Are those Carols by Candlelight Hero Tickets Tax Deductible or Not?

Who wouldn't want to help sick children and veterans at the same time?

Steve Vaus invites you to do just that by buying "hero tickets" to be distributed to veterans/ first responders for a performance of his annual shindig called "Carols by Candlelight".  According to the Carols by Candlelight website,  the proceeds from the 2-day event go to Rady Children's Hospital.

That sounds lovely and warm and heart melting, but Steve Vaus is the one who decides how much he and his production company and the other performers are paid before he cuts a check to Rady's. Does he pocket $250,000?  More? Less? Nobody knows. Steve Vaus Productions is a for-profit sole proprietorship, so there is no way to find out just what percent of donations for hero tickets or any other donations actually end up benefitting sick kids.

It is also impossible to find out how many "hero tickets" are sold and/or distributed. Steve Vaus could give away the tickets himself without asking for a $25 ea donation, but that would be $25 less in his pockets.  Although Steve Vaus has prominently posted the 501c3 tax ID number of a nonprofit on his website, stating that the nonprofit, 4 Community Solutions, is doing business as Carols by Candlelight, it turns out that 4CS doesn't handle ALL of the business of Carols by Candlelight, just selected business of CbC.  Exactly what part of the 4CS business the nonprofit handles is a bit squishy.

Recently I received a copy of an email from someone who bought a "hero ticket" to be donated to a veteran. His receipt stated that his donation was not received by  4CS or a Carols by Candlelight account, but by Steve Vaus Productions. Steve Vaus Productions is a sole proprietorship, which means the money ended up in Steve Vaus' pocket.  The man sent an email to Steve Vaus, asking for a tax deductible receipt:

From: name deleted
Date: November 9, 2018 at 3:56:34 PM PST
To: "stevevaus@cox.net" <stevevaus@cox.net>;
Subject: Receipt

Mr. Vaus,

Today I donated to Carrols by Candlelight for the military.  I noticed that the money went to Steve Vaus Productions.  I didn’t get a tax deductible receipt from Candles by Candlelight.  For tax purposes, would you please provide the (tax-deductible) receipt from Candles by Candlelight either via email or by regular mail.  I would appreciate it.  To make it easier to find my donation, here is my purchase number 226562691837576.

Thank You,

name deleted

Steve Vaus quickly responded:

From: Steve Vaus <stevevaus@cox.net>;
Date: November 10, 2018 at 12:02:59 PM PST
To: name deleted
Subject: Re: Receipt

Our office is closed however I saw your email. 

I apologize for any confusion that led you to believe gift tickets are a deductible donation. They are not and there is nothing on our website that indicates otherwise. 

I have issued you a refund. If you have further questions I will be back in the office next Thursday. 

SV

(PS - blame Siri or Spellcheck for any mistakes in this email.)

I checked the Carols by Candlelight website, and sure enough, this little notice is still posted:

Our fiscal agent, 4Community Solutions is a qualified 501(c)(3)
Taxpayer ID# 26-1722021
4Community Solutions – dba Carols by Candlelight
18402 W. Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA 92127

Don't bother checking 4CS's website for information.  Most of the website has been removed since I called them and asked for some information about their sponsorship of Carols by Candlelight.  None of my questions have been answered.

Yesterday,  someone forwarded another email to me that came from Carols by Candlelight/Steve Vaus. Vaus  clarified (OK, maybe muddied is a more apt description) the tax exempt status of hero ticket purchases:

From: Carols by Candlelight [mailto:stevevaus@cox.net] 
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2018 2:31 PM

I am  wondering how  4CS "doing business as" Carols by Candlelight works.  Because it seems like Steve Vaus Productions is also doing business as Carols by Candlelight.  Can there be two entities doing business as an event at the same time? Does Vaus Productions need to file a fictitious business name for Carols by Candlelight the way 4 Community Solutions did?  Is this a normal business practice to have some donations for the same item go into a nonprofit and others go into a sole proprietorship? Is this a common business model?

If you do plan to buy hero tickets, please note that they are not tax deductible unless you make arrangements with Steve Vaus.

Is it a Charity or a Scam?

I'm on the DO NOT CALL registry but that doesn't stop people from calling me and asking me to donate some money to their police and firefighter charities. Some of these charities are not really charities, they are businesses. They give a small amount of money to some fire department somewhere and keep 90 percent or more of the money they bring in. It's legal, but deceitful to pull on people's heartstrings for profit.  It is up to us to check out these businesses and find out just how charitable they really are. We have both federal and state laws that regulate non profits and charity fundraisers and require reporting that reveals how much of the money that is taken in gets donated to the charity.

Carols by Candlelight is the name of a Christmas concert put on by Steve Vaus. It is heavily promoted as a charity event that benefits Rady's Children's Hospital.  Carols by Candlelight is not a nonprofit with a 503(c)(3) with an IRS tax number, that would allow donors to take a deduction for their donation. Nor is Carols by Candlelight (or Steve Vaus Production) registered in the State of California's  database of charitable organizations or fundraising entities that  comply with the State of California's registry and reporting requirements. Some years ago, when Steve Vaus sent emails to me and my friends, asking us to be angels and donate thousands of dollars to his Carols by Candlelight production, the implication was that those donations would be tax deductible. But they were not. And because they are not, I was unable to find out how much of my donation would end up being given to the charity and how much would end up in Steve Vaus' pocket.

