By MARC KOVAC

October 31, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Election Commission postponed a hearing to determine potential sanctions against a failed Youngstown mayoral candidate after his legal counsel got the flu.

Mark Hanni, a Youngs-town-area attorney representing Demaine Kitchen, informed the state panel Wednesday of his illness and submitted a note from his doctor noting a “viral illness. ... He should be off for a week.”

“My client did not want to proceed without me, and I believe that you did not want me present in my condition,” Hanni added in a letter submitted to the commission just as it was starting its meeting Thursday.

Kitchen is facing potential sanctions after accepting an improper campaign contribution and neglecting to report it in a timely fashion.

Kitchen, a former chief of staff to former Mayor Charles Sammarone who ran as an independent candidate for mayor in the general election a year ago, received a $4,000 cash contribution from Sammarone, who now serves as city council president.

The state limit on such contributions is $100. Kitchen also reported the contributions several months late.

Mahoning County elections officials filed a complaint with the elections commission in April, outlining the improper contribution and delayed disclosure.

Kitchen’s campaign has since repaid $3,900 of the funds, via checks to Sammarone in April and May, according to updated campaign finance disclosures submitted to the elections commission Thursday. Those same documents disclosed checks of $2,500 and $1,400 contributed to Kitchen’s campaign around the same time from Sammarone, said Philip Richter, executive director of the elections commission.

Kitchen faces upward of $12,000 in potential fines or a possible referral for prosecution. Richter said he planned to schedule the new hearing at the commission’s next meeting Nov. 13.