Editor’s note: This story was originally published at 5:47 p.m. on Aug. 9. It was updated at 9:50 p.m. on Aug. 9 to correct the amount the MCDCC owed the IRS in principal and interest, according to the comittee chair.
Under threat of an IRS lien, the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee on Tuesday night discussed receiving a hefty donation. The donated amount happens to be $8,427, the exact figure needed to pay off the principal and interest owed.
The donor? Former MCDCC chair David Kunes.
The IRS trouble stems from unpaid taxes for 2017-2018, according to the members of the committee who spoke to MoCo360. The committee owes $13,608, and an IRS representative showed up in June at the committee’s Rockville offices and warned leaders of an impending lien.
Kunes was chair for part of that 2017-2018 period and now works as a contractor senior adviser for County Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-Large). Committee member Michelle Whittaker (At-large) stated during the meeting that Kunes had donated the exact amount of $8,427 to the committee.
Kunes’ donation was first reported by The Baltimore Sun.
In response to multiple emails and phone calls from MoCo360 requesting comment on the donation, Kunes emailed, “I’m not interested, thank you!”
Assistant treasurer Jayson Spiegel (Dist. 17) made a motion for the committee to immediately pay the $8,427 in interest and principal owed to the IRS, which the committee unanimously approved.
The donation won’t alleviate all the IRS debt. The committee initially owed $13,608, though chair Saman Qadeer Ahmad said Tuesday she believes the committee can reach a deal with the agency on some of the penalties imposed.
“We have made a compromise to the IRS in good faith that if we are able to pay off the principal and interest, we may have penalties reduced or dismissed,” Ahmad said, but also said the matter was still in negotiations.
A line item in the budget leaked recently showed that MCDCC is on a two-year payment plan with the IRS and will pay $6,804 this year and $6,804 next year, or $567 per month.
An IRS agent arrived at the MCDCC office at the Jewish Council for Aging in June and provided an MCDCC staff member with paperwork threatening a lien for unpaid taxes for 2017-2018, according to the members of the committee who spoke to MoCo360. They allegedly were told that the IRS had apparently been sending notices to the committee’s former address and they were not being received by the committee because of the office move.
Treasurer Andrew Saundry assured the panel that the committee would be able to pay off the fines regardless of whether Ahmad could get the penalties forgiven, because the full amount was incorporated into the committee’s budget.
“We have the money to pay this off,” Saundry said. “Since we fundraised more than we expected to fundraise [this year], we’re in fact in a better position than we thought we were going to be at this point to pay this off in a timely fashion.”
The committee held a recent fundraiser with Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D)on Aug. 3 and is promoting a fall gala Oct. 22.
The panel stuck to regular business for the rest of the meeting and did not discuss another controversy that has engulfed the committee. On Monday, committee member Nathan Feldman (Dist. 15) released a letter calling for Ahmad to resign, alleging she pressured him to vote against a committee candidate and that she claimed she was doing so on behalf of Miller.
Ahmad has denied the allegations, and Miller’s team has denied any involvement.
There was some debate between committee members after Liza Smith (Dist. 14) suggested livestreaming the meetings. Currently, the committee livestreams meetings only when they pertain to appointing General Assembly representatives.
“My neighbors and people in the community are asking for us to Zoom or record. We need to be transparent if you want people involved. That is a small request, and I have no answer for them,” Smith said.
Cece Grant (Dist. 19), who chairs the communications committee, said the committee needs to recruit volunteers to livestream, and needs multiple people to facilitate the recording. But another communications committee member, Seth Grimes (Dist. 20), argued that it would not be that difficult and the committee could set up a laptop to stream the meeting on Zoom.
Ahmad said the communications committee would take up the issue.
Jason Makstein, who runs the blog Moderately MoCo, attended the meeting with the purpose of livestreaming it on Facebook. He told MoCo360 that as he was setting up his phone to record, a committee member approached him and told him not to record. Makstein asked “Are you kicking me out?” and then was not prevented from recording.