The Carols by Candlelight concerts are held on 2 days in December in Escondido's Center for the Performing Arts. The concert hall has 1500 seats. Ticket prices for this year are $69-$87. You can also buy "hero tickets" for active duty military and first responders for $25 each.  Ticket sales could potentially could bring in between $200,000- $250,000 gross.

Every year, Steve Vaust starts soliciting for donors for Carols by Candlelight. Donors can give $15,000 for Title Sponsorship (previously it was $25,000), $10,000 to underwrite band costs, $5,000 to underwrite travel expenses; 2,500 for hospitality plates; $1500 to underwrite stage decorations and $1,000 to underwrite raffle expenses. It is unknown how much money is donated by these Christmas angels. In addition, there is a raffle or auction, and items are likely donate. Currently, this years Carols by Candlelight already has 8 Sponsors and 3 Media Sponsors listed, although I do not know how much each one contributed. The total amount donated to Carols by Candlelight is not public information because Carols by Candlelight is not a nonprofit charity.

Nevertheless, Vaus is sure to look for any extra bucks he can get.
In 2012, Steve Vaus, who was then a candidate for Poway council, applied for a grant from California  Municipal Finance Authority (CMFA).  CMFA arranges bond financing for capital projects. They charge a fee for issuing the bonds, and a portion of the fees that they collect are returned to the communities they serve by giving out grants to other non-profits in the community.  Steve Vaus applied for $5000 to buy tickets for veterans to attend Carols by Candlelight. Vaus could have given the tickets away for free, but he would rather get CMFA and others to pay for them.

On Nov 2, 2012  CMFA, sent a letter to Mona Durney, Executive Director of Carols by Candlelight, and enclosed a check. for $5000.

The check was made out to Carols by Candlelight. On Dec 12, 2012, Valerie Brown, of RB United, sent a letter to CMFA, confirming the receipt of the $5000 check for Carols by Candlelight.  Why was the donation sent to RB United? Perhaps, because RB United was a 501 (c)(3), a real, honest-to-goodness nonprofit, the type that CMFA can legally give money to.

So who is RB United? This is from their webpage:

We began as two separate but related organizations: RB United and ReBuild RB.

RB United formed as a non-profit partnership of the RB Community Foundation, the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce, and The San Diego Foundation to assess and handle the community’s needs in the immediate aftermath of the 2007 Witch Creek fires.  ReBuild RB was created as a 501(c) (3) public charity to serve the survivors of the 2007 Witch Creek Fires, with 90% of all funds collected by Rebuild RB going directly to individual fire victims.

Our two organizations merged in 2009 into a single local non-profit agency capable of applying for grants and seeking underwriting for emergency preparedness and community improvement projects.  We maintain the website name ReBuild RB, but operate under the umbrella name RB United.
During our first two years, RB United served 527 fire families in the communities of Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Rancho Santa Fe, Escondido, and Ramona; coordinated 274 events with 10,000+ total attendees; collaborated with 130 organizations and businesses; and leveraged almost $1.2 million for fire recovery efforts (against an outlay of approximately $250,000 from The San Diego Foundation’s Disaster Board)

In  2012, RB United morphed into 4 Community Solutions. In addition to helping fire victims, and a neighborhood emergency response group, they collaborated with the City of Poway to put on the Poway Days Parade.  They $5000 donation from CMFA should have been reported on this 2012 tax form, but I could not find it. Nor did I  find the words "Carols by Candlelight".  I have no idea what happened with that money.

It is quite the irony that Steve Vaus was funneling donations to his for profit charity through a nonprofit intended to help fire victims. In 2009, Vaus, a political unknown in Poway politics, spearheaded a recall of Councilwoman Betty Rexford. One of his more vitriolic claims is that Rexford misused a firetruck and had it sent to her neighborhood while other Poway homes burned.  A subsequent city report verified that the fire department had acted appropriately when it sent a truck to Rexford's neighborhood to mop up hot spots.

In 2013, 4Community Solutions 990 tax form mentions a community parade and community concert. I doubt this is Carols by Candlelight, but who knows? I've called Valerie Brown, the person who prepared these tax returns, but she has not yet responded to my questions.

The first time the words "Carols by Candlelight appears on 4Community Solutions tax forms is in the 2014 tax year.   It looks like Carols by Candlelight was given $59,492 that year, the majority of all of 4Community Solution's expenses which totaled $64,472. From this tax form, there is no way to tell how much money was donated to Carols by Candlelight and there is no mention of giving money to the charity, Rady's Hospital.  I was hoping the person who filled out these forms would inform me of how much money was actually donated to the charity, but these tax forms do not provide that information.

In 2015, 4 Community Solutions filed a fictitious business statement in San Diego County. They were "doing business as" Carols by Candlelight and a bunch of other entities.

