The Secretary of State's Office has decided to take no further action against Jerome Block Jr. for questionable expenditures he made during his successful run for Public Regulation Commission.

The state had previously fined the Democrat for his misuse of public campaign funds — and that penalty remains in effect — but a second inquiry ended with Secretary of State Mary Herrera releasing a letter to Block that says her office doesn't plan to levy more civil fines.

"As a result of this office's investigation, we have determined that the campaign activity described above is not in violation of the Voter Action Act," Herrera said in the Tuesday letter.

Neither Herrera nor her deputy secretary, Don Francisco Trujillo II, who released Block's letter in an e-mail Wednesday, could be reached for further comment. Block also couldn't be reached.

On Tuesday, the date of Herrera's letter, Trujillo told The New Mexican that he and an office lawyer sat down with Block that morning to hear the commissioner-elect's explanation for his expenditures.

Block's spending included $1,500 to each the San Miguel County and Taos County Democratic parties, $350 in July to Cordy Medina, an Attorney General's Office liaison, and $507 for Web site work to MATI Networks Inc., which is part of the company that employs Block's father as a lobbyist.

The secretary's decision seems to contradict her previous finding that resulted in Block paying $21,700 in fines and reimbursements earlier this month. In that case, Herrera said Block violated the Voter Action Act, which provides for public campaign financing, partly because he spent money he received for the general election on primary expenses and then misreported such spending.

Block received nearly $101,000 in public financing, including nearly $65,000 for the general election, but he paid Medina in July for "mail-out assistance" work she did in March.

Public campaign money also must be spent solely on campaign-related purposes. In the case of San Miguel County, that party's chairman said the money was spent on office rental on the Las Vegas, N.M., plaza. "Our investigation indicates both of these payments were for campaign-related purposes," Herrera wrote, referring to both the San Miguel and Taos expenditures.

Block's previous spending violations largely focused on San Miguel County, after he admitted lying about $2,500 he gave to the county clerk's band for a performance that never occurred. He also got in trouble for giving $750 to Hillary Clinton, who had already dropped out of the presidential race and was trying to reduce her campaign debt.

Block, 31, is scheduled to be sworn in as the District 3 commissioner, a job that pays $90,000 a year, on Jan. 1. Block defeated Green Party member Rick Lass with 56 percent of the vote Nov. 4. Lass, who has lobbied for public campaign financing, couldn't be reached for comment.

Block's next campaign-spending report comes next month, and the Secretary of State's Office has said it's awaiting those papers to see if Block properly paid his penalty. Trujillo has previously said the entire $21,700 had to come out of Block's pocket, but $10,000 appeared to come from his campaign checking account.

Trujillo on Tuesday seemed to partly blame Block's legal woes as a misunderstanding of the Voter Action Act, and said Herrera plans to lobby the Legislature for clarifications to the law. "We learned through this experience with the PRC where there's a lot of gray area, and we want to make sure it can be narrowed down to an interpretation rather than a variety of interpretations," he said.

While Herrera's investigation was to determine whether to impose further civil penalties against Block, the Attorney General's Office has yet to say whether it will conduct a criminal investigation, and that remained the case Wednesday. "There's nothing I can talk about regarding that," spokesman Phil Sisneros said. Attorney General Gary King has called Block's spending issues a "front-burner issue."

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.