February 07, 2025
Commissioners thanked Chair Alan Hayward for his service and leadership at his last regular meeting of the Public Disclosure Commission on January 23. Hayward announced that he would resign from the Commission for personal reasons at the end of January.
Hayward’s term was set to expire in December 2025.
Commissioner J Leach, who was elected Commission Chair going forward, praised Hayward’s “even-handed nature,” and knowledge of legislative issues. Executive Director Peter Frey Lavallee remarked that Hayward had been a “great presence on the Commission.”
Commissioner Douglass North will serve as vice chair.
“It’s really been an honor,” Hayward said during the meeting. “You guys are the best staff that I’ve come across, and I’ve done a lot of years with the state.”
Caseload management work group presents options, Commission gives their blessing
In an effort to deal with a 400 percent increase in complaint volume between the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, and a continuing influx of new complaints, the Commission last year formed a caseload management workgroup, composed of Chair Hayward, Commissioner Nancy Isserlis, Deputy Director Kim Bradford and Frey Lavallee.
The group presented their recommendations to the full Commission at its January 23 regular meeting.
While noting that some of the measures recommended in the report could be considered controversial, Hayward said the agency was effectively in an emergency situation and has to act accordingly to dig out from the backlog.
Bradford briefed the group on some of the strategies the agency’s Compliance department had already implemented, such as processes and strategies to track incoming complaints and handle like-complaints in bulk, and the elimination of some duplicate processes.
The group managed to triple its case resolution over the previous year, but that also came at the cost of curtailing some group enforcement – or staff-generated cases – and pausing most of the agency’s auditing program.
To address the backlog of complaints, the group made several recommendations.
First, they suggested that the Commission should direct staff to prioritize existing complaints from 2023 and 2024 election years that involve high-profile campaigns or include allegations of violations other than routine reporting issues. The guidelines also call for prioritizing cases involving winning candidates who have missing reports, committees with a history of significant electoral spending, and campaigns that appear to have not disclosed financial activity of more than $10,000.
For all 2023 and 2024 cases that do not match those patterns, staff would either dismiss the allegations or offer the respondents the chance to resolve them by admitting to a violation.
Cases involving alleged violations prior to 2023 will be handled as staff has time, but could reach their statute of limitations before that could occur.
The Commission discussed the proposal, and gave staff its blessing to use the guidance in their work going forward.
“It looks like light at the end of the tunnel that’s not a train coming at us,” said Commissioner Leach. “You try this and if it’s not enough you can always figure out more.”
PDC staff will report back to the Commission on the success of the effort.
Proposed statewide budget cuts could affect PDC
Frey Lavallee briefed the Commission during its January regular meeting on the state’s projected budget deficit for the next biennium, and ways it could affect the agency’s budget.
The PDC’s fiscal year 2025 budget was about $6.1 million. To read about how the budget breaks down each year, see past PDC annual reports. Frey Lavallee noted that the Legislature had not yet asked the PDC to present a budget with cuts.
Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed budget asks for 6 percent cuts to most state agencies’ budgets, including the PDC’s. Frey Lavallee and members of the Commission expressed concern at the impact such a cut would have on the PDC’s already lean budget, at a time when PDC caseloads have skyrocketed.
“A 6 percent cut to this Commission’s budget would be devastating,” Hayward said.
The Governor has also proposed a “sweep” of a $35 million penalty levied on Facebook’s parent company Meta, for numerous campaign finance violations. The money would otherwise go into the PDC’s Transparency Fund. Frey Lavallee noted that state law requires that Transparency Fund money can only be spent to carry out the duties of the PDC.
The PDC uses Transparency Fund money in a variety of ways, including supporting several permanent staff positions and making improvements to the agency website and filing applications for campaigns, lobbyists and others.
Payment of the Meta fine is on hold while the company appeals the court decision to the Washington State Supreme Court. A decision, and any payment, could be years away.
Commission dismisses two petitions for rulemaking, one for declaratory order on checks
The Commission considered three petitions from members of the public.
Under the Administrative Procedures Act, a person can petition an agency to adopt, repeal or amend rules.
In the first petition, Joe Kunzler asked the Commission to make a rule that clarified that making public comment that supports or opposes an election campaign during an open public meeting is illegal.
RCW 42.17A.555 prohibits governments from using public facilities, such as using a board meeting to make a political statement. However, in the event of a person speaking in public comment about a campaign issue, the law would hold the board responsible, rather than the commenter. Boards are advised to stop the comment as soon as they believe it violates the law.
Kunzler made a similar request in 2023 that was denied. In that instance, the board ruled that the request to hold commenters liable in these cases was beyond the scope of the state law.
PDC General Counsel Sean Flynn recommended the Commission dismiss the petition, which it did.
In the second petition, Conner Edwards submitted a proposed rule that would require commercial advertisers out of Washington State to provide a location in the state to view records if their records were not available in an online format.
Commercial advertisers are required to make records of political advertising, or books of account, available upon request to members of the public. The law allows this to take place either in person or electronically.
Flynn also recommended denying this petition, saying the PDC’s rules in this area were recently revised on this topic, and that staff have found the current flexible requirements have been sufficient. Members of the Commission also commented that this would be an impossible requirement for small businesses in other states filling election-material orders for Washington candidates.
Edwards also submitted a petition for a declaratory order, asking the Commission to determine that checks should be reported as debts until the check clears.
The Commission also denied this request, saying it was inconsistent with the law and standard definitions used in accounting practices. Checks written by a campaign are reported as expenditures.
The request relates to a violation the Commission found this year against the Washington State Republican Party. In that case, the party reported a check as a debt, which staff identified as a reporting error.
The Commission dismissed the petition.
Enforcement report
Between Dec. 5, 2024, and Jan. 14, 2025, the PDC received 118 new complaints, and at the end of that period had 352 active cases.
Of those 352 cases, 144 are under initial review, or have been with PDC staff fewer than 90 days. Another 192 cases had been through an initial hearing and are now under full investigation. Sixteen of those cases are scheduled for brief enforcement hearings.
Of those 352 cases, 45 were closed between Dec. 5 and Jan. 14. Four were dismissed for lack of evidence, one was resolved with a reminder, six were dismissed by Executive Director Peter Frey Lavallee, four were remediable violations, seven were resolved with technical corrections, 19 with written warnings, three with statements of understanding and one violation was found by the commission.