Councilwoman Maritza Davila held a fundraiser more than a year ago to celebrate her new role as president of the City Council. She has yet to file the legally required campaign finance report with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).
State officials confirmed in late June that Davila had yet to file the campaign finance report for the Jul. 2018 fundraiser.
75-100 people attended the fundraiser hosted just weeks after she had been picked by her colleagues to serve as president of the City Council. She had lost her bid for the post the previous year.
“So thankful for my team for putting together a celebration fundraiser for my council presidency,” wrote Davila on her social media page a day after the fundraiser. She is required by law to disclose reportable contributions. She would also have to provide an accounting of the total sum raised that night.
Davila did not respond to a call for comment last week. She also did not respond to a text message seeking her response for this story.
Revelation of Davila’s failure to file the fundraiser report comes at a time mayor Andre Sayegh and his allies have bristled at some of the criticism the council president and her allies had hurled at the mayor’s administration and controversial One Paterson group.
Some of her allies had called for more transparency at the One Paterson group. They want the mayor to release names of donors, something Sayegh, who ran on restoring integrity to muncipal government and transparency, had not done since the formation of the group.
Sayegh’s close friend William Pascrell, III, a lobbyist, serves as the president of One Paterson. Pascrell has said the group’s board will decide whether to disclose names of donors.
Davila has been delinquent in filing her campaign finance reports in the past. For example, she did not file her 20-day post-election report for her 2014 run until almost a year later. She did better four years later in 2018 while running for re-election by filing the three key campaign reports on time.
Davila was re-elected to the City Council presidency earlier in month.
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