Covina : Councilman Agrees to Fine

Councilman Chris Lancaster has agreed to pay a $1,750 fine to the state Fair Political Practices Commission for voting in 1990 on annexation of property controlled by a developer who had employed him as a political consultant.

Lancaster agreed to the fine in a stipulation that will be submitted to the commission. In the stipulation, Lancaster acknowledges that he violated the state Political Reform Act by voting on a matter involving someone who had paid him more than $250 in the preceding year.

Diamond Bar developer Gary Miller hired Lancaster to work on his unsuccessful campaign for the state Senate in 1990. Later that year, Lancaster joined in a unanimous City Council vote on a group of six resolutions that included one establishing a formula for division of property tax revenue if the city annexed 52 acres where Miller was planning a housing development.

Gregory Annigian, Lancaster’s attorney, said the vote was a technical violation on a routine council action, and that it was cheaper for Lancaster to pay the fine than to contest it.