That same year 4 Community Solutions listed $48, 046 given to Carols by Candlelight on their 990 tax form.  Note that Carols by Candlelight is described as a "Community wide" concert. It almost sounds like a whole community was the beneficiary instead of ticket holders, doesn't it? By this time 4Community Solutions had changed from being a charity that helped fire victims to a fiscal sponsorship nonprofit.  According to 4Community Solutions website, fiscal sponsorship involved  some accounting and tax services and insurance and lending their nonprofit status to "unincorporated nonprofits".

Carols by Candlelight is not an unincorporated nonprofit. It is just the name of an event. It was never a nonprofit.  I do not know why 4Community Solutions thought it was appropriate to let Carols by Candlelight use their non profit tax ID number.  And 4Community Solutions is not the only entity doing business as Carols by Candlelight. Steve Vaus' sole proprietorship, Steve Vaus Productions is also doing business as Carols by Candlelight. The lines between 4Community Solutions, Carols by Candlelight and Steve Vaus Productions are all very murky.  While 4Communityt Solutions nonprofit tax ID number is prominently displayed on the Carols by Candlelight webpage, the donation links go to Steve Vaus Productions. A friend of mine, with a heart for veterans ordered 500 worth of tickets from the Carols by Candlelight in 2017. The bank statement from the credit card showed that the money went to Steve Vaus Productions. My friend was fooled by Carols by Candlelight webpage into thinking that his donation would be tax deductible. It isn't.

There is also a question about what happened to  all of the other incoming assets and expenses from the concert. Ticket sales alone should have brought in several hundred thousand dollars.  Steve Vaus wasn't performing for free and neither were the other singers and musicians. His production company was likely also paid. Where is the accounting and tax record of those expenses?  How much in donations came in via money given to Steve Vaus Productions, a sole proprietorship owned by Steve Vaus? Which donations and expenses belonged to 4 Community Solutions and which belonged to Steve Vaus Productions? Did Steve Vaus take a tax deduction on his personal income tax for the contribution to Rady's? Where were all of the income and donations reported?

The 2016 tax return for 4 Community Solutions is not online. The 2017 return has not yet been filed.

I am waiting for the answers to those questions from Valerie Brown, of 4 Community Solutions. She took down my questions and promised to get back to me today, but she did not call. The  4Community Solutions website has been down since I began inquiring about their sponsorship of Carols by Candlelight. Almost all of the previous online information has been removed.  The person who was listed on the tax forms and the IRS forms as the chief board member told me he has not had anything to do with the group for many years. The one question I really want to know is how much did Carols By Candlelight take in, how much were the expenses, how much did Steve Vaus, his family members and his production company get, and how much was the gross profit that was given to Rady's Children Hospital.

Knowing that many of the donations that came in were given to Steve Vaus Productions, I also have a question about the reporting of those donations on economic interest forms filed with the City of Poway. Every year, each member of the city council (and certain the employees) must file  form 700, Statement of Economic Interests. Schedule A-2 of form 700 is titled "Investments, Income, and Assets of Business Entities/Trusts. Every year from 2012-2016, Steve Vaus has listed Steve Vaus Productions as an owned business entity.  Vaus has indicated that his sole proprietorship is worth $100,000 to a million dollars, and his gross income is over $100,000.  Some of this income is likely from the Carols by Candlelight concert.

In 2012 and 2014, Vaus reported no gifts. In 2013, 2015 and 2016, Vaus did report gifts, but I did not see any of the donations from Carols by Candlelight donors on the list.  If people bought tickets for veterans and paid money to Steve Vaus Productions, that donation should be listed on Steve Vaus' Form 700.

Where did the Carols by Candlelight donations from Edco, SDG&E,  Poway Toyota, Kristin Gaspar's husband and others go? 4Community Solutions or Steve Vaus Productions?  Shouldn't Steve Vaus be reporting these donations as gifts on his Form 700? How do we know how much Edco gave to Steve Vaus. How much of that donation ended up at Rady's and how much ended up in Steve Vaus' pocket. Will Vaus recuse himself from discussion and voting on Edco's next contract?  Vaus was not on the council when they voted to give Toyota millions of dollars to move across the street, but it can't hurt for Toyota to have a friend at city hall for the next deal. And what might Kristin Gaspar's husband want from Steve Vaus? Maybe a patronage position for a friend of theirs?

Although Carols by Candlelight is now touting a borrowed nonprofit IRS number on their webpage, unlike true nonprofits, they do not report what percentage of all of the money collected goes to the real charity, Rady Children's Hospital. The do not report how much goes into Steve Vaus' pocket.  I do not recommend donating to Carols by Candlelight until they comply with the nonprofit and charity fundraising reporting laws. You can always donate directly to Rady's Children's Hospital and take a tax deduction.

Update:
I sent an information request to California Municipal Finance Authority. asking for dates and amounts of money they have given to Carols by Candlelight. This is from the response sent to me by John Stoecker of California Municipal Finance Authority.

Caylin Frank, Kristin Gaspar, Steve Vaus and Carols by Candlelight

On June 18th, at a special council meeting,  four Poway Councilmen picked Caylin Frank to be the interim city councilmember, filling Jim Cunningham's seat until a replacement could be elected in November.  Caylin Frank's appointment was an insult to the people of Poway because Mrs. Frank had moved to Poway less than 3 months before her appointment. She didn't know the people she was chosen to represent, and they had no idea who she was.

