Board Closes Probe of Gajewski's Campaign Fund

The city’s elections board on Thursday voted to close its investigation of a campaign finance violation by former mayoral candidate Piotr Gajewski. The board also opted not to act on another complaint against the former councilman while pledging to take a closer look at city election law.

“It’s time to move on,” board Chairman David Celeste said moments after the board voted 4-0 to accept an amended campaign fund report from Gajewski. Board member Howard Eskildson was not present for the vote.

At issue were two $600 contributions that Gajewski listed in a Sept. 30 campaign fund report. The contributions were listed as in-kind and went toward rent for a former auto dealership building at 718 Rockville Pike that Gajewski used as his campaign headquarters.

The board determined that the rent owed on the property should be $1,300 and should cover a partial month for which Gajewski did not account. In December, the board . The $700 included the partial month’s rent and one of the $600 contributions that Gajewski said had been made in-kind. The board asked Gajewski to produce paperwork showing that the contribution, by Neil Marcus, was indeed in-kind.

Marcus is listed in the campaign fund report as having the same address as the other in-kind contributor, MS Pike LLC, which owns the building that Gajewski rented through a licensing agreement.

Rockville resident Drew Powell and eight others filed . In it, they questioned whether the two $600 contributions were actually from the same entity and therefore exceeded the $1,000-per-donor contribution limit spelled out in the city’s election code.

Gajewski said that he was unable, after multiple attempts, to contact Marcus and could not provide the documentation the board requesed.

In lieu of the documentation, Gajewski sent a letter to the board on Jan. 8 showing that he had amended his campaign fund report. He deleted the contribution from Marcus and credited MS Pike LLC with a $1,000 in-kind contribution. Gajewski also submitted to the board a cashier’s check, which he said was to reimburse MS Pike LLC for the $300 that exceeded the contribution limit. He said he would report the $300 expense in his next campaign fund report.

Celeste broke a brief stalemate during Thursday’s meeting after not a single board member offered a motion to accept or reject Gajewski’s attempt to resolve the complaint.

As chairman, Celeste could not offer a motion, but suggested that he would support a motion to accept the amended report. His desire was to allow the board to turn its attention toward fixing flaws in the city’s election law that led to the violation.

“I’ll vote to accept with the idea in mind that we need to improve this system so that it never happens again,” Celeste said.

The board also decided not to act on another complaint by the group led by Powell that alleged that Gajewski did not report six campaign contributions in a timely manner.

Powell noted in a Jan. 5 letter to the board that, of the $1,575 total from the six contributions, $1,250 was from two managing partners and a vice president with The JBG Companies. JBG is developing office, residential and retail projects inside and outside of the city limits near the Twinbrook Metro station.

The contributions, made in October, should have appeared on Gajewski’s Oct. 30 campaign fund report, Powell wrote.

Celeste said Thursday that he agreed with Powell. The late filing “could have been anything from sloppiness to purposeful or anything in between,” Celeste said.

The board then agreed that, in keeping with its decision to accept Gajewski’s amended report on rent for his campaign headquarters, it would not pursue the violation complaint.

Instead, the board will use the situation as a basis for discussing reforms to the city’s election laws. Talk of campaign finance reporting and election law dominated a Jan. 28 post-election wrap-up meeting with candidates, campaign workers and elections board members.

The board on Thursday discussed holding a follow-up to that meeting in late March or early April.