Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s campaign will not be penalized for giving leftover funds to a political action committee, a government board decided Monday.

The board of the New Haven Democracy Fund — which gives public funding to qualified mayoral candidates and sets restrictions for campaign donations and spending — decided instead to fine the mayor’s 2009 campaign $500 for filing five campaign finance reports late, the New Haven Independent reported Tuesday.

The Democracy Fund was investigating a donation of $12,500 that the mayor’s 2007 campaign made last year to the James Hillhouse Society, a political action committee that supports progressive candidates. According to the Independent, the board decided not to punish the mayor’s campaign because the Fund’s ordinance does not give specific enough rules for spending.

Board member Dennis Curtis said that even if the mayor’s campaign donation does not clearly violate the Democracy Fund’s ordinance, it does “fly in the face of the purposes” of the Fund, according to the Independent, which also reported that the Democracy Fund’s board intends to clarify the guidelines for donations to political action committees.

Read more about the investigation into the mayor’s campaign’s donation here.