Ten months after a complaint was filed, the Texas Ethics Commission fined William Lindquist $6,450 for illegally accepting political contributions as treasurer of a political action committee for Waste Control Specialists.
The Commission ruled Lindquist accepted on behalf of WCS-Texas Solution PAC a donation of $100,100 from Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons Sept. 21, 2011, before the political action committee had gotten donations from at least 10 other people, a violation of state ethics law.
The Commission announced its ruling today after issuing its order on Dec. 20, having met to hear the case Nov. 29.
Craig McDonald, executive director of Texans for Public Justice, filed his complaint against WCS-Texas Solution on Feb. 21, 2012. When brought to his attention several days later by Texas Tribune, Lindquist called the mistake an oversight, took responsibility for it and said he intended to ask 18 elected officials to return donations totalling roughly $64,500.
According to Ethics Commission records, WCS-Texas Solution recalled the donations in March.
The size of the fine and the unwilingness of anyone involved in the donating to admit wrongdoing to the Ethics Commission disappointed McDonald.
"The fine should have been the $65,000 that was illegally contributed," McDonald told Texas Watchdog this morning. "This looks more like a 10 percent nuisance tax on Mr. Simmons."
McDonald said he would be following up to see if the 18 elected officials who received donations had returned the money.
"Let's hope this group handles nuclear waste better than it does Texas ethics law," McDonald said.
Those receiving donations between October 8, 2011, and December 13, 2011 were state senators, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen and Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo; and state representatives, Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton; Dan Branch, R-Dallas; Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite; Byron Cook, R-Corsicana; Myra Crownover, R-Lake Dallas; Drew Darby, R-San Angelo; Jessica Farrar, D-Houston; John Frullo, R-Lubbock; Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth; Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, R-Mauriceville; Kelly Hancock, R-Fort Worth; Patricia Harless, R-Spring; Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi; Sid Miller, R-Stephenville; Wayne Smith, R-Baytown; and Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.
Editor's Note: This post was updated at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 2 to include comments from McDonald and the detail of the committee recalling the donations.
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Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
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Photo of Texas state Capitol by flickr user Kumar Appaiah, used via a Creative Commons license.
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