PAC Faces Fine for Missing Paper Work : Torrance: The treasurer of a small political group says he was misinformed about the rules for filing financial statements.

A small political action committee in Torrance faces a $2,859 fine for failing to file any financial disclosure statements since 1986, Torrance City Clerk John Bramhall said Tuesday.

Bramhall’s staff discovered that the committee, called Protect Our Property, was violating state disclosure laws after City Councilman Bill Applegate--irritated at being excluded from an endorsement letter that the group sent out just before last month’s election--complained that he could not find any city records on the committee.

Group treasurer Frank Rizzardi, who immediately filed eight back statements after learning of the omission, said he had believed the committee only needed to file disclosures if it donated $500 or more to a single candidate.

State law requires political action committees to file two reports each year regardless of their level of activity. Rizzardi did file one statement in March, 1986, after the committee gave $500 to City Councilwoman Dee Hardison.

“We’re a small-time operation--$30 here, $50 there,” Rizzardi said of the committee, which currently has just over $900 in its treasury. “We’re all laymen. . . . We’re not trying to disobey the law.”

The possible fine “is far above anything we’ve ever had in our treasury at one time,” he said. The group’s seven-member executive committee Wednesday had not yet decided whether to ask for the penalty to be waived.

Bramhall, who said he had to call the state Fair Political Practices Commission for guidance because he had never encountered any reports this late before, said he at first believed the group could be liable for a $50,000 fine--$10 for every day each report was late.

State law, however, limits the possible fine based on how much money the organization has collected and spent.

Deputy City Clerk Dora Hong said Rizzardi used an outdated form, which would not have been available through the city clerk’s office, to file his single disclosure statement four years ago.

“I feel sorry for Mr. Rizzardi,” Hong said. “I do believe him when he says he was given incorrect information, because he (used) the wrong form.”