Caylin Frank's appointment was also an insult to the 14 other candidates who filled out applications, and gave presentations before the council that night.  None of their efforts mattered, because, by all appearances, the council had chosen Frank long before the evening's charade began.

I was not surprised Caylin Frank was chosen because I had heard rumors that Mayor Steve Vaus had found someone to appoint to the council.  But I wasn't the only one who got a heads up.   County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar seemed to know all about it, too.

On June 10th, Caylin Frank and Steve Vaus attended an event for Kristin Gaspar at Second Chance Beer Company.  In a video from the event that was posted on County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar's facebook page, Mrs. Gaspar can be heard  introducing Steve Vaus, and then introducing Caylin Frank:
"… Caylin's going to be a fantastic councilmember.  I want you to get to know her and help support her. This is her baby over here.  So you can imagine, I can really relate to her. "

Maybe Gaspar can relate to Frank because both of them are mothers of young children. Or maybe it is because they are both from Encinitas.  Frank's mother, Christy Guerin, was once mayor of Encinitas. Christy Guerin resigned that position to work for Brian Bilbray.  Her daughter, Caylin, got an intern  job with Bilbray for a while too. Kristin Gaspar also served on the Encinitas council. She was elected in 2014. Two years later, she ran for, and won an election for county supervisor. That is a super fast climb up the ladder for a political newbie. Maybe that is also how she relates to Caylin Frank. With Caylin's appointment to the Poway Council as a steppingstone, she, too, may have plans of moving up to a higher office, especially with the help of political insiders.

Caylin Frank has one solid Poway connection-  Steve Vaus. Vaus and Frank were facebook friends before she was selected to be the interim councilperson, representing Powegians she did not know.  Frank worked (and still works) as an aide to county supervisor Bill Horn. So Caylin Frank, Kristin Gaspar and Steve Vaus would have spent time together at Sandag meetings in addition to hobnobbing at campaign events for each other.

Vaus and Gaspar are also campaign donation buddies.  Vaus donated $350 to Gaspar's 2016 supervisorial campaign and Gaspar has already kicked in $100 for Vaus re-election.  Vaus started collecting donations in January, long before the nomination period began.   Gaspar also spent $2500 of her 2016 campaign dollars on Vaus'  so-called "charity fundraiser", Carols by Candlelight.  The code on the expenditure form is "MTG" which means "meetings and appearances".  By all appearances, it seems as if Gaspar used campaign funds to buy tickets to Vaus' gala production, Carols by Candlelight.

Carols by Candlelight is billed as a charity production put on by Steve Vaus. The website says that the net proceeds from Carols by Candlelight go to Rady Children's hospital.  But how much of Gaspar's $2500  donation ended up in Steve Vaus' pocket, and how much actually went to the charity  is not public information.

Back when Vaus was running for council in 2009, I wrote about his 'for profit" business, Carols by Candlelight. Vaus had sent me emails and hit me up to "be an angel" and  donate to the production of Carols by Candlelight. He was asking for thousands of dollars in donations back then, without disclosing how much money from the event went into his pocket, and how much went to the charity.

So, here we are,  9 years later. Vaus is still asking for thousands of dollars in donations: $15,000 to be a title sponsor; $10,000 to underwrite the band costs; $5,000 to underwrite travel costs of the performers; $2,500 for plates of food for the performers; $,1500 for stage decorations and $1,000 to underwrite raffle expenses. Vaus seems to be really raking in the donations now, compared to the lean years before he was on the Poway council. Some of the 2017 donors, who could benefit from  pleasing the mayor, include  Edco, Toyota of Poway,  and SDG&E. There is also a donation from a company owned by Paul Gaspar, Kristin Gaspar's husband.  Those Gaspars sure do like to give money to Steve Vaus.

There is something else on the Carols by Candlelight page which caught my eye.  Vaus now claims he is a nonprofit company with a nonprofit number. In the lower right hand corner of the Carols by Candlelight page, it says "Qualified 501(c)(3) Taxpayer Identification number 26-1722021. 4Community Solutions-dba Carols by Candlelight 18402 W Bernardo Drive San Diego, CA 92127.   But that nonprofit number is not for Vaus' company, Steve Vaus Productions, the company he names on his statement of economic interest forms filed with the City of Poway.  The nonprofit number Vaus is using belongs to a charity located in Rancho Bernardo called 4 Community Solutions.
4 Community Solutions was formerly called RB United and was set up to help fire victims.

4 Community Solution's website no longer seems to load. But before it went down I took screen shots of some of the pages.  I have also downloaded the groups 990 IRS forms. Carols by Candlelight appears to be the biggest chunk of money on those 990 forms. But nowhere on those forms is there information that all nonprofits have to disclose- how much of the money went to the charity and how much went for salaries and expenses and whatever else Vaus spent it on.

It is also uncertain how much money is collected by sale of tickets and from donations that people do not request a tax deduction for. Note that on Carols by Candlelight's webpage, all of the live donation links are directed to Steve Vaus, not 4 Community Solutions, the non profit, whose number Vaus has displayed and claimed is doing business as Carols by Candlelight.

