Update: Police Officers Group Gave $6,228 to Charity in 2010, Half of 2009

Updated at 10:10 p.m. Dec. 28

The La Mesa Police Officers Association has given increasingly less to charity over the past three years—falling from $15,453 in 2008 to $6,228 in 2010, according to its tax filings.

Its website says it gives money to various nonprofits, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and La Mesa National Little League.

The group, which also serves as the police union for collective bargaining, also developed a program entitled Officers Helping East County Youth, the website adds.

“This program assists local students who are doing well in school and want to participate in a sport, arts program or music program,” the POA says.

But the amount of money it disbursed to charity in 2010 was half that of 2009—and 40 percent that of 2008, according to the POA’s filings with the Internal Revenue Service.

In 2011, La Mesa POA dropped its annual fundraising letter—as well as the company that circulated the charity mailer on its behalf. 

But for the second year, local police contributed to a political action committee—raising $8,660 in the first six months.

“With regards to our PAC, [it] is not uncommon for police officer associations to form PACs, so this shouldn’t be of any surprise,” said Jeff Raybould, president of the La Mesa Police Officers Association, a bargaining unit that also serves social and charitable roles.

“The LMPOA has had a PAC for two years and hasn’t contributed to a political campaign yet,” Raybould said in November.  “We have in the past and will continue in the future [to] endorse politicians and others as we see the need to.”

Raybould said via email Wednesday that no City Council candidate had approached the La Mesa Police Officers Association PAC for its support.

However, he said in an earlier note, “We are endorsing [Deputy District Attorney] Bob Amador for San Diego Superior [Court] judge in 2012 and reviewing four others for similar positions.”

Amador—who once was a Sheriff’s Department liaison officer working with the La Mesa Police Department—also received the endorsement of the Chula Vista police PAC.

For a number of years, the La Mesa Police Officers Association raised money as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit charity through a mailer that reached all La Mesa households. 

But in the wake of a December 2010 La Mesa Patch report that its commercial fundraiser had failed to register with the state Attorney General’s Office for three years, the POA dropped the company—New Equity Productions of Newport Beach.

New Equity complied with state demands in early December 2010.

A high-ranking source in the Police Department says the POA now raises money via its annual golf tournament—no longer sending an autumn mailer to as many as 32,000 addresses.

The first annual La Mesa police charity golf tournament was held in July 2010 at the Salt Creek Golf Club in Chula Vista, according to an online calendar. After expenses, the association netted $13,260. A second tourney was held in July 2011.

The POA also is raising money via its Centennial Challenge Coin, costing $10, which police say will help defray costs of the new badge officers will wear in 2012.

The POA’s website notes: “We also provide financial support for various nonprofit organizations.  We are a proud supporter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, San Diego Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Susan G. Komen Foundation and La Mesa National Little League just to name a few.”

The La Mesa Police Officers Association has developed a program entitled Officers Helping East County Youth, the website adds.

“This program assists local students who are doing well in school and want to participate in a sport, arts program, or music program,” the POA says. 

“Without assistance from this program, the student may not be able to participate in that activity due to financial difficulty or lack of required supplies or equipment. The students are chosen by recommendations from the staff at a local school and by members of the La Mesa Police Officers Association.”

Soliciting donations, the POA lists a post office box for its treasurer and links to a PayPal account.

“If you have any questions or need a receipt for the donation, please contact the treasurer,” says the website.  The treasurer listed on the directors page is Greg Runge.

However, the listed treasurer of the La Mesa police PAC is Brian Stoney, a police sergeant.

According to its state-mandated Form 460 filing (attached), which lists all contributors to the PAC, “La Mesa Police Officers Association … is intermediary for all contributions.”

Dozens of sworn and nonsworn members of the La Mesa Police Department, including then-Chief Al Lanning, made $100 contributions to the police PAC in the period Jan. 1 to June 30, 2011—from police services specialist Cynthia Aceves to dispatcher Andrea Zolezzi.

All employees listed 8085 University Ave. as their address—the address of the new police station.

“The La Mesa Police Officers Association represents the sworn police officers, community service officers, dispatchers and animal control officer of the La Mesa Police Department,” says the group's website, adding: “We have a 100% membership of all available positions and represent all ranks within the department, including the chief of police.”

In a short exchange of email with La Mesa Patch, POA President Raybould promised to make available the group’s 2010 Form 990, the IRS document that tells what it raised and spent for charitable purposes.

“The 2010 Form 990 will be posted on our website shortly for public viewing,” Raybould said Nov. 10.

A “taxpayers copy” of the 2010 Form 990 was added to the La Mesa POA website this week (see attached PDF). It shows gross receipts of $178,884, of which $115,335 were membership dues and $9,334 were incoming donations.

IRS filings show the POA in 2010 distributed $6,228 to unspecified groups, individuals and charities—compared with $12,398 in 2009. Charities got $15,453 from the POA in 2008 and $9,152 in 2007.

The POA in 2010 spent $27,986 for “benefits paid to or for members” (mostly insurance benefits) compared with $79,299 in 2009.

No salaries were paid to POA leaders, but $42,031 was paid in 2010 to independent contractors, said the filing.

Although the La Mesa police PAC was in place before the 2010 mayoral and council elections, the group endorsed no one.

In a posting Oct. 25, 2010, on La Mesa Today, Raybould wrote:

Regarding this year’s elections in the City of La Mesa: While the La Mesa Police Officers Association is not officially endorsing any one particular candidate for mayor or council, it is our hope that the citizens of this community will make their voices heard by telling whichever candidate that they decide to vote for, incumbent or new, that business as usual in the City of La Mesa is no longer good enough. The time for change is now before things get any worse and before it's too late to do anything about it.