By, Brenda Acuna| Staff Writer|
The city of San Bernardino welcomes Chris Robles, a former Los Angeles County board member, as Chairman of the Democratic party.
Robles was recently elected on Sept. 27 to run the county’s Democratic Central Committee by a 31 to 22 vote.
He was elected to the Democratic county committee representing the 52 Assembly District in June.
While the position is an accomplishment for Robles, many committee members are skeptical of how Robles will perform due to his questionable past.
According to the San Bernardino Sun, records show that in the past Robles violated the Political Reform Act, when he failed to properly report contributions and failed to file campaign statements during his position as treasurer for the 58 Assembly District Democratic Campaign.
One report showed that a political donation once winded up in a bank account belonging to the newly elected chairman’s businesses.
He was later fined by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which imposed a $2,000 fee for failing to file the campaign paperwork.
According to the state reprimand, “future violations could result in more fines of up to $5,000 each by the FPPC,” reports IE Weekly.
In response to the allegations, Robles released a written statement last week to San Bernardino County Democratic Party Central Committee members.
“Nearly 10 years ago while working for clients, I established political action committees as part of my job,” said Robles in his statement. “I learned the hard way that campaign filings are not as easy as they look, and I was sent warning letters by the FPPC.”
Tim Prince, a committee member and San Bernardino attorney, thinks the recently elected chairman should be reviewed.
“For him to write this off as a bookkeeping error is unacceptable,” said Prince. “This guy showed up out of nowhere and we as a group didn’t have time to vet him.”
The new chairman of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee is scheduled to speak Oct. 20 in Loma Linda.
He has yet to comment further information regarding this matter.