By Rachel Swan
San Francisco Chronicle
The warden of San Quentin Prison has paid $4,000 for state ethics violations associated with a trip he and his wife took to Las Vegas that was paid for by the Mexican Consulate General in San Francisco.
In an order released Monday, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission said that Warden Ronald Davis failed to report $1,550 in gifts on time and exceeded the annual gift limit that certain state employees can receive from a single source.
The case stems from a weekend trip that Davis and his wife took two years ago with Consulate General Andrés Roemer and Roemer’s girlfriend. The consulate paid for both couples to stay at the Wynn Las Vegas, to watch a boxing match at the MGM Grand and to attend a post-dinner event with food and drinks.
In all, the boxing tickets, hotel room, food and beverages cost $3,300, according to the order, known as stipulation. Davis reported the cost of the room, his ticket and his portion of the meal in April 2016, but failed to report his wife’s share -- worth about $1,550 -- until Sept. 21 of that year, more than five months past the April deadline.
He also exceeded the annual gift limit of $460 for state officials or employees. That limit has since been raised to $470.
Davis caught the violations himself and reported them to the commission in a letter he sent in September of last year. The commission could have fined him up to $10,000 for the two breaches, but decided to lower the penalty because Davis admitted the mistake and corrected it.
He does not have a prior history of infringing the Political Reform Act, the stipulation said, and his violation seemed to result from lack of experience filing disclosure forms.
Davis ascended the ranks as a correctional officer in various California prisons, becoming chief deputy warden at Avenal State Prison (Kings County) in 2010, and warden of Valley State Prison in Chowchilla (Madera County) in 2012, before taking his current position in 2014.
After voluntarily reporting the violation to the FPPC, he paid back the full amount of the gift and was disciplined internally, said Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
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