Clicking on this donate button

gets you to this form:

Notice that the donation goes to Steve Vaus Productions, not 4 Community Solutions.
I looked up Steve Vaus Productions in guidestar. It is not listed as a nonprofit.
Steve Vaus Productions is no longer listed in the state of California corporation database, although, I do believe it was incorporated in California at one time. So maybe it is incorporated in another state.  Or maybe not.

I have contacted some of the purported officers from 4 Community Solutions, as I am trying to find out more about how this nonprofit has allowed Vaus to conceal how much money goes to the charity and how much money goes into his pocket.  They first person I contacted told me he had never heard of 4 Community Solutions or Carols by Candlelight. And yet this man who is an investment advisor was listed as the chief officer on 4 Community Solutions website before it quit loading and on fairly recent tax returns. I am still in the process of contacting other officers whose names are listed on the tax forms. So far, I am not getting any responses. But I will keep you posted when I do hear from them.

Note: Caylin Frank has claimed that Kristin Gaspar was referring to Caylin's applying to run in November election, not her upcoming appointment in the video, but I'm not buying her story.

Update (Sept 19, 2018): Apparently Kristin Gaspar spent another $2500 of her campaign donations on Carols by Candlelight tickets on 2 occasions. This form covers expenditures in early 2016.  That brings her total spending on Carols by Candlelight to $5000.

Update 2 (Sept 19, 2018) The Carols by Candlelight page   and the 4 Community Solutions webpages have both been changed since this blog was posted. Carols by Candlelight no longer has the "click to donate" button, instead all donation links open an email addressed to Steve Vaus.  The language about 4 Community Solutions has changed slightly on Carols by Candlelight:

Vaus is still implying that 4 Community Solutions and Carols by Candlelight are the same thing. In fact, Carols by Candlelight does not have a nonprofit number. It is not a registered nonprofit.





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The Rabble Rousers

In my last post (written a few eons ago) I promised to blog a bit about some of the locals who are rousing up the crazies. This blog is not about issues, it more of a behind-the-scenes look at two local rabble rousers  and how they derive personal income from their political and charitable activities.

The first rabble rouser is Gary Kreep.  Kreep is a long-time political activist for conservative causes. Kreep was even a teabagger way back in 1975. 

Back in the mid 1970s, Gary Kreep spearheaded a national tea bag-based movement to protest the Ford Administration's tax policies, he confirmed to TPMmuckraker today.

"To protest unreasonably high taxes, people stapled tea bags to their tax returns," explains Kreep, now director of the United States Justice Foundation, but then a law student and an officer in the California chapter of the Reaganite Young Americans for Freedom.

When the the 2009 teabagger movement began to emerge earlier this year, Kreep thought: "It's deja vu all over again."

In 1975 the top income tax rate was 70%, today the top rate is half that, 35%.  That is very nearly the lowest rate  that the top earners have had to pay in the last 80 yrs.  Since 1960, federal taxes (income taxes, capital-gains taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, gift tax and corporate tax) have decreased for low earners, risen slightly for middle income earners and dramatically dropped for high earners.  Distribution of wealth? Well, of course.   But shhh!!! Don’t tell the crazies. It stupefies ‘em. 

Kreep is also engaged in the lunatic fringe’s refusal to recognize that Obama is the legitimate president of the United States.  Kreep and birther queen Orly Taitz filed a lawsuit in Orange County, California on the day the president was inaugurated, claiming that Obama was not born in Hawaii, but rather in Kenya.  As “evidence” they produced Obama’s purported Kenyan birth certificate which is now acknowledged to be a fake.

It took just 48 hours to definitively expose Taitz's find as a forgery, and for the document that it was apparently based off of to surface. It's a certified copy of a birth certificate for one David Jeffrey Bomford, born in South Australia in April 1959.

Images of both certificates can be viewed below -- for comparison purposes, you can see a larger, more legible version of the forgery here. The similarities are striking; they bear the same seal, have the same document numbers at the top left and top right corners and have identical book and page numbers. The names of the registrar and district registrar listed on each document are remarkably similar as well -- the source has the registrar listed as "G.F. Lavender," while the forgery names him as "E.F. Lavender." In the original, the district registrar is "J.H. Miller;" in the forgery, it's "M.H. Miller," and the M is slightly askew, overlapping the period.

The source material was indisputably published prior to the revelation of the forgery; it was available on a family genealogy Web site and popped up in Google image searches. (The Web site is no longer accessible, apparently due to the sudden increase in traffic prompted by the exposure.)

You can join the fun and make your own forged Kenyan birth certificate .


Lucas Smith, the witness who purported “found” the fake birth certificate now claims that Taitz asked him to lie to the court, as did Larry Sinclair, another witness, who was claiming to be Obama’s homosexual lover.

Smith also reveals that Taitz stopped speaking to him after he told people that she was sleeping with Charles Lincoln, a member of her legal team. And he describes in detail Lincoln, who has been disbarred in three states, relating his opinion of Taitz's sexual performance.

Folks, it is not a freakin’ reality tv show. It’s the courts. You are all batshit crazy. And you are wasting the taxpayer’s money with your frivolous court suits. Judge Carter dismissed this case. In another birther case (also dismissed), the judge fined Taitz $20,000 for abusing the courts. She says she is not going to pay. Ohhhkaaaay. Let's see just how much longer until Taitz is disbarred.

