Chris Kelly fined for violations in 2010 bid for attorney general

Chris Kelly has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine for failing to properly report $9.86 million in spending by his unsuccessful 2010 campaign for California attorney general.

The enforcement staff of the state Fair Political Practices Commission found that Kelly’s campaign hired Media Strategies and Research Inc. to purchase airtime for media advertisements.

In 2010, the firm bought airtime for media advertisements from subvendors, but the campaign did not report the identities of the subvendors or a description of why they were paid until after a deadline.

Kelly, the former chief privacy officer for Facebook, lost in the Democratic primary.

A settlement agreement drafted by the FPPC staff said the payments not properly reported represented 77% of Kelly’s total spending.

“This percentage, and the total amount of late-reported subvendor expenditures, are substantially higher than the comparable cases thereby justifying a penalty on the higher end of the typical range for similar violations,” the settlement agreement says, adding Kelly “did report the majority of the subvendor information before the election but only one day before the election so the public had very little time to review the information before the election.”

The enforcement staff also noted that Kelly “cooperated with the commission in reaching this settlement agreement.”

The commission will meet May 16 to consider approving the agreement.

Phillip Ung, an advocate for California Common Cause, wrote on Twitter that the fine is small, equal to a fraction of the money not properly reported.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment for the voters,” Ung Tweeted.

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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com