August 29, 2025
Commission, PDC staff bid farewell to Commissioner Nancy Isserlis at last meeting
Public Disclosure Commissioner Nancy Isserlis attended her final meeting as a member of the Commission on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Commission Chair J Leach and PDC Executive Director Peter Frey Lavallee lamented losing Isserlis’ institutional knowledge from her nearly six years on the Commission.
Public Disclosure Commissioners serve five-year terms, but are allowed to spend an additional year on the board if a replacement has not been appointed by the Governor’s Office. With Isserlis’ departure, the five-member Commission will be down two commissioners.
Leach called Isserlis a “tremendous asset” to the Commission.
Isserlis recalled how the first case to come before the Commission after she joined was one against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, that eventually led to a $25 million judgment against the social media company. An appeal is scheduled to be heard before the state Supreme Court in October.
“I want to really, really thank the superb staff at the Public Disclosure Commission,” Isserlis said, particularly mentioning those who have retired “who’ve dedicated their professional lives to the work of this Commission.”
Isserlis, who lives in Spokane, said that she plans to go back to supporting campaigns and political issues.
Candidate fined after repeated failure to file registration, financial disclosure
At its Aug. 28 regular meeting, the Commission issued a fine of $6,000 to Adam Smith, a candidate for Spokane Valley City Council, for failing to file both his candidate registration (C-1) and personal financial affairs statement (F-1) for the 2025 election. Smith has two prior cases, in 2021 and 2023, in which he was found in violation for failing to file the same reports.
The Commission suspended $2,000 of the $6,000 fine on the condition that Smith files the missing reports and pays the remainder of the fine within 30 days, among other conditions.
State law requires candidates to file both the C-1 and F-1 within two weeks of beginning their campaign. Smith’s case originated with the PDC’s annual effort to enforce compliance with that law. In total, the Commission has issued more than $20,000 in fines for late-filing, or failing to file either of those reports for the 2025 election year.
PDC considers draft legislation amending expenditure reporting requirements
PDC general counsel Sean Flynn presented a draft of proposed legislation to modify campaign reporting dates at the Commission’s Aug. 28 meeting.
The proposal is intended to increase campaign transparency and simplify reporting requirements. Currently, campaign expenditure reports, known as C-4 reports, have due dates that depend on the amount of a candidate or committee’s financial activity and their election participation. For that reason, a committee participating in the 2025 general election has different C-4 due dates than a committee participating in the April 2025 special election.
The draft legislation would instead require all candidates and committees to file C-4 reports on the 10th and 25th of each month from July through October, regardless of their participation status in either the primary or general election. During other times, candidates and committees would be required to file monthly.
The legislation would also extend the last-minute contribution reporting period before the primary and general elections.
The PDC received several written and oral public comments about the draft legislation. Treasurers expressed concern that the additional reports would be burdensome to campaigns, especially inactive campaigns that would likely be filing reports showing no activity.
However, commissioners have expressed concern that the current system, in which filing requirements are not always tied to specific dates and filing is dependent on the amount raised or spent, often results in confusion on the part of both filers and the general public. The current reporting schedule also doesn’t reflect the move to mail voting, with the bulk of expenditure reporting happening on the eve of ballot mailing when voters may not have enough time to digest it.
The Commission spent some time discussing elements of the draft as well as other considerations, but staff did not ask for a formal vote to support it or to present it to the Legislature at this time. Staff will continue to revise the draft with input from the Commission and the public.
Enforcement update
Between July 16 and Aug. 19, the PDC received 174 new complaints and closed 66 cases.
During that time, the agency held nine initial hearings to convert cases under initial review to full investigations. As of Aug. 19, the PDC had 202 active cases, including 105 under initial review, 96 under formal investigation, and one case pending deferred enforcement.
Of the 66 closed cases – nearly double the amount closed during the previous month – four were closed with no evidence of a violation, 31 with reminders, one was dismissed by the commission, two were dismissed by the executive director, one was resolved as a remediable violation and another as a technical correction, 20 with written warnings, five with statements of understanding and one with a violation found by the Commission.
One of those cases involved a legislative candidate, 30 were local candidates, 5 were lobbyists, one was a grassroots lobbying campaign, two involved commercial advertisers and 26 involved political committees.
Staff noted that the agency is seeing an increase in complaints regarding sponsor identification, particularly on yard signs. The 2025 general election year is the first time the new requirement that all political signs have sponsor ID is applied universally. The identification must include the name of the sponsor and their mailing address, and the type must be at least 10 percent of the largest font size displayed or 10-point font, whichever is larger.
Given that the law is new, staff are focusing on educating campaigns about the changes.
PDC staff are also gearing up for their first general enforcement process for mandatory pre-primary election expenditure reports (C-4). These reports are due 21 and 7 days before elections regardless of campaign activity. A hearing date for those cases is scheduled for September.