Lisa Wheeler-Brown campaign files trove of finance reporting amendments

St. Pete City Council candidate Lisa Wheeler-Brown corrected a flurry of campaign finance reporting mistakes Wednesday afternoon.

Wheeler-Brown’s campaign manager, Meagan Salisbury, turned in a stack of amendments to every report submitted since the campaign launched in January until mid-August.

The most notable change is the addition of several in-kind contributions from Advantage Village Academy. A previous amendment filed last week deleted a $500 payment to the non-profit organization for office space and replaced it with a $500 payment to Modern Day Smiles for dental work. The swap in payments raised a red flag and it was discovered that the Wheeler-Brown campaign had used office space at Advantage Village Academy, but didn’t pay for it. However, the in-kind contributions were never reported.

Now the reports reflect four in-kind contributions valued at $40 each from Advantage Village Academy on January 15, January 31, February 28 and March 31. Another three in-kind contributions to the group are now reflected in reports with services valued at $20 each on April 30, May 31 and June 30.

The amended reports go a long way to clean up damage resulting from what were potentially illegal omissions of in-kind contributions. But there were numerous other amendments filed as well including unreported contributions and misreported expenses. For example, the original report from January 1 through March 31 showed a more than $500 difference in the amended report. The campaign brought in less than originally shown.

From April 1 through July 19 the campaign reported more than $11,000 in contributions, but amended that to just $993. The original documents show expenses of more than $14,000, but the amended version says the real number was just over $10,000. Salisbury said the dates on the amended report were incorrect causing the large discrepancy in numbers. She’s filing another amended report this afternoon. We’ll update with that information once it’s received.

Wheeler-Brown’s campaign defends the amendments because they were errors made while the campaign was in-flux between consultants.

“It has come to our attention that prior to Lisa hiring Blue Ticket Consulting, there were several errors in her campaign finance reporting. These were simple clerical errors that we have fixed as soon as they were brought to our attention,” Salisbury wrote in a statement. “After review, to the best of our knowledge, all of Lisa’s reports are now accurate and we look forward to focusing on the issues that are important to voters like creating a safer St Pete and helping local businesses create more jobs for our families.”

Wheeler-Brown’s campaign had been run by Strategic Campaigns’ Nick Janovsky. Payments were made to his consulting firm beginning January 15 with the last payment made on February 26 – the same day a dental procedure was logged as office space in campaign finance reports. He stopped working for the campaign on March 12, more than two weeks before the first financial reports were filed. Janovsky’s firm collected a total of $9,400 during that time.

The vast array of mistakes made early on in the campaign make supporters wonder if there was more at play than just honest clerical mistakes. Though the numbers show numerous reporting errors, there is not much way to show any intentional wrong-doing.

Current campaign consultants say Janovsky was fired for incompetence, but his version of events is different.

“Strategic Campaigns parted ways with Lisa Wheeler Brown over a financial, professional disagreement due to her actions previous to the first financial report being filed,” Janovsky said in a phone conversation. “Lisa Wheeler-Brown and her mother handled all reporting for her candidacy, entered in all transactions, signed all reports and filed all financial reports for her campaign.”

An email sent to Janovsky on March 13 from Wheeler-Brown states “I will no longer need your services.”

The entire email reads:

Janovsky said that email came after he confronted her about the “professional disgareement.

Janovsky also said he keeps his hands clean of treasurer duties. He was originally listed as either the “treasurer or deputy treasurer” in campaign qualifying documents.

Other additions and deletions from the campaign treasurer’s reports include a payment from Wheeler-Brown’s mother, Shirley Wheeler,  on March 10 for $500 for office supplies that was deleted. Another $500 transaction from Smith & Associates on January 8 was added. A $500 contribution from Paul Dickens on January 12 was changed from a monetary contribution to an in-kind contribution. The same reporting error occurred on the same date for another $187.48.

Contributions were added from Ann Risman Haendel and Mary Ann Renfrow for $100 each.

Prior to hiring Meagan Salisbury’s Blue Ticket Consulting for campaign services, but after Strategic Campaigns stopped working on the campaign, Wheeler-Brown also made payments to Ay.Co, a consulting firm run by St. Pete activist Ayele Hunt, from April 2 until May 4. Blue Ticket Consultants began work on the campaign in late May, but weren’t paid until July. A payment for $3,544.47 was made on July 7. There hasn’t been another since, but the firm is still active in providing services for Wheeler-Brown.