California tax dollars must not fund Padilla’s illegal contract with partisan firm

Fair elections. Transparency in government. Taxpayer money spent for the public good.

We expect these fundamentals from our government.

Yet California’s top elections official, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, does not seem to abide by these standards. Bypassing the state’s regulations that ensure fair contracting, Padilla gave a $35 million “voter outreach” contract to a partisan Washington D.C. based political consulting firm.

In an affront to public trust, Mr. Padilla ignored the Legislature’s intended purpose for the money. He spent this money instead of sending it to the counties.

Mr. Padilla’s exclusive contract to SKD Knickerbocker to conduct statewide “voter outreach” is troubling. SKDK touts itself as “proud to be a part of Team Biden,” and The Sacramento Bee revealed that SKDK’s executives advised Democratic politicians. SKDK also consulted on the independent expenditures of two targeted congressional races benefiting Democrats. Clearly, this creates a conflict of interest.

As written in the state budget, this funding was supposed to go to local elections officials to administer November’s election, not to bankroll a partisan firm.

In June, Assembly Bill 89 was passed to give all counties access to $35 million, plus an additional $65 million for the Help America Vote Act. The funds were to go to county registrars to pay for nonpartisan voting costs, including COVID-related expenses.

Mr. Padilla’s claims of legal authority to use these funds are problematic. His office cited three sources to justify bypassing the usual state bidding process: AB 89, AB 100 and Public Contract Code Section 1102.

Assembly Bill 89, however, specifically requires that the $35 million go directly to counties as reimbursement for election costs.

“Voter outreach” is not an authorized use under AB 100. The bill also specifies that the funds must be paid directly to counties.

Public Contract Code 1102 defines an “emergency” for soliciting bids for contracts outside the normal open and public process, and states that the emergency must pose “a clear and imminent danger, requiring immediate action to prevent or mitigate the loss or impairment of life, health, property, or essential public services.”

Clearly, there was no imminent danger. Hence, there is no authority for Padilla to contract directly with SKDK or any other firm.

With 72% of California’s voters having voted by mail in the 2020 primary election, it is unclear why such an expensive contract was needed for the general election.

The election is now over. Did the taxpayers get $35 million worth of public outreach during the general election? We believe taxpayers were fleeced. For example, some of SKDK’s work included e-mails to legislative staff, who are in the business of constituent services. How is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?

We wrote a letter on Sept. 29 to both State Controller Betty Yee, the Senate Budget chair and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Director of Finance requesting they stop this dubious contract. We reminded them that the funds must go to the counties, as required by law.

On Oct. 7, it was reported that the controller’s legal counsel determined that the appropriation by Padilla’s office “is legally insufficient to support payment.”

Padilla ignored the decision made by the controller’s legal counsel. According to CalMatters, he doubled down and used his personal relationship with the controller to try to overturn the legal determination.

This is an abuse of power.

We applaud the controller for taking politics out of this process.

County election officials did their jobs well. They deserve the money, not a partisan political firm. The governor must send the money to local officials. It’s the right — and legal — thing to do.