City Councilwoman Huang Pleads iPhone Ignorance After Being Caught Red-Handed
Earlier this week the Orange County Register reported that Yorba Linda City Councilwoman and Orange County GOP candidate Peggy Huang unlawfully used government resources to prop up her failing Congressional campaign for California’s 45th District.
Despite a Yorba Linda City Ordinance spelling out that “it is unlawful for any City official to engage in campaign-related activities, such as fundraising” and the use of “City facilities, equipment, supplies or other City resources” are prohibited, Peggy Huang sent numerous emails related to her soon-to-be failed campaign from Congress from her government email. Huang’s emails included conversations regarding a potential donor hosting a fundraiser on her behalf, wiring funds to her campaign consultants, and bragging to her consultant that her campaign was “gaining national attention.”
Huang should have known these emails were against city laws. In 2017, she completed a 2-hour course on the city’s ethics rules, and signed a certificate from the City Clerk’s Department detailing her participation.
In spite of ignoring the ethics laws in her own city, Huang as a public official also completed a 2-hour course on the city’s ethics rules which Huang signed and was certified by the City Clerk’s Department.
But when questioned as to the specifics of her ethical misdeeds and misuse of taxpayer resources, the Orange County Register reported that Huang:
“Didn’t realize she’d accidentally used her city email to send those campaign messages,” and that “she has three email addresses — a personal address, city address and campaign address — that she had been accessing from her iPhone, and didn’t realize the phone had automatically populated those campaign messages with the wrong ‘sender’ email address.”
ONLY PROBLEM: as the old saying goes, “ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law.”
Read more about Huang’s ethics violations HERE or below.
Orange County Register: 2020 roundup: House challengers in Orange County catch heat over Trump ties, ethical violation
Brooke Staggs // July 29, 2019
One Republican congressional candidate from Orange County is being called out for receiving campaign help from a political operative closely tied to indicted Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Another is being chastised for using a city council email address for campaign business.
[…]
Another Porter challenger is also taking some heat for an apparent ethical violation.
In addition to running for CA-45, Peggy Huang also sits on the Yorba Linda City Council. That city’s ethics code says city resources, including email addresses, can’t be used to do campaign work. But the DCCC did a public records request and found that during a three-month period ending in late June Huang used her city council email address to send a half dozen emails involving her congressional campaign. Records show the brief emails were all to campaign consultants and all dealt with routine campaign issues such as fundraising, scheduling and interview requests. She was not found to be using the city-sponsored email to reach constituents.
“Huang unethically used government resources for explicitly political purposes and completely broke the trust of those she serves in the city of Yorba Linda,” said Andy Orellana, spokesman for the DCCC.
When asked about the issue, Huang said she didn’t realize she’d accidentally used her city email to send those campaign messages until it was flagged by the city clerk following the DCCC’s records request. Huang said she has three email addresses — a personal address, city address and campaign address — that she had been accessing from her iPhone, and didn’t realize the phone had automatically populated those campaign messages with the wrong “sender” email address. As soon as she was notified, Huang said she deleted her city council email from her phone as a precaution so the mix-up can’t happen again.
Huang and Raths face four other Republican challengers plus Porter in the CA-45 race.
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