Donald Van Every, a once-vocal member of the Buffalo Board of Education who has been long active in local Democratic Party politics, pleaded guilty Friday to failing to file New York State tax returns for eight years in the past decade. But he was spared jail after he paid the last of his tax debt.

Buffalo City Judge Joseph A. Fiorello granted Van Every, 58, a conditional discharge on his misdemeanor state tax crime of failing to file a return. He also was fined $700 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service within the next six months.

“I own up to what I did and apologize,” Van Every told the judge.

After the court session, Van Every told The Buffalo News that he has “failed in my role as a citizen by not filing my taxes on time.”

“It was my error and I paid a price for it today,” he said. “At no time did I plan to evade my responsibility, during my busy board years. Thinking I was creating a civil financial debt, I was prepared to pay penalties.

“I never expected this matter to end in court. I filed these late returns, paid the tax due and asked what I owed in penalty and interest when New York sent their one notice in eight years,” he also said.

Van Every is one of the the county’s top social welfare examiners.

Rodney Personius, Van Every’s lawyer, turned over a bank check for $3,189 to Susan H. Sadinsky,

head of the Erie County District Attorney’s Crimes Against Revenue Bureau, to cover the interest and penalties on the noncompliance crime.

Both Personius and Sadinsky confirmed that, as soon as officials of the State Department of Taxation and Finance contacted Van Every last year, he fully repaid the $3,752.90, which was the total state tax he owed for the years 2000 through 2007.

Personius told the judge that, while he could not condone Van Every’s conduct, his client only owed the state government about $500 a year in taxes during his delinquent years. He stressed that Van Every is fully compliant with federal tax payments.

Fiorella ordered Van Every to file his future tax returns “when they become due” and “lead a law-abiding life.” As Van Every left court, the judge wished him “good luck.”

Van Every served on the Buffalo Board of Education from 1992 to 1995, 1999 to 2004 and 2005 to 2007. He was board president in 1994 and 1995.

In 1997, Van Every said in a letter to The Buffalo News that he was haunted by the Board of Education’s decision to settle a teachers contract in 1994 while allowing the Buffalo Teachers Federation to continue a lawsuit seeking four years of back pay. The teachers won that lawsuit — worth about $150 million to $200 million — in 1997.

“To settle a contentious labor- relations mess, we gambled,” Van Every said. “And we lost. But we lost something we had no right to gamble with — the city’s good financial future.”

Van Every resigned from his county post in 2007 to run the county executive campaign of Democrat James P. Keane, who lost to Chris Collins in a heated campaign.

Van Every said he had assurances from then-Social Services Commissioner Michael Weiner that he would be hired back after Election Day, whether Keane won or lost. But when Van Every approached Weiner for his job, Weiner refused to rehire him, citing his “highly critical” comments about Collins and the Social Services Department.

After legal negotiations, Van Every got his county job back with salary and seniority intact.