Former Contra Costa County elections chief Joe Canciamilla was levied with one of the largest fines of the year from the Fair Political Practices Commission, who found that he illegally spent $130,529 of campaign funds on a vacation in Asia, remodeling his Hawaii home and other personal expenses in the last several years of his long political career.

Members of the commission unanimously approved a settlement Thursday after Franchise Tax Board staff audited Canciamilla and the FPPC found that he more than 30 times violated campaign finance laws and provided false information and doctored bank statements to hide his misuse.

Commission member Allison Hayward said during the meeting that she finds cases of politicians directing campaign funds for personal use “particularly repugnant.”

“It’s not about moving country forward,” she said. “This is taking resources supposed to be doing that and sucking it into someone’s personal lifestyle. It’s misleading donors and has a smell of fraud to it. Then there’s the tax evasion.”

The details of Canciamilla’s fraud stunned Contra Costa residents earlier this month when the proposed settlement was published by the FPPC, outlining how audits discovered Canciamilla had commingled campaign funds and personal funds and used the campaign funds for personal expenses between May 2011 and June 2015. Besides paying for a $30,000 vacation to Asia, Canciamilla used funds to buy airfare for a trip to London and Washington, D.C. for him and his spouse that was later canceled, according to the stipulation document. He also used the funds to pay off credit card charges incurred from remodeling his house in Hawaii.

Canciamilla concealed the misuse by either not reporting or overstating the available cash on hand in campaign finance forms, according to the stipulation. He reimbursed his committee between 2013 and 2015, but the committee did not report the receipt of those funds.

Canciamilla is the second elected official in Contra Costa County in recent years found to have kept campaign funds for himself.

In 2016, Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson acknowledged using $66,372 of campaign funds for meals, gasoline, hotel rooms and cell phone bills — among other personal expenses. He pleaded no contest to a felony count of perjury, resigned from office and was disbarred.

Canciamilla’s case is similar, FPPC staff wrote in the agreement, in that like Peterson, Canciamilla signed false campaign statements under the penalty of perjury. But while Peterson learned he was being audited, he admitted to and reported the violations. Canciamilla instead gave altered bank records to staff of the Franchise Tax Board, according to the stipulation.

The deception has angered Canciamilla’s Contra Costa County constituents, six of whom spoke at the commission’s meeting in Sacramento Thursday and urged the commission to reject the settlement and take the matter to a full hearing facing the maximum amount of counts.

FPPC staff recommended 30 counts in the settlement at a maximum fine of $5,000 per count — for a total of $150,000. Nine of the counts were for false campaign reporting. According to the stipulation agreement, more than 30 of those false campaign reporting counts could be charged, but “for settlement purposes, nine counts are recommended” by staff.

“Reject this deal and charge for as many counts as possible,” urged Cora Mitchell, a resident of the county who spoke at the meeting. “A message needs to be sent.”

“Our political scene at local level has been a stranglehold of corruption for a long time,” Mitchell said. “Our system is so bad right now that our county assessor is under trial right now and still feels empowered enough to run for a county supervisor seat.”

Other residents agreed, with one pointing to the fact that the clerk-recorder seat is often an uncontested race in Contra Costa and that FPPC action is often the best tool for maintaining accountability in office.

“I was fine with holding my nose and voting for (this settlement), but that was before I heard this particular politician’s constituents speak,” commissioner Frank Cardenas said. “It was suggested this goes right to the heart of our democracy.”

He asked Galena West, the chief of enforcement for the commission, what more the commission could do to ensure “justice” is being served.

“There has to be some value in settlement,” West said. “If we have to take every course to a hearing to get the maximum amount of fines, we will have nothing — no justice, no cases where the story is told, no resignations. We have to strike that balance.”

The stipulation agreement allows the staff to lay out in an agreement the details of the infraction, which staff publicizes so that voters can know what elected officials have been accused of, West said, noting that “we are doing what we can with the administrative law that we have.”

Ultimately, the four commissioners voted unanimously to approve the settlement deal but also promised to consider asking the legislature to raise the maximum amount that can be levied for a penalty like Canciamilla’s.

“Let that be the legacy of what he has done to you,” Cardenas told the Contra Costa residents.

“Mr. Canciamilla does not take this lightly,” said Canciamilla’s attorney Andy Rockas in a written statement, adding that Canciamilla paid back the disputed amounts and the fine. “Mr. Canciamilla has taken full responsibility for this situation, is humbled and embarrassed, and hopes the FPPC fines won’t severely overshadow his 46 years of public service to the residents of Contra Costa County.”

Canciamilla was 17 when he was first elected to the Pittsburg school board in 1973 (turning 18 by the time he was sworn in). He also served on the Pittsburg City Council, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and in the state Assembly out in 2006. He opened a campaign committee to run for a Superior Court judge position in 2012, but never ran for the office. In 2013, when then county clerk-recorder Steve Weir retired, he appointed Canciamilla to fill the term. Canciamilla ran unopposed the following year and again in 2018, but resigned on Oct. 31, which Rockas said was in order to “not bring undue hardship to the office while this matter was being resolved.”

It’s unclear still whether Canciamilla will get to keep his pension. Under a 2012 change to state pension laws, workers convicted of job-related felonies lose their pension benefits from the time they start committing their crimes. Cases involving Contra Costa and Los Angeles firefighters testing that law are currently pending at the state Supreme Court.

While the commission has referred Canciamilla’s matter to the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office, the office had not yet filed any charges against Canciamilla. Spokesman Scott Alonso said the matter was under investigation by the office.

Cardenas, the FPPC commissioner, called Canciamilla’s fraud a “spectacular fall from grace.”

“This gentleman took office in 1973 at the age of 17,” Cardenas said. “He elects to end his career in this matter. It’s breathtaking arrogance.”