PDC aims to collect fines

OLYMPIA – It’s been several years since Brian Grady was the mayor of Airway Heights, but the state still has a little something it wants to give him.

A bill for $250.

The state Public Disclosure Commission is turning to courts and collection agencies to wring more than $50,000 in overdue fines from dozens of public officials who broke campaign-finance laws. Many are repeat violations. Some date back as far as the mid-1990s.

“We always send letters to people saying, ‘Look, this is what’s going to happen,’ ” said Linda Dalton, the senior assistant attorney general who takes the overdue cases to court. “Some pay up over time. Some don’t.”

Those with outstanding fines include former members of school boards in Newport and Loon Lake, and current and former city council members from Airway Heights, Chewelah and Davenport.

Most, like Grady, allegedly failed to file their “Personal Financial Affairs Statement,” which details a candidate’s financial interests, such as assets, debts and employment. The goal, Dalton said, is to ensure that public officials aren’t wrongly benefiting from their position.

Most of the outstanding fines range from $100 to $300, although some are for thousands of dollars. In February, the political group Mainstream Republicans of Washington was fined $15,000, one-third of which was suspended. If the state has to get a court judgment to force payment, the original fine can balloon by hundreds of dollars, due to court fees, attorney costs and other charges.

“A penalty sends a message that it’s important to file” campaign reports, said PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson. “They (the commissioners) try to get people’s attention.”

Consider it gotten, said Bonni Haskell, whose husband, David Haskell, is on the Chewelah City Council. She said she’s mystified by why the PDC didn’t get his 2004 annual financial statement. It was mailed in on time, she said, and when the PDC said they didn’t get it, she immediately faxed it to Olympia.

Nonetheless, the commission fined David Haskell $100. The couple appealed the fine, noting it was the first time David Haskell had ever been late with a PDC form. Too bad, the PDC said.

“The penalty stands,” Bonni Haskell said Tuesday. “We’ll pay it. Not a problem.”

Also fined $100 was Terri Kammers, a parks and recreation commissioner in Ferry County. An appointee to a commission vacancy, she was late filing her 2003 financial affairs form.

Kammers said she was late because the state required filing the form online, and she didn’t have Internet access at the time. She tried asking the commission what to do, she said, but never received a return call.

She said it’s surprising how much reporting public officials – even for small boards that rarely meet – have to do.

“I couldn’t understand why I had all this paperwork to fill out,” she said. “It’s a pain in the neck, and it’s redundant.”

Nonetheless, she’ll pay the $100, she said. It’s a small fine by PDC standards, but significant money to her, she said. She works as a cashier at a gas station.

“When you make $8 an hour, it’s a lot,” she said.

Other local officials with outstanding fines include:

•Cindy Adams, former Loon Lake School Board member: $400 for not filing her financial affairs statements in 2000 or 2001.

•Sonia Shoptaw, former Newport School Board member: $1,250 for not filing three financial affairs statements.

•David Niezwaag, former Ritzville parks and recreation commissioner: $450 for not filing financial affairs statements in 2000 or 2001.

•Teresa Telford, former Davenport city councilwoman: $150 for filing her 2004 statement late.