Use of public resources.

(1) Existing law prohibits the use of public funds for campaign activities. This bill would prohibit a nonprofit organization or an officer, employee, or agent of a nonprofit organization from using, or permitting another to use public resources received from a local agency for campaign activity, as defined, and not authorized by law. This bill would define, among other terms, "public resources" to mean any property or asset owned by a local agency and funds received by a nonprofit organization which have been generated from any activities related to conduit bond financing by those entities subject to specified conduit financing and transparency and accountability provisions, and "nonprofit organization" to mean an entity incorporated under the Nonprofit Corporation Law or a nonprofit organization that qualifies for exempt status under the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986, except as specified. This bill would authorize a civil cause of action for a violation of these prohibitions and damages that include, but are not limited to, 3 times the value of the unlawful use of the public resources. This bill would authorize the Attorney General, a district attorney, and a city attorney of a city having a population in excess of 750,000 to seek these civil remedies. (2) Existing law requires qualifying individuals and political organizations to report specified information, including, but not limited to, political contributions, in statements filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. This bill would require a reporting nonprofit organization that engages in campaign activity to deposit into a separate bank account all "specific source or sources of funds" it receives and to pay for all campaign activity from that separate bank account. This bill would define, among other terms, "reporting nonprofit organization" to mean a nonprofit organization for which public resources from one or more local agencies account for more than 20% of the organization's annual gross revenue, as specified, and "specific source or sources of funds" to mean any funds received by the reporting nonprofit organization that have been designated for campaign activity use or any other funds received by the nonprofit organization, as specified. This bill would further require a reporting nonprofit organization that engages in campaign activity of specified amounts or more to periodically disclose to the Franchise Tax Board, and post on its Internet Web site in a certain manner, the identity and amount of each specific source or sources of funds it receives for campaign activity, a description of the campaign activity, and the identity and amount of payments the organization makes from the required separate bank account, as specified. This bill would authorize the Franchise Tax Board to conduct an audit of any reporting nonprofit organization, require the board to conduct an audit of any reporting nonprofit organization that engages in campaign activity in excess of $500,000 in a calendar year, issue a written audit report, and transmit the report to the Attorney General and the district attorney for the county in which the reporting nonprofit organization is domiciled. This bill would authorize the Attorney General or the district attorney for the county in which the reporting nonprofit organization is domiciled to assess a monetary civil penalty of up to $10,000 against a reporting nonprofit organization for each violation of these disclosure requirements, as specified.