Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez corrected Monday his July campaign finance report amid criticism that his initial filing reported a potentially illegal $25,000 donation from a corporation with a stake in his district.
The original version of the campaign finance report noted the donation to the Farmers Branch-based . It is illegal for corporations to make political donations directly to candidates and can lead to a third-degree felony charge under .
Centurion American is developing 836 acres along Bonds Ranch Road, which falls in Ramirez鈥檚 district just north of Fort Worth city limits. In spring 2024, county commissioners approved creating a $200 million , or PID, covering the area, which is .
Ramirez said Wednesday that the donation being attributed to the company was a 鈥渃lerical error.鈥�
The corrected campaign finance report attributes the contribution to Centurion American鈥檚 CEO, north Texas developer Mehrdad Moayedi. Company CEOs are allowed to donate to politicians as individuals or through PACs, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.
鈥淭here was a clerical error that was corrected and amended,鈥� Ramirez said in a phone call with the Report. 鈥淭here are a lot of corrected reports that get filed every year.鈥�
At the time of publication, Ramirez鈥檚 office did not immediately respond to further questions about the nature of the filing mistake or his relationship with Moayedi.
A spokesperson for Centurion said no one from the company could immediately comment on the story and asked that requests for comment be sent over email. At the time of publication, the company had not responded.
The recent donation to Ramirez was made from Moayedi鈥檚 business account and appears to be attributed to the address of Centurion American, according to a scan of the donation check .
A donation from a business account is against the law, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
Jones said even if business owners see their money and the company鈥檚 cash as the same, their donations must come from their personal funds.
鈥淭he reality is, under Texas campaign finance laws it does matter,鈥� Jones said.
In 2023, Moayedi donated $25,000 to the commissioner and $10,000 to County Judge Tim O鈥橦are, a few months before the public improvement district benefiting his development was created.
The easiest remedy for Ramirez and Moayedi to avoid potential legal consequences is for the commissioner to return the check to Centurion American, Jones said. Moayedi could, in turn, make a new donation under a personal bank account.
Moayedi is a regular major political donor.
He has donated to prominent local, state and national Republicans. In 2018, he listed what Forbes called Dallas鈥� 鈥溾�� for nearly $30 million. Earlier this year, he donated a renovated historic sanctuary to Mercy Culture Church, a church with a large and a .
Texas has on how much money an individual can contribute to a politician unless the recipient is a judge or judicial candidate.
Ramirez鈥檚 report was filed July 15 and covered campaign donations and spending from Jan. 1 to June 30.
The commissioner鈥檚 campaign treasurer, Dee Kelly, an attorney said in an email that he verified the finance report was corrected. He did not respond to further questions.
The report was initially posted with . Those names are required to be on reports, according to state law. Tarrant County elections officials took the blame for redactions, saying it was done by the department in error, not by Ramirez.
While the rules around corporate donations may be easy to skirt, Jones said they still help keep companies and labor unions from becoming outsized players in politics.
When a CEO or CFO has to personally make a donation, it makes the contribution more transparent for the public and more complicated for the corporation, he said.
The Texas Ethics Commission acts more as a clerk to create transparency than an enforcer of laws, Jones said.
鈥淭he damage to Commissioner Ramirez would have less to do with a fine from the Texas Ethics Commission for taking a donation from a corporation, and it has more to do with negative publicity surrounding the fact that a developer with clear interest in decisions that the county commissioner makes has given this money,鈥� Jones said.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or .
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