Forum Backer Accused of Campaign Violations : Complaint to FPPC Says Rev. Lou Sheldon’s Group Failed to File Disclosures With State

Saddleback Valley Unified School District Trustee Louise Adler has accused the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and his political action committee of failing to file campaign finance reports with the California secretary of state.

“I’ve checked with both the county registrar’s office and the secretary of state, and neither Sheldon nor his PAC have ever filed required disclosure statements, and yet they have raised and spent more than $20,000 in the last two years,” Adler said Monday.

Adler on Monday provided reporters with copies of her complaint, which she said was filed with the state Fair Political Practices Commission last week. Since then, she said, she has written to the commission to expand her list of grievances, based on recent news coverage of Sheldon’s activities.

‘Questioned Last Week’

Sheldon said he has not “received any notice of the complaint, but I was questioned last week by a deputy district attorney, who went away satisfied that nothing was wrong after we explained the election laws to her.”

Sheldon insisted that his political action committee, the California Coalition for Traditional Values, had filed campaign disclosure statements in Santa Ana, where the group supported two City Council candidates last year, but had not yet filed a state report because “the money we’ve received has never been used for a statewide candidate or cause.”

Officials of the Fair Political Practices Commission were unavailable for comment.

Contributions Cited

In her latest complaint to the commission, Adler cited Sheldon’s failure to file a state campaign report listing $5,000 received from the campaign committee of Rep. Robert E. Badham (R--Newport Beach) and $10,000 from Success Realty Inc. of Costa Mesa.

Sheldon said he would question his committee’s legal adviser, attorney James Gross, today to make sure it has complied with the law.

Adler’s complaint to the commission last week also named school board candidates Richard Neuland and H. A. Beaubier as beneficiaries of either Sheldon’s activities or of a related group, the Saddleback Valley Coalition for Traditional Values.

Adler has accused the two candidates of failing to include the names and addresses of the financially responsible people or committees on two pieces of campaign literature, as required by state law.

Neuland and Beaubier are two of six candidates seeking to replace two incumbents on the Saddleback Unified School District Board.

They were unavailable for comment Monday.

Adler is not up for reelection this year.