UPDATED: DiBello files campaign finance report 10 days late

Throwing in the towel or hoping for a deal?

Screen shot from Councilor DiBello's Oct 4
appearance on "Let's Make a Deal"

By Will Collette

Welcome, Westerly Sun readers. If you're looking to see what all the fuss is about Lisa DiBello, please read this article and scroll down to the bottom to read other recent coverage of Ms. DiBello. 

Last week, I reported that Town Council member Lisa DiBello maintained her consistent record of scorn for accountability by failing to file her required campaign finance disclosure form with the Board of Elections. She was the only candidate for town office to fail to file on time.

DiBello also failed to file when she first ran in 2010. She has also apparently never filed federal reports on her charity, A Ray of Hope, and never filed a state report on the charity on time. It's not just about paperwork, but about accountability and transparency.

She won three TV sets valued at $4,990. She claimed her
occupation was running a "charity for children"
She wrote in her Westerly Sun letter on Oct 24 that
the charity has been defunct for two years. 

Finally, ten days late, and after the Board of Elections issued a notice of violation, DiBello filed, but not a disclosure report.

She filed a form called a CF-5 Declaration. On that form, DiBello asks to be exempt from filing campaign finance reports because she plans to raise and spend nearly nothing on her campaign. She reports zero income and zero expenses for this year’s campaign.

So all those “Because I Care” signs you see around must be leftovers from 2010. If she bought anything new for this campaign, this could spell trouble for DiBello, spelled P-E-R-J-U-R-Y, since false statements on the CF-5 declaration come with that penalty.

Meanwhile, she kept the focus on her mismanaged charity, A Ray of Hope, a live issue for the voters by going on “Let’s Make a Deal,” where she told the game show host that her occupation was running a “charity for children.” Except, in her Westerly Sun letter on October 24, she wrote that her charity has been inactive for the past two years. Both statements can't be true, so which is it - the story in the Westerly Sun letter or the story on she told on national television. 

DiBello made a declaration from the Town Council dais that she was running again because of me. Yep, because of my articles documenting her ethical breaches and conflicts of interest, mismanagement and lack of accountability for her charity, poor performance as a Council member and, oh, there’s her $1.5 million conspiracy lawsuit against Charlestown, DiBello felt compelled to run for reelection.

But just not very hard, according to her CF-5 Declaration.

So does DiBello really want to be reelected? With the worst attendance record of any Council member, either at Council meetings or at her one, single Council liaison assignment, DiBello has very little to show for her first two-year term.

Or does she want to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with Charlestown to settle her $1.5 million conspiracy lawsuit?

Read the "It's time for answers from DiBello" series:

For Part 1, click here 
For Part 2, click here
For Part 3, click here

For Part 4, click here

For Part 5, click here

For Part 6, click here