Courtesy: Hubert Huh
DRAPER, Utah — Hubert Huh won’t be on the ballots for the Draper City Council. He was disqualified for being one minute late to file a key campaign finance disclosure forms.
Huh says despite the city initially sending out wrong information, he should’ve known better.
Huh told KSL Newsradio’s Dave and Dujanovic that one of the reasons that he was there late was because the city initially sent the wrong information out about the deadline to file the disclosures.
The city later corrected the date and time for the disclosure deadline.
Huh says he was reminded of the corrected time by a friend last week so he rushed to Draper City Hall.
“I rushed to the city, I drove as fast as possible. I got there at five, but as soon as I saw the city recorder, she said, it was 5:01,” Huh said.
When he was told that he would not qualify, he said he was devastated.
“There was no clock on the wall or anywhere else…I couldn’t move myself at all. I was shocked. I was in motionless, and I almost collapsed.” Huh said.
Draper Mayor Troy Walker says he feels bad for Huh, but the city recorder does not have the latitude to make exceptions for late filings.
“He was late,” Walker says, “We don’t have any latitude with respect to the timeline. The state legislature set and wrote the law and that’s what it is.
“Our city recorder [is] our election official. She doesn’t have the latitude to make exceptions to the law. She has no authority or power to.”
Walker says another complicating factor is that in addition to being late, Huh didn’t have any of the forms that he needed to file.
“There was plenty of opportunities [to file the disclosures],” Walker says.
“We had one candidate email [their forms] on August 2, we had a couple that emailed it on August 4 and several candidates turn them in the day before.”
Huh says he isn’t sure what his next step will be. Huh says that some of his advisors are recommending that they sue the city but he doesn’t like the idea.
“I really hate to sue my own city,” he added.
Huh says he will make that city after consulting with supporters and advisors.