Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston might need a new Treasurer, not himself.

The Guilford County Board of Elections has updated their site to include the new 2nd quarter candidate financial reports for 2008. CLICKHERE . Or you can click on the headline and it will show you Skip Alston's 2nd quarter returns.

Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston campaign contribution forms for 2008 might need a complete overhaul or maybe a new treasurer . It might be tough to fire Mr. Alston's treasurer since it is none other than himself .

According to North Carolina General Statutes 163-278.11

§ 163‑278.11. Contents of treasurer's statement of receipts and expenditures.
(a) Statements filed pursuant to provisions of this Article shall set forth the following:
(1) Contributions. – Except as provided in subsection (a1) of this section, a list of all contributions received by or on behalf of a candidate, political committee, or referendum committee. The statement shall list the name and complete mailing address of each contributor, the amount contributed, the principal occupation of the contributor, and the date such contribution was received. The total sum of all contributions to date shall be plainly exhibited. Forms for required reports shall be prescribed by the Board. As used in this section, "principal occupation of the contributor" means the contributor's:
a. Job title or profession; and
b. Employer's name or employer's specific field of business activity.
The State Board of Elections shall prepare a schedule of specific fields of business activity, adapting or modifying as it deems suitable the business activity classifications of the Internal Revenue Code or other relevant classification schedules. In reporting a contributor's specific field of business activity, the treasurer shall use the classification schedule prepared by the State Board.

Let's take a closer look at Mr. Alston's campaign report for the first quarter that was reported on 4-23-08. Every single contributor that gave to his campaign which was a total of 10 people didn't have a single box filled in for their Job Title or Employers name. As you can see from above in the North Carolina General Statute these 2 important items need to be filled out by the treasurer before they are turned in to the Board of Elections.There are some notable campaign contributors who are well known in the political circles of Guilford County for example,

Marc Isaacson $100.00, no job title or employer name , Mr. Alston clickhere
Henry Isaacson $100.00, no job title or employer name, Mr. Alston clickhere
Jeff Thigpen, $150.00 , no job title or employer name, Mr. Alston clickhere
Desmond Sheridan $50.00, no job title or employer name, Mr. Alston clickhere
W.S. Morris , $500.00, no job title or employer name, Mr. Alston clickhere

This was from the first quarter where he ended up with $2,550 total which has some aggregated funds as well which are reported on a separate form.

Then on to the 2nd quarter reports where you are suppose to report your total from the first quarter it states $2,650 where did $100.00 come from?

The 2nd quarter report were even worse than the first quarter report for campaign contributions to Skip Alston's campaign for Guilford County Commissioner.Out of 11 campaign contributions only 1 person had a job title which was Rufus Farrior Attorney who gave $200.00. There were 10 contributors with no job title or employer and of those 10 campaign contributors 6 of them have no address just name and city. On top of that there was not one date on when the contributions were made to the campaign.Let me help the treasurer out a little bit on the information,

Bryan Nelson, $1,000, no job title or employer name, Mr. Alston clickhere

Here is a list of the contributors with only name and city
Stephanie K. Craft
Greensboro N.C.

Ashley K. Vanore
Greensboro N.C.

Kelly K. Harrill
Greensboro N.C.

Lisa K. Johnson
Greensboro N.C.

George Durham
Greensboro N.C.

Stephen Showfety
Greensboro N.C.

All you need to do to get 5 of these names off this list is either go to plenty of other people on the Guilford County Board of Elections web site click here then if you want click on Robbie Perkins 2007 campaign contributions or just click here which is the Koury Corporation and you could get Stephen Showfety, and Kelly Harrill address, occupation and job title.Ashley Vanore is the late Joseph Koury's daughter.Lisa Johnson and Stephanie Craft are also with Koury Corporation.

There is a part of the North Carolina General Statute called best efforts,
(c) Best Efforts. – When a treasurer shows that best efforts have been used to obtain, maintain, and submit the information required by this Article for the candidate or political committee, any report of that candidate or committee shall be considered in compliance with this Article and shall not be the basis for criminal prosecution or the imposition of civil penalties, other than forfeiture of a contribution improperly accepted under this Article. The State Board of Elections shall promulgate rules that specify what are "best efforts" for purposes of this Article, adapting as it deems suitable the provisions of 11 C.F.R. § 104.7. The rules shall include a provision that if the treasurer, after complying with this Article and the rules, does not know the occupation of the contributor, it shall suffice for the treasurer to report "unable to obtain". (1973, c. 1272, s. 1; 1977, c. 635, s. 2; 1979, c. 1073, s. 20; 1997‑515, ss. 2(a), (b), 3(a); 2006‑161, s. 4; 2006‑195, s. 5; 2007‑391, s. 35(a).)

In Mr. Alston's case it seems like best efforts was thrown out the door in reporting campaign contributions. This type of reporting for any candidate is sad to see and I hope the Guilford County Board of Elections can identify these lax reporting and hold them accountable. It is not very hard to get this information on these forms and it might be time for Mr. Alston to hire a treasurer or start reporting what is a part of the laws of this State of North Carolina.

UPDATE: Brenda Wallace from the Guilford County Board of Elections has informed me that Mr. Alston will complete the missing information and have an amended report.