Former Santa Clara official fined for violating campaign rules

A former Santa Clara official is being fined for multiple campaign violations years after losing a Santa Clara County supervisor race.

Former Santa Clara Councilmember Dominic Caserta was slapped with a $22,500 fine from the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) over misuse of campaign funds in his 2018 bid for the District 4 Board of Supervisors seat. Caserta also allegedly failed to report the expenditures properly. The FPPC unanimously approved the fine at its meeting Thursday, with Commissioners Elsa Ortiz and E. Dotson Wilson absent.

Prior to approval, Commissioner Catharine Baker asked how the fine amount was decided. Chief of Enforcement James Lindsay responded that the initial violations were sometimes counted multiple times, because of how the funds were categorized, resulting in 13 violations with a potential maximum fine of $65,000. After consolidating the duplicates, the number of violations fell to five, with a potential maximum of $25,000.

The FPPC complaint said some counts received a reduced fine because Caserta admitted he should have taken better care of the funds and because the violations were an isolated incident, among other justifications.

Commissioners said they were glad to see this case come to a settlement, after multiple years of delays.

“I think it’s an example of how long a matter may take if you have either lack of cooperation — which wasn’t so much highlight here — or just very poor record keeping,” Baker said in the meeting. “I just note for the public as we contemplate our workload and as we’ve had a really strong initiative to complete cases in a timely manner, these are examples of ones that for reasons that are somewhat outside of our control or (the FPPC enforcement team’s) control, they take longer. I’m glad this is coming to a conclusion.”

Caserta withdrew from the supervisor race and stepped down from the council in 2018 amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations after his personnel file at the Santa Clara Unified School District was mistakenly emailed to all staff members.

Jim Sutton, Caserta’s lawyer, said Caserta cooperated with the FPPC investigation and agreed to pay the fine.

“He didn’t cross his T’s and dot his I’s when it comes to his campaign report,” Sutton told San José Spotlight.

Caserta’s campaign committee had $195,368 by the end of September 2018. Between then and when the committee was closed on July 2, 2019, he made multiple payments that the FPPC found in violation of state law.

He spent $40,090 to pay three people who worked on his campaign, including his ex-wife, Mafalda Soares. The complaint said when the FPPC asked for documentation, Caserta wasn’t able to provide any records showing the expenses related to his campaign.

The complaint said Caserta spent a total of $13,771 throughout March 2019 for personal purchases — including sports memorabilia — and that the payments were mostly made through PayPal. Sutton said Caserta’s Paypal was connected to the campaign’s bank account. The complaint said Caserta did not think he needed to report the personal payments because he immediately reimbursed the committee’s account.
Even though Caserta reimbursed the campaign money with his personal finances, the expenditures themselves were a violation, Sutton said, adding that Caserta hired him to help navigate the procedure after the violations were reported.

“Dominic agreed to pay this fine, we negotiated and we’re acknowledging that this is a fair and reasonable resolution,” Sutton told San José Spotlight. “Frankly, it’s a lot of money. Dominic has to put this behind him, he has to pay the fine and move on.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.