Here is everything we now know about OUSD District 5 candidate Jorge Lerma’s campaign finance violations, and why it matters.

~ kzt123

Spoiler alert: Mr. Lerma illegally used his failed 2020 campaign to solicit contributions and make expenditures for his 2023 campaign in an attempt to hide who is financing his campaign.

TIMELINE

  • 7/25/2023: Mr. Lerma filed his Candidate Intention Statement (form 501) for the 2023 special election for Oakland School Board, district 51
  • 8/11/2023: Date that the qualification threshold of $2,000 in campaign activity is met, starting the clock on the ten-day window to file a Statement of Information (form 410) for the 2023 campaign (but the form 410 wasn’t filed until 10/12/2023 – two months late)2
  • 9/7/2023: Mr. Lerma hosts a campaign mixer fundraising event with a link to donate and a note that says “Paid for by Jorge Lerma for Oakland School Board 2023 FPPC#1427022“, which is the Fair Political Practices Commission (“FPPC”) number from the 2020 campaign. This event was attended by former board members Gary Yee and Jumoke Hinton as well as charter industry leaders Kimi Kean and Hae-Sin Thomas, who were affiliated with the Bloomberg/Schusterman funded super PAC that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on past school board campaigns3 4
  • 9/19/2023: Libby Schaaf hosts a fundraiser for the 2023 Campaign, attended by various former politicos and charter industry leaders5
  • 9/21/2023: Mr. Lerma or his experienced treasurer (a tax accounting professional who acted as treasurer for the 2020 campaign, as well as the 2016 re-election campaign of Oakland City Council Member Noel Gallo) transferred $12,927.15 in 2023 Campaign funds illegally collected using the 2020 Campaign committee from the 2020 account into the 2023 Campaign account (which demonstrates that Mr. Lerma knew that he could not just use his 2020 Campaign for the 2023 Election)6
  • 9/28/2023: Date that every candidate for office in November must file a form 460 identifying all contributions and expenditures made between July 1 and September 23 – Candidate Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez files as required, Mr. Lerma does not file for either the 2020 OR the 2023 Campaign. If he had a good faith belief that he could use his 2020 campaign for the 2023 election, he would have filed the 460 for the 2020 campaign (showing all of the expenditures and contributors to the campaign) on time. Mr Lerma had filed every previous required disclosure for his 2020 campaign on time without issue.7
  • 10/10/2023: Parents United initial twitter post about the election finances, raising concerns about Mr Lerma’s failure to file his form 460
  • 10/12/2023: Mr. Lerma finally files (52 days late) his Statement of Organization for his 2023 Committee entitled “Jorge Lerma for Oakland School Board 2023” (form 410) which was due not later than 8/21/20238
  • 10/13/2023: 2023 campaign is issued an FPPC number 14635209
  • 10/14/2023: Approximate date that Mr Lerma uses the United States Postal Service to mail a two page flier to voters, with the notification that the mailing was “paid for by Jorge Lerma for Oakland School Board 2023 FPPC#1427022” – again illegally using the FPPC number for the 2020 campaign in what may be a federal violation of law in addition to state and local laws10
  • 10/17/2023: Mr Lerma files his form 460 for the 2023 campaign (19 days late) which indicates NO CONTRIBUTIONS (despite having attended at least 2 fundraisers) and NO EXPENDITURES (despite having created lawn signs, mailers, door hangers and other expenses)11
  • 10/19/2023: Mr Lerma files a form 460 for the 2020 campaign (21 days late) which finally lists WHO has contributed to his campaign and what he has spent money on.12
  • 10/20/2023: Voters receive another mailer from the 2023 campaign committee, using the 2020 campaign FPPC# 1427022 rather than the 2023 Campaign FPPC number 1463520 issued a week earlier13
  • 10/22/2023: Website continues to illegally list the 2020 campaign FPPC number on its “donate” page.14

On October 10, 2023 we posted (on the platform formerly known as twitter) what we planned to be the first in our regular “Follow the Money” series for the Oakland Unified school board races15. Since 2016, billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Stacy Schusterman and Arthur Rock have flooded our school board elections with millions in out-of-town dollars to buy a school board that supports charter schools and privatization,16 and Parents United has shared that important information with voters to ensure that we elect candidates who support our Oakland public schools.17

Tweeted on 11/02/2020 by @parentsuniteoak

As of October 10, 2023, only one of the two District 5 candidates in this special election had filed the disclosures that are required to be filed by all candidates not later than September 28, 2023: first time candidate Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez. We were surprised and concerned that candidate Jorge Lerma – who knows better given his long history of involvement in Oakland politics and failed 2020 campaign for this same seat – had not yet filed. We knew from social media posts that he had held at least two campaign fundraising events, and that he had purchased lawn signs and other campaign materials, so why did he not file his form 460 as required?

https://x.com/ParentsUniteOak/status/1711781089243718096?s=20

Now we have a much fuller picture of what happened. Mr. Lerma, contrary to state and local law, was using his 2020 campaign to raise and spend funds instead of using his 2023 campaign as is required. It is important to understand that each election is completely separate, and the fact that an individual ran a campaign in the past does not mean that they can just use that same campaign account to run in the future, as clearly laid out by the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission.18

The Oakland Public Ethics Commission is an extremely helpful resource to candidates (as well as to the public), and every candidate is given information about resources that they have created to help first time (and repeat) candidates comply with the campaign rules which maintain the integrity of our electoral system. They even have an entire page entitled “Starting your Campaign” which walks candidates through the process, step by step.

