State election regulators have issued a formal warning to former Coronado mayor and current San Diego City Council candidate Richard Bailey after he failed to properly disclose personal investments in multiple stocks over three years.
The decision from the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces the state Political Reform Act, came in the wake of a sworn complaint filed against Bailey.
“Your actions violated the Act by failing to timely disclose stocks on your 2020, 2021 and 2022 annual SEIs,” or statements of economic interest, the FPPC said in its March 16 decision letter to Bailey.
Regulators said Bailey was issued a warning rather than a monetary fine because he cooperated with state investigators and quickly amended the filings in question.
“The information in this matter will be retained and may be considered should an enforcement action become necessary based on newly discovered information or future conduct,” the letter added.
Bailey said the reports were filed in errors years ago, and he noted that he corrected them soon after learning of the omissions.
“At the time, I did not believe stock holdings needed to be included in the local disclosures since the local policy would not materially impact share price of multinational corporations like Google or Amazon,” he said.
“Once it was brought to my attention, based on my federal filings which did include those holdings, I promptly amended the local forms to ensure all disclosures were compliant,” he added.
California’s Form 700, the statements of economic disclosure that public officials are required to submit every year, are clear about which personal interests must be reported. Schedule A-1 is titled, “Investments: Stocks, Bonds and Other Interests.”
Bailey, who was a registered Republican for years before leaving the party in recent months, is running against six other candidates for the District 2 seat on the San Diego City Council. He was mayor of Coronado from 2016 to 2024.