Bernie Sanders still hasn’t coughed up the cash he owes National City for an event he held last year in Kimball Park. Now he’s getting sued.
Despite Sanders’ campaign rhetoric of a changed system, the Vermont senator has not paid National City $28,337.28 for the May rally that took place weeks before California held its primary and just before Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination.
Now, National City is officially taking the 75-year-old former presidential candidate to court to recoup about $31,000 from him. The cost includes the $28,337.28 owed to them plus about $3,000 in penalties.
The National City City Council on Aug. 1 unanimously agreed to authorize the city attorney to file a lawsuit against the Bernie Sanders campaign.
The city attorney says the Sanders campaign was made aware of the cost before the event was held and agreed to pay it. They sent two delinquency notices and a follow-up demand letter. None of them proved fruitful. Financial Credit Network says it too was unable to get a response from the campaign.
“When we’ve talk to the campaign they keep referring it to Secret Service and saying that the Secret Service is responsible for paying the bill, but then Secret Service would say ‘no, that’s the campaign,” Deputy City Manager Stacey Stevenson said.
Multiple cities in Solano County know National City’s pain. In January, California County News reported that Sanders’ campaign owed Solano cities a collective $82,264.86 for events held before the election.
Bernie, it's time to pay your fair share.