| Placer County, CA — Supervisor Suzanne Jones appeared to violate conflict of interest law earlier this year, by accepting numerous contributions from non-profit directors while voting to approve their county contracts.
On June 13th, 2023, Supervisor Suzanne Jones voted to enter the County into a $78,948 no-bid contract with The Gathering Inn, a non-profit homeless services organization (Agenda Item 29.E).
On June 27th, Jones again voted to enter into two more contracts with The Gathering Inn, this time for $3,092,580 and $298,092. (Agenda Item 9.C.2 and Agenda Item 18.B).
That same day, June 27th, Jones accepted a $500 campaign contribution from the Chair of The Gathering Inn (Form 460, Page 8 of 15 and The Gathering Inn, Board of Directors). It also turns out that in the months prior, Jones accepted $1,675 from another member of the organization’s Board of Directors (Form 460, Page 6 of 15).
SB 1439 went into effect this year to prohibit this practice, with the intention of “rooting out local government corruption in California… by ending pay-to-play.” The bill prohibits an elected official from accepting campaign contributions from board members or staff of organizations that do business with their agency, for a year following their vote to approve a given contract or entitlement.
In response to this apparent violation of campaign finance law, Karen Henson, who is challenging Jones in the 2024 election, released the following statement:
“Suzanne Jones clearly has no problem doling out taxpayer-funded contracts to organizations whose leaders have funded her campaign. Not only is this practice likely illegal, it is also just wrong. I am calling on Suzanne Jones to immediately return the contributions in question. Corruption and pay-to-play have no place in Placer County.”
For more information about Henson and her campaign, please visit www.KarenHenson.org |
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