kennedy’s district constituent services coordinator, remains the unopposed candidate for the District 4 seat on the Lowell School Committee.
Speaker drama continues
WHILE THE fact that Congress was able to cut a deal to avoid a government shutdown is worthy of some praise, the deal only kept the government open for another 45 days, which would bring us to the middle of next month.
While disaster was avoided the first time around, things have only become more chaotic on Capitol Hill in the days since, thanks to the motion to vacate filed by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his role, which bizarrely resulted Democrats voting alongside Gaetz and his fellow far-right republicans to oust McCarthy.
The speakership remains vacant, for the first time in U.S. history, and the situation remains fluid and chaotic, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana getting a small majority of Republicans to support his bid for the role before he withdrew his name. As of Friday evening, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio was the leading Republican contender for the role, but still it remained unclear whether he had the votes with such a slim Republican majority in the House.
Massachusetts U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan and Seth Moulton each expressed frustration late last week with how the House is essentially paralyzed as a global crisis unfolds with nobody holding the speaker’s gavel, something they both blamed House Republicans for.
“Kevin McCarthy tried to be a speaker who appeases the extremists of his caucus, and they booted him out,” said Moulton in a phone call Thursday afternoon, before Scalise withdrew his name. “His successors, Scalise and friends, are now trying to appease the extremists even more, and that is not a sensible strategy.”
With only a handful of seats keeping Democrats out of the majority, Moulton said Republicans would be better served to work with Democrats on a compromise speaker, one that isn’t beholden to the whims of less than two dozen far-right representatives.
“Imagine if Churchill had come to power in Britain after Neville Chamberlain and said, ‘The problem with Chamberlain is that he didn’t appease Hitler enough,’” said Moulton.
Both Moulton and Trahan felt frustrated by the fact that Republicans are making these decisions in closed-door meetings, and not including the Democrats in the discussion at all.
“This is definitely a frustrating and concerning time because we know what we need to do, there is a bipartisan path forward here, but Republicans are letting their infighting hurt us,” Trahan said in a phone call Friday morning. “The Democrats have been resolute in trying to compromise, but not a single Republican has expressed interest in that offer. Now we are engaging in a speaker fight while our biggest ally in the Middle East is at war.”
Trahan urged Republicans to “shun the chaos and dysfunction that has played an outsized role in their party for years.”
“The expectation is that we would rise above partisan politics, extremism, the voice of a few that has taken over the Republican conference,” said Trahan. “Our national security is at stake. The livelihoods of Americans are at stake.”
Moving back to Lowell?
THE HOUSE at 167 Betty Ann Lane in Dracut continues to be a source of irritation to neighbors, town officials and even its owner. That became clear at the Oct. 10 meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
But the owner of the property seems to have rediscovered the slogan, “There’s a lot to like about Lowell.” At least he says he’s coming back.
At the end of July, most of the issues with the property seemed resolved. Dracut Deputy Police Chief David Chartrand told the board that the controversial soccer matches and volleyball games on the property were over.
Chartrand said police had found “irrefutable evidence” of criminal activities during these sporting events. Police had confronted homeowner Flavio Granda Orbe and his wife, Graciela Cordero, with allegations that alcohol, food, snacks and water were illegally sold at the sports events.
Police met with Orbe, Cordero and their lawyer and confronted them with evidence of these crimes. “They immediately agreed to cease and desist,” Chartrand said. “Since then, all the activity that was observed has stopped.”
At the time, Orbe told The Sun, “I don’t want to live here in Dracut anymore.” He made it clear it was the actions of his neighbors that led to his decision. The actions included his children being taunted by neighbors’ children. He said he intended to put the house on the market the following week.
After the Oct. 10 meeting, Orbe repeated his intent to put the house on the market “next week.” Orbe told The Sun that late last week that a neighbor’s vehicle deliberately collided with his son’s vehicle.
Dracut Police were able to confirm they broke up an altercation at the intersection of Betty Ann Lane and Helen Drive on Oct. 3.
The issue at 167 Betty Ann Lane now involves construction in the basement of an in-law apartment which occurred without the necessary special permit from the Planning Board.
The apartment does not have the required two means of emergency egress from two of the bedrooms.
Orbe was told “the basement improvements had to be removed. That was his only option,” Brian Gaff, an attorney who lives on Betty Ann Lane, told selectmen.
Town Manager Ann Vandal said the recent permit application was to finish the basement. “But the basement has to be vacated” before anything else happens, she said. The prior work was done without a permit or inspections and exterior electrical work did not meet code when it was inspected, according to Vandal.
Orbe’s response to the Oct. 10 selectmen’s meeting was to tell The Sun that the basement apartment has been vacated. He told family members who were living there that they had to leave.
Orbe now plans to move back to Lowell, which he left a year ago. He says he has seen a house he likes but hasn’t done anything about it because he hasn’t put his Dracut house on the market.
He knows he won’t find a property in Lowell for activities like those he wanted to stage in Dracut. But “I have friends in Lowell,” he said.
State, municipalities to huddle in fed funds pursuit
THE HEALEY administration announced Tuesday that it will begin to assembled interested leaders from the state’s 357 cities, towns and federally recognized tribes monthly to keep them abreast of opportunities to try for federal funding.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll will kick off the first meeting of the Massachusetts Federal Funds Partnership for Municipalities and Tribes on Oct. 25 to provide updates on relevant federal funding opportunities and resources for technical assistance and state matching funds. It’s part of Healey’s push to maximize federal funding for the Bay State.
“As a former Mayor, I know how hard it can be to navigate the process for available funds,” Driscoll, the former longtime mayor of Salem, said in a statement. “This partnership will open lines of communication between the state, federal offices and municipalities on the ground. We want to make it easy for everyone to get the information they need and access the resources available to them so they can bring home federal dollars to their communities.”
Quentin Palfrey, the administration’s director of federal funds and infrastructure, will oversee the partnership and the meetings will run in partnership with the Regional Planning Associations and the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated last month that Massachusetts could secure up to $17 billion in federal infrastructure spending through three laws, but only if it puts about $800 million more of its own money on the line.
The Healey administration for months has been unsuccessfully pushing for the Biden administration to expedite work authorizations for newly arrived migrants and make federal funding available to offset some of the costs states like Massachusetts and its municipalities incur from sheltering migrant families. And Massachusetts officials are still trying to secure federal funding to help cover replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges over the Cape Cod Canal.
This week’s Column was prepared by reporters Melanie Gilbert in Lowell, Peter Currier on the House speaker drama, Prudence Brighton in Dracut, and Colin A. Young from the State House News Service on federal funding efforts.
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