A Raleigh townhouse that is the focus of state ethics and campaign finance complaints has a new owner.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger sold the home on Yarborough Park Drive in December to T. Tate Apodaca, a lobbyist and the son of Berger's former right-hand man in the state Senate, Tom Apodaca, for $330,000.
Other WRAL Top Stories
The sale price was a 32 percent profit over the $250,000 Berger, R-Rockingham, and his wife paid for the townhouse in May 2016, but it's in line with the new tax value for the home following Wake County's recent reassessment and is comparable to prices fetched by other homes in the neighborhood.
Still, long-time campaign finance watchdog Bob Hall said Wednesday Berger improperly profited because he had used campaign donations to pay the mortgage on the home for more than three years.
Hall filed a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Committee, calling Tate Apodaca's purchase of the home "a handsome gift from the lobbyist" to Berger in violation of state law.
According to campaign records, Berger set up a company called YPD Properties LLC as a property management firm weeks after buying the townhouse. His campaign then sent monthly payments to YPD that were described as "rent" in filings with state elections officials.
Hall said Berger's campaign paid a total of $73,500 to YPD before the home was sold in December, even though Berger and his wife lived in the home and were prohibited by their mortgage agreement from renting out the home.
Although lawmakers are allowed to use campaign funds for housing while working in Raleigh, most rent apartments or stay in hotels. Hall said Berger bought an appreciating asset from which he profited.
"If he was renting the property from a third party and having to pay out rent, then that would be legitimate," Hall said. "But there’s no third party involved. It’s a circle where the money is just coming from the campaign into his pocket."
He said the campaign's payments on the mortgage meant that Berger's actual profit on the townhouse sale topped $150,000 – nearly double what other sellers were making.
Berger's campaign said it got pre-approval on the arrangement from Kim Strach, who in 2016 was the State Board of Elections' executive director. Strach was replaced this year after Democrats took a majority on the state board, but Steve Long, the Republican attorney who filed initial paperwork for YPD, reached out in February to confirm the guidance.
"How many ridiculous hits does it take for people to fact-check Bob Hall before believing his smears as fact?" said Dylan Watts, the Republican Senate caucus director.
Hall said Strach's approval was just an informal opinion, not an official ruling. He filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections in November over the arrangement.
Berger and his wife now live in a condominium on West North Street that they bought in September for $370,000.