Nine free meals and lost receipts have turned into a $1,000 fine for an Elk Grove elected official.
Elk Grove City Council Member Pat Hume was fined $1,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for missing the deadline to report free meals he received in 2009.
Hume attended the brunches and dinners, totaling a value of $728, while on the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's annual Capitol-to-Capitol trip to Washington, D.C., in 2009.
The meals were hosted by Teichert Construction, Kaiser Permanente, PG&E and others.
He left the meals off his initial state disclosure in March of 2010, and then disclosed them in an amended form in September of that year after a complaint had been filed with the FPPC.
“I do need to file an amended report for meals I attended in 2009, but I have been tracking down the actual figures to be sure that the information is correct,” Hume said in 2010 when asked about the omission.
He said he had lost paperwork that listed the meals.
In an interview with the Sacramento Bee Wednesday, Hume said the lapse was "shoddy reporting," not anything shady.
"In this case, we are talking about dinners attended by hundres of people," Hume told the Bee. "There was no lobbying going on."
The fine was approved by a 5-0 vote at the FPPC's Dec. 13 meeting, a spokeswoman for that organization said Wednesday.
Related:
- Elk Grove Citizen, 2010: Hume responds to complaints about DC trip
- Sacramento Bee: Elk Grove Councilman Hume fined $1,000 by FPPC
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