Thursday, April 12, 2007

Brewer backers get their donations back -- and convictions

At least one of the men convicted yesterday of underpaying Wichita Police detectives for scrap metal during a sting operation also gave a maximum $500 contribution to Mayor Carl Brewer's campaign on Feb. 27 while he was awaiting his court date. Louie Marks is one of five men from Kansas Can who gave Brewer $500 campaign contributions on that day in February. Not all of them faced charges, but Sheryl Wohlford, Brewer's campaign treasurer, tells The Hall Monitor that all five maximum contributions from Marks and his family members were returned "several weeks ago." (See a PDF of Brewer's campaign report)

Louie and John J. Marks face probation when they are sentenced on May 18. Another family member who apparently did not donate, Bobby Marks, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for stealing scrap metal and selling it back to the family business. (For more on the scrap metal case, see a story in today's Wichita Eagle by Tim Potter and Ron Sylvester.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for Mayor Brewer! Given that he loaned his own campaign a lot of money, returning the donations was literally cash out of his own pocket.

Anonymous said...

Politicians at all levels - local, county, state and federal- could learn a lesson from Brewer. A valuable lesson about ethics. This situation once again demostrates our new mayor's moral compass. Kudos to Brewer.

Anonymous said...

I must have missed it on his campaign report showing when he gave the money back.

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show you who Brewer associated with as a City Councilman.

Now that he's in the spotlight, he has to appear like he has integrity.

I wouldn't put too much weight on this. It's all spin.

Anonymous said...

For whatever reason he did it, Mr. Brewer did the right thing. Hats off to the man for showing some integrity!