May 17, 2018
The Public Disclosure Commission, in special meetings May 9 and May 17, adopted emergency rules to apply Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2938.
The new law creates a new structure and timelines for PDC assessment of complaints, requires a new dissolution process for committees once they file a final report, and establishes procedures and reporting exemptions for outages of PDC applications, among other changes.
The legislation, which passed the Legislature this year and was signed into law on March 28, takes effect June 7.
The short timeline from its passage to its effective date made emergency rules necessary. In passing the emergency rules, the commission also entered into the first stage of permanent rulemaking that will incorporate the new rules into Washington Administrative Code 390 on a long-term basis.
The process of permanent rulemaking will allow time for stakeholder input. Anyone who wishes to comment about the emergency rules or engage in the permanent rulemaking process can email their comments to pdc@pdc.wa.gov.
Adopted May 9:
Dissolution of committees (WAC 390-16)
Debts and obligations (WAC 390-16)
Public inspection of campaign books (WAC 390-16)
Public inspection of commercial advertisers' records (WAC 390-18)
Electronic filing systems outages (WAC 390-19)
Adopted May 17:
Enforcement rules (WAC 390-37)
Role of the executive director (WAC 390-12)
Time limit to accept or solicit contributions (WAC 390-17)
The PDC will engage in permanent rulemaking this summer to implement ESHB 2938. Information about opportunities to engage in that process is coming. In the meantime, anyone who wishes to offer suggestions or comment on the new requirements can email pdc@pdc.wa.gov.