I’ve met Gary Kreep. He has defended the Minutemen, anti-abortionist Connie Youngkin, and the cranky (but harmless) Poway octogenarian-government-watchdog Ed Carbonneau. He is a true believer in conservative causes. Why he would team up with Taitz I have no idea. Well, maybe I do. For a while there, the birther delusion was just hot, hot hot, and it was a great hook to keep the money rolling in.

Kreep is the executive director of the US Justice Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks “to advance the conservative viewpoint in the judicial arena”. US Justice Foundation makes money several ways: by charging clients or winning their case and collecting attorney’s fees or by asking for donations.  This fall, USJF was running a “birther infomercial” in several selected southern states.  At the end of the infomercial which featured Kreep and Bill Keller (a fundamentalist who was imprisoned in the late 1980s for an insider trading conviction) viewers are asked to send in a donation. In return the donees get their name on a petition and a bumper sticker. 

As I said, the USJF is a nonprofit group. They file a Form 990 every year with the IRS. The documents are available on guidestar. 


In 2005, Kreep was the only paid officer for USJF. He was compensated $299,000 and an additional $9,000 went into his deferred compensation plan. Stirring up the crazies can be lucrative. So, to sum up, Kreep's message seems to be, "Don't pay your taxes, send your money to me, Gary Kreep, instead."

The second rabble rouser is Steve Vaus, the Poway resident who is leading the recall of city councilmember Betty Rexford. Although Vaus was an unknown entity in local politics before the recall, he is hardly a political neophyte. He has a long history of political activism. In fact, Vaus once ran for office. Way back in 1986, when he was living in the city of San Diego, Vaus ran for a seat on the school board. He campaigned for “back to the basics” and also against school health clinics (that might dispense birth control paraphernalia). Although an early favorite, Vaus lost; he came in 5^th out of 8 candidates.  Afterwards, he compared his loss to a woman losing an unborn child late in her pregnancy:[1]

"I really think I understand what it's like for a woman to have a miscarriage," Vaus said. "You go along for so long-in my case, eight months-nurturing this dream, then all of a sudden, it's just not there anymore. You're left with an emptiness that's very hard to deal with."

Ummm...right. After the election, Vaus resumed writing jingles for ad campaigns and sound tracks for movies. And he started writing “political” songs. The first was an ode to Oliver North, written in 1987, and inspired by North's testimony during the Iran- Contra hearings. [2]

Titled "The Ballad of Lt. Col. North," the song extolling the Marine officer as the "kind of man who built the USA" made its debut on local radio and television shows.

Vaus, 35, said he wrote the song because North impressed him during his testimony "with his honesty and his clear-sighted action in supporting his superiors and the country he loves deeply."

"He looks like a hero," said Vaus, who lives in Scripps Ranch and runs Steve Vaus Productions, a company that churns out songs for local advertisers at its Kearny Mesa offices.

I guess Vaus and I differ on our definition of heroes- mine don’t secretly sell American weapons to Iran.

In 1992 Vaus wrote another politically inspired song, “We Must Take Back America”. The song was a fundamentalist pitch for prayers in school. For about a month, the song was hot, hot, hot and Vaus was a rising star.  RCA records wanted the song and sent Vaus on a promotional tour.  Then the song crashed. Vaus blamed the dive on “liberal radio stations” that refused to air his song because it was "too patriotic". Jack Weston, vice president and general manager of RCA in Nashville saw it differently.[3]

JWeston, who signed Vaus, says his decision to drop the singer was motivated by economics, not political pressure.

Despite its Top 100 chart appearance, "We Must Take America Back" sold fewer than 25,000 copies and obtained airplay on fewer than two dozen of the nation's more than 200 key country radio stations.

Music industry insiders say that it is not uncommon for a label to drop a new artist if the performer's debut does not receive substantial airplay or sell records.

"Sometimes you see the writing on the wall and you try to cut your losses as quickly as you can," Weston explains. "When we first heard Mr. Vaus' music, we thought that, given the election and the current political climate, it might appeal to a lot of folks out there. But we were wrong.

"Radio programmers said they didn't think their listeners wanted to hear somebody harping about all these causes in such a preachy manner. Fact is, the record just didn't sell."

Vaus has recently re-released “We Must Take America Back” with new lyrics. The school prayers appeal has been cut.  There is still plenty of dark, patriotic doom and gloom in the new lyrics, along with a lament against pols who “stick and bleed us” and who are “not even fit to hold office". The new lyrics are a general, all-purpose, whiny angst, perfect for a tea-bagging event or a recall.

This post is not an attempt to discuss (or debate) the merits of the Rexford recall. But I do find it ironic that in 1998, Vaus teamed up with Roger Hedgecock to do a hit piece on president Bill Clinton. Yes, I said  Roger Hedgecock, the same Roger Hedgecock who was the mayor of San Diego from 1983 until he was forced to leave office in 1985 after being convicted of taking illegal campaign donations from none other than Nancy Hoover and J. David Dominelli.  Dominelli was kind of the “Madoff of the 80s";  he ran a company that scammed millions of dollars from some very wealthy, high-profile investors. His investment company collapsed because it was really a ponzi scheme.  Hoover and Dominelli ended up in prison. Hedgecock was luckier. Most of his convictions  were later overturned by the California Supreme Court.  One remaining charge was reduced to a misdemenor, for which  Hedgecock merely served probation. 

