A matter of trust

The Washington Public Disclosure Commission won’t ease state budget pressures much by taking a get-tough approach to delinquent fines, but it will reinforce the state’s commitment to good government.

Statewide, only some $44,000 is at stake, and the PDC’s decision to turn to courts and collection agencies to collect it will incur certain offsetting costs. But by pressuring more than 150 violators to settle up, the watchdog agency will send a strong message about compliance with the law.

It’s been 30 years since Washington pioneered a battery of open-government laws dealing with open meetings, access to public documents and requiring candidates and their bankrollers to be forthright about financial connections. Those requirements, now common throughout the country, make the ideal of informed self-government realistic.

Voters want to know if the school board member who supports a real estate deal or a construction contract has a personal financial interest at stake. They want to know if policy decisions rendered by an elected official work too much to the benefit of a major campaign contributor.

After 30 years’ experience at the state level, Washington politicians largely understand what the Public Disclosure Commission expects of them – and comply. Only a “handful” pose problems, according to Assistant Director Doug Ellis.

But the PDC would be letting the public down if it turned its back on that handful, even though the vast majority of them are otherwise upright figures with no intention of abusing the offices they seek. Candidates simply need a reminder that the reporting requirements are serious and will be enforced; voters need to know they can trust the system.

Many of those who now find themselves under pressure to pay what they owe – in some cases $1,000 or more – reflect a dismissive attitude toward the disclosure law. The fines are excessive. The requirements confusing. They’re too busy with other aspects of their lives. Somebody overlooked a deadline. The dog ate their homework.

Somehow, despite all those complaints, thousands of candidates for offices large and small get it right. What’s more, the PDC itself takes pains to make the system as accommodating as possible. Candidates who don’t understand what’s expected have convenient access via the Internet to extensive instructions and explanations.

It doesn’t take a hard-core cynic to wonder if a candidate who can’t figure out the disclosure requirements (or recruit an aide who can) may be aiming too high to run for office in the first place.