Homeowner group’s mailers may go against IRS codes

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Bluffs Homeowners Assn. may have violated

Internal Revenue Service code regulations by including one-sided campaign

fliers in its monthly bills to residents.

As a nonprofit organization, the association is “prohibited from

participating or intervening in any political campaign,” according to an

advisory the IRS released earlier this year to alert nonprofits to the

code.

The Bluffs’ 647 homeowners received a two-page mailer in bills that

went out around Oct. 25, said Cork Levinson, the president of the

association’s board of directors.

The first page, titled “Measure S (Greenlight): Questions and

Answers,” lists development projects that could be affected by the

initiative.

Measure S proposes to put before a citywide vote any development that

allows an increase of more than 100 peak-hour car trips or dwelling

units, or 40,000 square feet more than the general plan allowance.

The mailer’s second page includes a box that reads “Vote yes on S,

Vote no on T.”

Measure T would add parts of the city’s traffic phasing ordinance to

the city charter and nullify Measure S if voters approve both

initiatives.

Levinson did not dispute that the mailer favored Measure S and opposed

Measure T. He said the homeowners association had extended an invitation

to the Measure T campaign to supply similar materials for inclusion in

the billing statements.

“Measure T never responded to anything,” Levinson said, adding that

the campaign’s membership also did not respond to an invitation to

participate in the association’s election forum until a day before the

Oct. 26 meeting.

The association sent letters regarding the mailer and the forum to

Clarence Turner, the co-chairman of the Measure T campaign, Levinson

said.

Turner, who had been out of the country since Oct. 14 and returned to

Newport Beach on Friday, said he had not found a letter from The Bluffs

in his mail.

“I regret that they didn’t provide information on both sides,” he

said. “That is their obligation.”

Levinson declined to comment on why the association decided to include

information on Measure S in its billing statements without providing

Measure T information.

A spokesman for the revenue service said a decision on whether the

association violated the campaign ban for nonprofit organizations would

require an investigation -- although the federal agency does not now have

any information regarding the mailers.

According to the agency’s advisory, “if the IRS finds a [nonprofit]

organization engaged in prohibited campaign activity, the organization

could lose its [tax] exempt status.”