Commission meeting highlights: July 2024

Public Disclosure Commission denies request to send complaint against Let’s Go Washington to Attorney General’s Office

The Public Disclosure Commission voted to deny a request to refer a complaint against Let’s Go Washington (sponsored by Brian Heywood), a continuing political committee supporting a number of ballot initiatives, to the state Attorney General’s Office, but hopes to review the case at the Commission’s August meeting.

In June 2023, the PDC received a complaint against Let’s Go Washington alleging that the committee filed inaccurate expenditure reports. The case is currently under investigation by PDC staff.

Earlier this month, SEIU 775, Washington Conservation Action, Civic Ventures and Planned Parenthood – complainants in the case involving Let’s Go Washington -- asked the PDC to refer the case to the Attorney General’s Office for further investigation, citing the length of the investigation and the time sensitive nature of the complaint, given that Let’s Go Washington is supporting several measures on the November ballot, among other factors.

Callie Castillo, representing Let’s Go Washington, asked the Commission to deny the request, saying it did not meet statutory requirements for it to be granted.

PDC Executive Director Peter Frey Lavallee briefed the Commission on the case and explained that the length of the investigation is partly due to slow responses from Let’s Go Washington.

The Commission discussed the issue in closed session, as allowed under the Administrative Procedure Act.

After resuming the open session, the Commission voted 4-0, with member Jim Oswald recusing himself, to deny the request to refer the case to the Attorney General. The Commission also voted to reserve time on its August meeting agenda for a hearing on the case, provided staff have had time to file charges of a violation.

Staff report progress on work to improve compliance on mandatory expenditure reports

PDC staff are ahead of schedule on a project to improve compliance with mandatory pre-election expenditure reports, Deputy Director Kim Bradford told the Commission at its meeting on July 25.

In a March strategic planning session, the Commission directed staff to create a system to identify filers who owed these reports, notify them before and after the reports were due, and post the names of those with missing reports online.

Expenditure reports are due, regardless of campaign activity, 21 and 7 days before an election, and on the 10^th day of the month following an election for full-reporting candidates active in that election.

Staff initially planned to have the system in place before the November general election, but were able to deploy it in July, in time for the 21-day pre-primary report.

On July 15, the day before the 21-day report was due, staff sent a batch of reminders to 416 candidates. On July 17 and 18, staff sent overdue notices to more than 90 candidates. As of this week, staff calculated a 90 percent compliance rate for the 21-day expenditure report.

While the process was not without a few hiccups, staff are prepared to make improvements and repeat the process for the 7-day expenditure report, which is due on Tuesday, July 30.

PDC launches new online candidate dashboard, online filing for out-of-state political committees

The Public Disclosure Commission this month debuted a new online candidate dashboard for its candidate webpages. PDC Chief Information Officer James Gutholm gave the Commission a presentation on the changes.

The new view is designed to better display a candidate’s contributions and spending, a candidate’s status in the election, and more information collected by the PDC.

The new design also incorporates changes to make loading data on the page quicker and easier.

The PDC is constantly making updates and improvements to its filing systems as well as its public-facing website.

The PDC will also launch a new online reporting method for out-of-state political committee reports (C-5) on Aug. 6, and will no longer accept the paper forms as of that date. State law requires PDC reports to be filed electronically when the agency has provided a system to do so.   

Enforcement: Commission issues fine to write-in candidate for unfiled reports

In a hearing on July 25, the Commission found that Christal Olivia Irwin, a write-in candidate for superior court judge in Ferry, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties, violated state law by failing to file her candidate registration and personal financial affairs statement for her current campaign.

Irwin has one previous violation for failing to file her personal financial affairs statement while running for the Colville City Council in 2023. She was fined $250 for that violation, and has neither filed the missing report nor paid the fine.

The Commission imposed a fine of $2,000 for the 2024 violations, with half suspended on the condition that she file all missing reports online and pay the fines within 30 days.

Earlier this month, the Commission issued fines to more than two-dozen other 2024 candidates who had late or missing candidate registrations and personal financial affairs statements.

In other enforcement news, as of July 17 the PDC had 277 open cases, 201 of which were under formal investigation.

Between June 15 and July 17, the PDC resolved 87 cases. Four were resolved with no evidence of violations, three were resolved with technical corrections, 74 cases were resolved with formal written warnings, one with a statement of understanding in which the respondent acknowledged a violation and paid a penalty, five with violations found by the Commission and one was closed administratively.