Mayor Butts May be Butting Heads with California Election Laws

INSIDE INGLEWOOD-Inglewood’s mayor, James T. Butts, appears to have elected to again flaunt California elections code and state law by providing and paying for significantly sized ads in a newspaper owned by his former paid campaign consultant.   

Owned by Willie Brown, a 10-year resident of Playa Vista, Inglewood Today is stated to be the City of Inglewood’s “official” newspaper. In no fewer than two June editions of the weekly paper, a full-color, half-page ad claiming to have been “[p]aid for by James Butts for Mayor • Campaign ID# 1325645” and which clearly included the official City of Inglewood seal as well as what is essentially the mayor’s official letterhead.   

According to California Elections Code Section 18301-18304, namely section 18304: “18304. (a) Any person who uses or allows to be used any reproduction or facsimile of the seal of the county or the seal of a local government agency in any campaign literature or mass mailing, as defined in Section 82041.5 of the Government Code, with intent to deceive the voters, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”   

Repeated requests to Willie Brown and James Butts were not returned.

 

(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a weekly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com.  Mr. Fleming’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.) 

 -cw

 

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 53

Pub: Jul 1, 2014