Four days after he resigned his mayorship, Hedgecock took a giant leap to the political right and re-invented himself as a talk radio host. It was on Hedgecock’s KOGO show that Vaus introduced his“Wrong is Not Right” anti-Clinton song and ad campaign in 1998. The ad campaign consisted of several 60 second radio spots that featured letters from children writing to the president for advice on how to get away with lying to their parents.  Vaus asked people to send donations so that he could raise a million dollars to run the ads on various radio stations.  Vaus asked people to send the money to him at a P.O. Box. No PAC or political group is mentioned on the website, so I have no idea where to find an accounting of how much money was raised or how it was disbursed.

Hedgecock also pitched Vaus’ anti-Clinton ad campaign fundraising request on one of the 2 min commentaries he did for  KUSI TV news. And he got "indefinitely hiatused" for it. [4]

Hedgecock says he had permission from KUSI management to tell viewers to send money to a local musician who's trying to place commercials on radio stations around the country urging the removal of President Clinton from office.

Rawdin, and station owner Mike McKinnon, says he violated their orders not to air the live commentary.

                                                 Snip

Hedgecock, who was paid $250 for each of his two-minute KUSI commentaries, says he's frequently done fund- raising for local charities in his commentary, but Rawdin responded: "We don't do political fund-raising through our newscast."

Said Hedgecock: "Under my contract, if they don't like a script I've submitted, and this one was submitted, the remedy is not to air it.

"Not only was it approved by the producers, but the production staff assisted in making the (graphic) board which was put on screen which asked for the money.

"They allowed it to be aired, and after the fact, they censored me by putting me on suspension indefinitely because Mike McKinnon didn't like it for some reason."

Which is not the way Rawdin remembers it.

Rawdin says he instructed Hedgecock's representative, Jimmy Valentine, that Hedgecock should not deliver his pitch for Vaus. "He didn't follow our procedure," Rawdin said. "He was told by me not to do that. Then he did it.

"The word `suspension' was never used. Roger violated. . . explicitly what I did not want (him) to do. Since then, I've put Roger on hiatus while we evaluate his violation of our procedures."

Gotta wonder if Hedgecock is another one of Steve Vaus' heroes.

I’ve never met Steve Vaus in person, but I did have a phone conversation with him in Sept. Steve had left a comment on my blog and somehow got my email address and asked me to call him. After the call, I started getting group emails and news updates about the recall from Steve although I had never asked to be placed on any list. About a month later, I got an email about a Christmas concert promotion called “Carols by Candlelight” that Vaus produces. The email asked for my help “keeping Carols afloat” and it stressed that “the sole reason that Carols exists is to raise money for LOCAL children’s charities". A link from the email mentioned that this was the first year in 19 yrs that Carols did not have a title sponsor chipping in $25,000, so they really needed some angels to send money to them. Could I be an angel and send them $250- $25,000?

Carols by Candlelight 2

Two friends who were also getting unrequested recall emails from Vaus, got the Carols by Candlelight email too. Was Vaus using the recall to phish for email addresses so he could pump Powegians  for donations to finance his concert? It seemed that way to me.

Ken Leighton, who covers the music scene for the San Diego Reader, raised my query up a notch or two. He wanted to know  just how much money Steve gave to charity from his concert. He called Vaus and asked him, but Vaus couldn’t (or wouldn’t) say how much money the concert gave to charity in 2008.

After I read Leighton’s piece and the comments that were posted. I called Make-A-Wish foundation on Nov 11^th and asked “Rachel” just how much they got. Rachel said they got $25,000 from Carols last year, but she would not specify if the money came from a corporate sponsor or if Vaus cut a check to her.

$25,000. That is how much an event sponsor pays. What happened to all of the other angel donations and the proceeds from the ticket sales. (Tickets cost $30-$100 this year). Why didn’t this concert have more proceeds? Where was all the money going?

Vaus has been doing his “Carols by Candlelight for 19 yrs.” Although Carols by Candlelight  is purportedly being done for charitable purposes, Vaus does not have a nonprofit foundation handling the donations and expenses of producing the showing. If he did, the corporate sponsors, the private donors and the public would be able to see how much of the money  goes to pay expenses, how much goes to pay Vaus and how much goes to a charity.  None of the donations are tax deductible either, unless they are given directly to the charity although the original email I got from Carols by Candlelight doesn’t mention that.

I know that there are “for profit” fundraising companies out there. I mean, someone doesn’t just give cookies to the Girl Scouts to sell for free. But, I can find out just how much goes into the bakers pocket and how much goes to the girl scouts. And the cookie makers don’t solicit angel donations to help cover  their production costs. Not so with Vaus’ fundraisers.

