Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 351 - Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, Iowa › Chapter 4 - Campaign Disclosure Procedures › Rule 351-4.47 - Permitted Activity-reimbursement Required

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
The prohibitions against certain transactions between corporate
				entities and candidates or committees expressly advocating the election or
				defeat of candidates contained in Iowa Code section
				68A.503
				and in rule 351-4.44(68A,68B) are not construed to prohibit activity that
				occurs consistent with this rule.
(1)
Purchase or rental of office facility.
A candidate's committee
			 or any other committee that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a
			 candidate may purchase or rent property belonging to a corporate entity, so
			 long as the purchase or rental is at fair market value. For the purpose of this
			 subrule, "fair market value" means the amount that a member of the general
			 public would expect to pay to purchase or rent a similar property within the
			 community in which the property is located.
(2)
Use of corporate facilities to
			 produce or mail materials.
Any person who uses the facilities of a
			 corporate entity to produce or mail materials in connection with a candidate
			 election is required to reimburse the corporate entity within a commercially
			 reasonable time for the normal and usual charge for producing or mailing such
			 materials in the commercial market. For example, if it would otherwise cost 10
			 cents per page to have a brochure copied at a commercial printer, the corporate
			 entity must be reimbursed at 10 cents per page even if the overhead and
			 operating cost is only 5 cents per page. Likewise, the corporate entity must be
			 reimbursed at the first-class mail rate even if the direct cost to the
			 corporate entity is less through the use of its bulk mail permit. This subrule
			 does not affect the ability of a commercial vendor to charge an amount for
			 postage which is less than for first-class mail where the reduced or bulk mail
			 charge is available to all similarly situated customers without respect to the
			 political identity of the customer
(3)
Use or rental of corporate
			 facilities by other persons.
Persons other than stockholders,
			 administrative officers or employees of a corporate entity who make any use of
			 corporate facilities, such as using telephones, facsimile machines, typewriters
			 or computers or borrowing office furniture for activity in connection with a
			 candidate election, are required to reimburse the corporate entity within a
			 commercially reasonable time in the amount of the normal and usual rental
			 charge. If one or more telephones of a corporate entity are used as a telephone
			 bank, a rebuttable presumption is established that $3 per telephone per hour,
			 plus any actual long distance charges, is acceptable as a normal and usual
			 rental charge.
(4)
Use of
			 airplanes and other means of transportation.
a.
Air travel.
A candidate,
			 candidate's agent, or person traveling on behalf of a candidate who uses
			 noncommercial air transportation made available by a corporate entity shall, in
			 advance, reimburse the corporate entity as follows:
(1) Where the destination is served by
			 regularly scheduled commercial service, the coach class airfare (without
			 discounts).
(2) Where the
			 destination is not served by a regularly scheduled commercial service, the
			 usual charter rate.