Won’t You Come Clean Charley Walker?

It’s time for Charles Walker to come clean on finances.

Charles Walker, chairman of the Niagara Falls City Council, is in violation of New York State election law.

Still.

As of press time, he has yet to file his 2013 campaign financial reports with the New York State Board of Elections.

He has been in violation for more than 18 months, as he has declined to file a single report disclosing who donated to his 2013 successful re-election campaign, or how much they donated and how he spent those donations.

As we wrote last week, political forces are currently polling to calculate the odds of Mayor Dyster winning a third term as mayor.  Walker’s name was included in polling last week as a potential challenger to Dyster.

Also mentioned were Glenn Choolokian, Robert Restaino and Johnny Destino.

Whether Walker is seriously considering a run for mayor is perhaps at this time a moot point.

The fact is some people think he is strong enough to give Dyster a run for his money.

Still, a sitting elected official with questions of campaign propriety hanging over his head is not a prescription for success.

Over the last year, Walker has offered some pretty shabby reasons for his ongoing failing to file.

Most recently he said his “campaign treasurer,” Ike Williams, could not figure out how to use the computer to file the forms.

Williams, an IT specialist by profession, who taught computer classes, told the Reporter he is computer literate and certainly could have filed, but Walker never gave him any information to file, and he was not even Walker's treasurer during Walker’s 2013 campaign.

In July  when he was asked by the Niagara Gazette about his missing disclosures, Walker said, "I have to sit down this week or next week to get that figured out."  That was four months ago.

One year ago, when the Buffalo News asked Walker why he was the only council candidate to not file reports during the 2013 campaign season, Walker said he would "check with the two people helping to manage his campaign about the unfiled paperwork."

According to the New York State Board of Elections website, there are three reports required with each Primary and General Election. Failure to file these can result in $1,000 penalties being assessed to “any candidate who willfully and knowingly fails to file required forms” per failure.

That makes $6,000 for Walker for 2013. 

Walker has been a councilman for 17 years.

He owes it to the people of this city to quickly reveal how much money he got during the last campaign and from whom and how he spent it.

Like everyone else.