Mojonnier Spent $885 From Campaign Money on Beauty Advice to Employees

State Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) spent more than $800 in campaign funds this year for fashion and beauty consultants to advise her staff members on how to dress, arrange their hair and what makeup to use, according to reports filed with the secretary of state this week.

Mojonnier paid $440 from her reelection committee to Reflection of Success, a La Mesa consulting firm, to advise the five employees of her San Diego district office in April on how to dress to meet the public.

Styling, Makeover at Salon

Mojonnier also paid $405 out of a second campaign committee--Friends of Sunny Mojonnier-1990--for her staff members to receive hair styling and a beauty makeover in April at the Beau Monde beauty salon in Mission Valley, an expense she classified as “travel, accommodations or meals.”

Mojonnier said she believes that spending campaign money for the beauty and fashion consultants is appropriate because it helps to upgrade the public image of her office staff.

“The whole idea was to put a more polished and professional look on my district staff,” said Mojonnier, who added that she wanted her employees to “make a better impression when they stand in front of people.”

The latest disclosure of Mojonnier’s use of campaign funds comes at a time the assemblywoman acknowledges that her political finances are in disarray, and she has asked her campaign treasurer to determine whether she double-billed the campaign account for more than $7,700 in travel and eating expenses last year.

“Once he corrects the mess that’s there, hopefully we’ll be able to straighten it out,” Mojonnier said.

The biggest part of the potential double billings includes a $6,600 trip, taken at public expense, to Spain in November to help plan for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America. Mojonnier said she sent a $3,500 check to the state treasurer’s office earlier this week to cover anything an audit may show she has to pay back to the state.

Under state law, campaign funds are established to receive political donations from individuals and political action committees. The campaign accounts are distinct from the public money that state legislators receive to run their office and pay their staff.

Personal Uses Prohibited

Campaign money can be used for anything that is “substantially related” to an officeholder’s job or political campaign, said Eugene Hill, assistant attorney general in charge of the government law section.

But the law prohibits legislators from dipping into their political war chests for personal reasons. “A payment from campaign funds is for personal use if the payment creates a substantial personal benefit and does not have more than a negligible political, legislative or governmental purpose,” the law says.

The vagueness of the law has yielded a patchwork of decisions on what constitutes a permissible use of campaign funds. In the past, the state attorney general’s office has approved the purchase of some kinds of clothing, paying the salary of a relative working on campaigns, the purchase of sports tickets, donations to nonprofit groups and, in one case, the installation of a home security system to protect official documents.

Yet attorney general opinions have also held that expenditures for medical examinations, personal legal fees and health club memberships are not allowed because they are considered personal, despite their “collateral effects upon political, governmental or legislative activities.”

Hill declined Wednesday to say whether Mojonnier’s expenditures for the fashion consultant and her staff’s excursion to the beauty parlor would be permissible.

But, he added, “It sounds on the outer edge to me.”

Mojonnier’s campaign statements show that her two political committees raised $27,446 while spending $39,432 in the first six months of this year. She spent her campaign money for hotel rooms in Washington, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Long Beach, New York, Arlington, Va., and Central America.

Booked Room for Inauguration

Mojonnier said she booked a Washington hotel room for the inauguration of President Bush, and the rooms in Arlington and Central America were booked during her recent Defense Department tour of National Guard activities in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala.

The assemblywoman said she paid $770 to stay at the Long Beach Hyatt Regency this year so she could observe firsthand how that city’s grand prix affected pedestrian and car traffic. The expense was related to her official duties because the Del Mar grand prix is in her district and there is talk of expanding the races, she said.

Mojonnier said her other hotel expenditures were legitimate but she couldn’t recall offhand why she paid for the rooms in Palm Springs and San Francisco, which is 90 minutes from Sacramento by car.

“I had a meeting in San Francisco for something. I don’t remember what it was. I spent the night, if it was a night meeting,” she said.

As for the campaign expenditures on behalf of her staff, Mojonnier said she hired a consultant from Reflection of Success to hold individual sessions with her five district employees, including her secretary, on April 27 and 28.

No Dragon-Lady Eyes

The idea, she said, was to have “someone do an analysis of all the staff, as far as the kind of clothes they should not wear.”

Mojonnier’s staff paid a visit to the Beau Monde on April 28, where each underwent a 2 1/2- to 3-hour beauty makeover. Mojonnier said the purpose of that visit was to improve their appearance, “to teach them, to tell them if they had dragon-lady eyes how they would fix them to be more presentable to the public.”

Myra Tonner, owner of the Beau Monde, said Mojonnier’s office staff enjoyed its visit. The makeovers, which cost $60 to $70 per person, included hair styling and a complete application of makeup, Tonner said.

“They all appeared very happy with the result,” she said. “They left smiling and liked the way they looked and felt much improved.”

“It changed hair style on them and makeup so they looked different,” Tonner said. “For the public, they need to have a certain look.”

“I remember one of the girls had long, scraggly hair, and, when we finished with her, she left with long, scraggly hair,” Tonner said. “She was sort of a difficult person. She certainly didn’t look professional.”

An employee in Mojonnier’s district office on Wednesday referred questions about the beauty parlor visit to the assemblywoman.

$1,229.60 for Outfits

This year’s campaign expenditures do not mark the first time Mojonnier has gone to her campaign fund for the sake of appearance.

Campaign reports for 1988 show she spent $1,229.60 for two outfits purchased specifically for the Hotel del Coronado’s centennial celebration. The outfits, made by a Sacramento shop called Pegg’s Pretties, were expensive because they were made to reflect the fashions of 100 years ago, Mojonnier said.

“The event was to be done in period and all that, and everybody was dressed accordingly,” Mojonnier said of the celebration, which lasted several days.

Using campaign funds for the dresses was legitimate because, “if I wasn’t a representative, I wouldn’t be going to the event,” she said.

Alhough Mojonnier defended the beauty parlor and fashion expenditures, she said she has asked her new campaign treasurer and the state treasurer’s office to see whether she double-billed her campaign fund and the state for a trip to Spain last year. She also said she sent the treasurer the $3,500 check to cover anything she might owe the state in connection with the trip.

Mojonnier made the Nov. 10-Dec. 2 trip as the state’s sole representative from the Quincentennial Committee, a panel of legislators established to help plan the 1992 celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America.

Double-Billing Check

Documents submitted to the state Assembly’s Office of Travel show that Mojonnier was reimbursed $6,648.53 in public funds for her air fare, rental car, lodging and telephone bill.

Her campaign reports last year show expenditures of $8,239.90 for travel from late October to the end of 1988. Mojonnier told The Times she could not recall whether any of the campaign money covered the Spain trip.

She also said she has asked her campaign treasurer to check an apparent double-billing of her political account for another $1,115 in travel and eating expenses last year.

Campaign reports show that Mojonnier was reimbursed twice for that amount, which covered meals, air fare and $717 for a room at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington. And her campaign statement for this year shows her political fund may have paid for that room yet a third time, when it reimbursed the Assembly’s Office of Travel for $717.

Mojonnier said the double billing was unintentional and she did not catch it because she doesn’t check the backup paper work when she receives a reimbursement from her campaign funds.

“Why would I do that?” she asked, referring to the double billing. “I certainly wouldn’t expect to be paid twice for anything.

“If, inadvertently, a mistake was made, whether it was an accountant or whatever, if I have to correct it I’ll correct it,” Mojonnier said. “I’m not out to do anything wrong. I work hard to do what I’m doing, and the one thing I don’t pay attention to is the different things that happen along the way.”