Vaus’ charity fundraising goes way back to 1989 when he produced a Christmas album titled “The Stars Come Out for Christmas”. The album was a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital. Some of the songs were sent to Vaus by the stars and others were recorded in his San Diego studio.  Although there is no formal accounting that is available to the public, articles in the newspaper shed some light on how the fundraiser worked. Star ATM System underwrote the manufacturing and related costs ($40,000). Eagle Limousine gave the stars free transportation and San Diego Marriott agreed to provide them with free accommodations. Taco Bell and Imperial Savings sold the albums at their sites. The album netted Chilren’s Hospital $160,000.[7]

In 1990, Vaus planned to do a bigger project, marketing the albums nationally and benefitting a lot more hospitals. And maybe benefitting his production studio with a little more, too.  But Vaus and Children’s Hospital Foundation didn’t see eye-to eye on the terms, so they dropped Vaus and hired someone else to produce a benefit Christmas album.[5]

The decision to sever ties with Vaus and find another producer was based on a "a whole variety of reasons," said Stuart C. Turgel, senior vice president and executive director of the Children's Hospital Foundation of San Diego. The primary one, he said, was Vaus' insistence on a $250,000 "production fee" for this year's album,substantially more than the $16,000 he charged last year, when the album was a local effort. This year, Turgel wants to expand marketing drastically and take it national.

"We don't believe an individual should enjoy financial gain, if you will, from this work," Turgel said. "The original idea was that all proceeds would go to the hospital."

Vaus, however, said his request for more money was prompted by necessity rather than greed.

"Let me shed a little light on that figure," he said. "The amount was to cover air transportation, lodging, and food for all the artists; roughly 1,000 hours of studio time; designing and printing the graphics; mastering and sequencing the tapes, and then promoting the album to 10,000 radio stations around the country.

"I'm not an independently wealthy person; I've got an operation to run and a staff to pay. And this year, we were talking about a significantly different animal, because it's no longer just a local project, it's a national project. It would have taken a whole year, from start to finish, and we would have had to bypass all our customary business, which generates well in excess of $250,000 in that same period."

Another reason for dumping Vaus, Turgel said, was the producer's demand for complete artistic control.

"We wanted a project that would represent Children's Hospital in the most appropriate way," he said, "and not having the ability to approve or disapprove certain artists, certain songs, was very problematic for us."

Said Vaus: "I'm in the business of music, they're in the business of fund raising, and it's difficult sometimes when the artistic world and the fund- raising world have to come together because you get people trying to do each other's jobs and it simply doesn't work."

In any case, Turgel said, "it became clear to us that we wanted to find somebody else to work with us," and that "somebody else` turned out to be Lloyd, who was not only willing to work for free, but didn't mind giving hospital officials final say as to what tunes would appear on the album."

            snip

Meanwhile, Vaus is busy working on "The Stars Come Out for Christmas 1990," which will benefit an undisclosed local charity and also be marketed nationally. The charity will purchase the entire stock at 50 to 60 cents per tape over the manufacturer's cost, Vaus said. The extra money will cover Vaus' expenses, including salary for him and his staff.

So basically, Vaus' idea of fundraising is that he will produce a product which the charity will have to pay for and then the charity can have the proceeds when it sells. Like girl scout cookies. Only, nobody knows if Vaus’ production costs are excessive or in line with what others would charge for the same work. And although there are claims about how much money went for charity in the newspaper promo pieces there are also blurbs like this one comparing Chrildren’s Hospital’s Christmas album and Vaus’ Christmas album[6] :

Once again, there are two star-studded Christmas benefit albums competing for San Diegans' generosity. You might remember the local "Christmas album war" of 1991, a quietly venomous battle for charity- minded dollars between two seasonal benefit recordings.

On one side was "The Christmas Album . . . A Gift of Hope, Volume III" which was produced in Los Angeles by Grammy-winning producer Michael Lloyd; featured a number of major recording stars; and eventually raised $300,000 (in San Diego alone) for San Diego Children's Hospital and its counterparts across the country.

In the other corner was "The Stars Come Out for Christmas, Volume III," which was produced locally by Steve Vaus. It also boasted a number of major recording stars. Nationally it raised $2 million. North County's Casa de Amparo center for abused children and families shared in the proceeds but were unable to disclose how much.

So is Vaus in this for the "charity" or for the benefit of Steve Vaus? Are his concerts just a hook to provide himself with a good living? There is no way to know without any disclosure. Just how many Poway angels forked over some cash thinking it would benefit Rady Children's Hospital? No way of knowing. But, if you were one of them, be careful. That donation was NOT tax deductible.

Kreep’s fundraising efforts may be cheesy and self-serving, but at least he is upfront about who the beneficiary is and how much he is paid. With Vaus, we just don’t know. 

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[1] BARRY M. HORSTMAN. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: Jun 15, 1986. pg. 1

[2] Bob Corbett. The Tribune. San Diego, Calif.: Jul 11, 1987. pg. A.6

[3] Chuck Philips.. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: Sep 13, 1992. pg. 68

[4] ROBERT P LAURENCE. The San Diego Union - Tribune. San Diego, Calif.: Jan 21, 1999. pg. E.6

[5] THOMAS K. ARNOLD. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: May 4, 1990. pg. 1
[6] JOHN D'AGOSTINO. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 9, 1992. pg. 1

[7] THOMAS K. ARNOLD. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: Oct 2, 1989. pg. 1