Mr Lerma is not a first-time candidate, he ran (unsuccessfully) for the district 5 seat in 2020, so he knows the rules. During his 2020 campaign, Mr Lerma filed all of his disclosures on time without a problem. Mr Lerma also has an experienced Treasurer working on both his 2020 and 2023 campaigns. Jose Dorado is a tax accounting specialist who is listed as the campaign treasurer not just for Mr Lerma’s 2 campaigns, but also the campaign treasurer for the “Re-elect Noel Gallo for Oakland City Council 2016” campaign,19 It is impossible to believe (and highly disturbing if it were believed) that they did not know the rules for campaign finance.

Had Mr Lerma and his treasurer been truly confused about whether they could raise and spend money for 2023 through the 2020 campaign with the old FPPC, they would have simply filed the form 460 for that 2020 campaign ON TIME when due on 9/28/2023 as he had done for every 460 filed by the 2020 campaign in the past. Mr Lerma cannot claim ignorance of the law now when he had previously complied appropriately.

In addition, Mr Lerma (prior to anyone having any idea of what was happening) transferred funds from the 2020 campaign account to a different account presumably set up for the 2023 campaign on September 21, 2023. The ONLY reason for the campaign to do that was because they knew that it was illegal to use the 2020 campaign account for the 2023 campaign. At that point, given there was campaign activity in the 2023 campaign account, Mr Lerma should have filed the 2023 campaign form 460 on September 28, 2023 when it was due. The fact that he did not do so makes clear that this was not his ignorance but his desire to keep his contributors hidden as long as possible so that voters were not aware that his campaign was financed largely by those connected to the charter school and privatization industry.

Mr Lerma, when he ran in 2020, was not the “charter industry” candidate. He was not supported by the various Bloomberg and charter founder Jerry Brown funded PACs – that candidate was Leroy Gaines, who also lost the election. Mr Lerma knows that being supported by charter leaders and polticos who support charter schools and closing schools (which has proven to be very unpopular with voters) is not likely to help him win this seat the second time around. He could have just declined the support of those charter supporters, but he apparently decided instead to hide his financial backers by funneling contributions through his old campaign. The only campaigns required to file the 9/28/2023 disclosure are those vying for the November election, so absent all of this illegal campaign activity, the 2020 Lerma campaign would not have had to disclose all of these contributors. Once they were caught, they had no choice but to file the disclosures, and so we now can see clearly what the intent of this shell game of campaign finance was all about: ensuring that voters did not have the important information about who was financing his campaign until it was too late to make a difference. Unfortunately, we noticed, and the Oakland Ethics Department will notice. Mr Lerma must not be rewarded for his unethical behavior.

  1. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208542770 ↩︎
  2. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208660150 ↩︎
  3. https://www.eventcreate.com/e/jorgelermamixer ↩︎
  4. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jorge-lerma-014ab189_ousd-community-schools-activity-7105903190688112640-bN8k?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ↩︎
  5. https://www.facebook.com/samdavis99/posts/pfbid02VDkgpEJg7dz2MFf4W4MoscgPz3y66vsxDxYaQdJPXkHXgr5kbdLtFQvXtzdtx73al ↩︎
  6. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208674687 ↩︎
  7. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/AllFilingsByFiler.aspx?id=189891640 ↩︎
  8. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208660150 ↩︎
  9. https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1463520; date confirmed by Secretary of State’s office by phone ↩︎
  10. https://ousdparentsunited.com/2023/10/17/ousd-district-5-candidate-continues-to-spend-campaign-funds-without-disclosing-its-source-that-is-against-the-law-and-should-disqualify-him-from-the-office/ ↩︎
  11. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208674687 ↩︎
  12. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=208681958 ↩︎
  13. see image posted below ↩︎
  14. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jorge-lerma-for-school-board-2023 accessed 10/22/2023 at 3:15pm, see image posted below ↩︎
  15. https://x.com/ParentsUniteOak/status/1711781089243718096?s=20 ↩︎
  16. https://time.com/5792383/michael-bloomberg-charter-schools-donations/ ↩︎
  17. https://ousdparentsunited.com/2020/10/09/show-me-the-money/ ↩︎
  18. https://cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/OCRA-Guide-2022-FINAL-REVISED-4-20-22.pdf ↩︎
  19. https://public.netfile.com/Pub2/RequestPDF.aspx?id=161825762 ↩︎

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