Political watchdog investigates Sacramento candidate ‘Flo’ Cofer over income disclosure

The Abridged version:

• The California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating whether Flojaune “Flo” Cofer misrepresented her income during both her current campaign for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and her 2024 Sacramento mayoral campaign.
• Cofer’s conflict-of-interest filing claims she had no reportable income in 2025 and 2026. But the FPPC complaint from a prominent political law firm notes that she admitted receiving payment for speaking engagements in 2025.
• Candidates submit conflict of interest statements under the penalty of perjury, and inaccurate filings can lead to criminal penalties.

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The California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating a complaint that Sacramento County Board of Supervisors candidate Flojaune “Flo” Cofer misreported her income when filing to run for office, a potential criminal offense.

The complaint, filed by Sacramento law firm Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP, alleges Cofer reported no income on her Statement of Economic Interests filed on March 5. But 20 days later, the complaint says, she outlined a series of work engagements in a sworn statement to the Sacramento County Superior Court. She said she had received payment for some of them.

The complaint also accuses Cofer of making similarly contradicting statements when running for Sacramento mayor in 2024. She was senior director of policy at Public Health Advocates, a nonprofit lobbying group, from early 2019 through August 2024. The complaint includes a Statement of Economic Interests that Cofer filed in December 2023 that did not report income.

“For her 2026 filing, the timing and specificity of the contradictory sworn documents preclude any innocent explanation,” Bell, McAndrews and Hiltachk LLP’s complaint read. “Ms. Cofer swore that she had nothing to disclose. She then swore to a court (twenty days later and in the same election cycle) that she had substantial, ongoing, and currently active sources of professional income. These are not reconcilable positions.”

‘Special interests and dark money networks’

Political candidates are required to report total income payments of $500 or more over the past year from the geographic area they might represent, in part to identify potential conflicts of interest. Their Statements of Economic Interests are signed under the penalty of perjury, with potential criminal penalties for inaccuracy.

Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP previously petitioned the Sacramento County Superior Court to remove “Dr.” from Cofer’s name on county ballots. Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell granted that petition in late March, determining the general public would believe Cofer was a practicing medical physician. Cofer has a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Michigan.

The Sacramento Metro Chamber PAC, which has endorsed Cofer’s opponent, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra, in the June 2 primary election, paid Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP nearly $2,000 from Jan. 1 through April 18. The law firm filed its FPPC complaint on behalf of Richard Dwyer, a Sacramento resident and voter previously named as the petitioner in the ballot designation claim.

Cofer said it represented more shadowy figures than one person.

“First it was challenges to my ballot designation. Now it’s abusing the FPPC complaint process for political theater,” Cofer wrote in her statement to Abridged. “The same special interests and dark money networks backing my opponent are throwing everything they can at our campaign because they are threatened by a genuinely independent movement they cannot control.”

Her statement did not address the specific allegations in the complaint.

Consulting, speaker and appearing as an expert witness

Much of the law firm’s FPPC complaint hinges on Cofer’s response to the firm’s earlier ballot petition. Cofer submitted a declaration arguing for the “Dr.” title on the ballot. In doing so, she cited examples of her work over the previous year.

“Within the calendar year of 2025 and 3 months immediately preceding this decision, I have been actively engaged in paid and professional work in the field of public health, including compensated speaking, teaching, training, and policy-related activities,” Cofer’s declaration read.

Cofer’s declaration listed several of her paid engagements during that time. On Oct. 22, she was paid to be the California Black Birth Equity Summit Roundtable’s featured speaker, she said. She also claimed to have been paid for presentations on structural and community violence as public health issues on Feb. 27, 2025, and Jan. 29, 2026.

Cofer also listed work that she didn’t expressly claim to have been paid for but which often garners payment. She was an expert witness at a federal court settlement conference on Aug. 1, a plenary speaker for the California Department of Public Health on Oct. 29 and consulted the state Department of Social Services on and off since June 11, she wrote in the declaration.

“These activities demonstrate that my primary, ongoing, and most substantial work is in public health, and that I am regularly compensated for and recognized based on my expertise in that field,” Cofer wrote in her declaration.

Potential penalties

False Statements of Economic Interest can cost candidates up to $5,000 in fines per violation in California, as well as prison sentences. In 2010, a former Lassen County superintendent pleaded no contest and was sentenced to two years probation, 20 days in county jail (completed instead through community service) and a $110 fine after erroneously filling out a Statement of Economic Interests form.

Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP have requested the FPPC’s enforcement division impose maximum civil penalties against Cofer and refer the complaint to the state Attorney General’s Office for criminal prosecution. Cofer, meanwhile, is focused on the June 2 primary.

“I look forward to going through the standard FPPC review process and having this frivolous complaint dismissed,” Cofer said in her written statement to Abridged. “Until then, I’ll stay focused on the work — and they can stay focused on the theater.”

Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.