Whatcom County Councilman Under PDC Investigation for Campaign Finance Violations

10/6/2013

(Follow-up to Candidate Fails to Account for More Than $7,700)

Ken Mann, Whatcom County Councilman and Chair of the Whatcom County Finance Committee, is under investigation by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for significant financial errors and omissions that occurred during his 2009 campaign.

On July 8, 2013 Mr. Chet Dow filed a complaint with the PDC after noticing that Mr. Mann appeared to have lost over $7,700 between the end of his 2009 campaign and the start of his 2013 campaign. After an initial review, the PDC found that the complaint had merit and opened an investigation (PDC case #14-001). Mr. Mann has acknowledged that he is working with the PDC to resolve the matter and that he has responded to multiple requests for bank and financial records. And on September 20th Mr. Mann filed 14 reports with the PDC that should have been filed during his 2009 campaign.

These updated reports may have raised more questions than answers. They show that numerous errors and omissions occurred during his 2009 campaign. They include:

Almost $5,000 in campaign expenses were not reported.
Over 50 contributions were not reported.
5 reported bank deposits did not actually occur.

For a campaign that had $52,000 in expenses and 400 contributions, these omissions represent a significant percentage of his 2009 campaign finances.

Washington State Law requires transparent and timely reporting of all Campaign Finances (RCW 42.17A). Failure to do so can result in significant fines. The PDC rules state that a typical fine for 3 late reports is $1,100 (WAC 390-37-155). For situations involving more than 3 late reports the rules instruct that the Commission “shall assess successively increased penalties for succeeding violations …” (WAC 390-37-182(2)(c)). Mr. Mann could be in for a whopper of a fine.

A carefully documented analysis of Mr. Mann’s errors and omissions can be found at http://www.PdcProblem.com.

For more information please contact:
Chet Dow (360) 592-4345, Complainant
Bill Crawford (360) 255-1625, Analyst for the Complainant
Kurt Young (360) 664-8854 or (360) 753-1111, PDC Compliance Officer assigned to the investigation
Philip Stutzman (360) 664-8853 or (360) 753-1111, PDC Director of Compliance

6 Comments

Chet Dow

10/8/2013 01:59:55 pm

As has been previously pointed out, the PDC gets a lot of "frivolous complaints", has to look at them, and then dismisses the ones without any substance, usually within a matter of days. In this case, after giving Mann a chance to explain, it took them 45 days to decide the matter was worth opening a formal investigation.

The investigation continues, yet Ralph Schwartz' mention of it in the Herald's blog yesterday (see http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/10/07/3247090/progressives-conservatives-look.html ) is the first time anything connected with our local mainstream media has acknowledged the investigation even exists.

Given the facts already established, you might think that some voters (especially some who had donated to Mann in 2009) would like to know what was done with their campaign contributions. More than $7,700 has not been properly accounted for. The person reponsible serves as Chair of our Whatcom County Council's Finance committee.

As for the blog post itself, what a wonderful local example of why more and more people agree with Sean Hannity and others who for years have been saying "journalism as we once knew it is DEAD". I might add, this media spin is one more small example of why so many Whatcom County voters, especially those leaning conservative, refuse to subscribe to McClatchy's local rag.

In closing, I thought readers might enjoy the short and wonderful summary of Ralph's spin-art a friend shared this morning:

Per Ralph: "Chet is a biased partisan. Donovan is a distinguished professor that sometimes shows his bias, Riley is an outstanding investigative reporter. The Ken Mann issue is much-ado about nothing, while the BNSF issue is juicy and worthy of about 5 times the number of words. And I (Ralph) am an unbiased reporter that will not talk about things until the appropriate time."

Meanwhile, I think I want to go back to being a low-information voter. After all, bread and circuses are a lot more fun, aren't they?

Karl Uppiano link

10/11/2013 04:05:16 am

I find Ralph's claim to unbiased-ness to be laughable. I do not believe it is humanly possible to be unbiased. There are only a couple ways for news reporting to be "fair and balanced":

1. The news organization can implement an "affirmative action" hiring policy in which they employ reporters and editors from across the political spectrum, and then rotate them so that every reporter or editor covers each beat evenly. And they should still /try/ to be objective.

2. The news organizations could rip off the facade of objectivity, and admit their bias and partisanship, and let the free market of ideas sort it out (much as the new media, bloggers and citizen journalists are doing).

I wrote a blog about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes: http://antikakistocrat.blogspot.com/2012/10/tired-of-liberal-media.html

KEN link

10/10/2013 08:25:51 am

Hi guys - I heard about your new website. I appreciate the time you must have spent going through those updated PDC forms, especially Mr. Crawford. We experienced some ORCA software problems and halted the updates. Those latest postings do not reflect anything close to what will be the final paperwork - especially for the deposits. We have relayed to you the errors in expenses already. It looks like the errors/omissions for donations will be in the neighborhood of $500 - and most of it was after election day. We are in constant communication with the PDC and will finish the updates once we have everything accurately accounted and can upload fresh documents. Sorry for the inconvenience. As I have stated multiple times, I would be happy to sit down with you all or with Mr. Crawford or anyone to review my accounting spreadsheets.

WE Editors

10/10/2013 06:12:20 pm

Dear Mr. Mann,

WE arose, in part, to address the failure of local media to provide fair and balanced coverage. In election years, in particular, we feel the people need to be fully informed - not deliberately deceived by editorial favoritism masquerading as news.

The Excavator reports what it receives, after vetting information at primary sources. Our interest is in broadcasting the truth and passing this information along to the public. We endeavor to include links to source material so that our readers can verify the facts for themselves and form their own opinions.

If you have additional comments or documents that will improve coverage of the story, please submit them for publication.

Bill Crawford

10/14/2013 11:58:06 pm

Ken – This is about public disclosure, not private meetings. You claim you are doing everything you can to clear this up yet your actions say otherwise. The PDC asked you for bank records and, by your own admission, it took 31 days for you to get them. You now claim that the reports you have since posted are incorrect and misleading and that you can’t complete the work due to a problem with the PDC’s ORCA software. That was over 3 and a half weeks ago. I talked with Phil Stutzman, head of compliance at the PDC, who in turn talked with his compliance officers, filer assistants and technology people, and he could not find anyone you have asked for help with your PDC ORCA problems. You have had 3 and a half months to correct errors in a campaign that lasted only 6 months. How can we conclude anything but that you are stalling?

10/13/2013 12:31:15 pm

A candidate’s campaign finances are the public’s business. State public disclosure laws require detailed reports be made public in an accurate and timely manner. Ken Mann’s “PDC problem” has become a campaign issue this year because the Public Disclosure Commission has been investigating Mann’s campaign finances for more than three months.

Since July, Mr. Mann has been attempting to satisfy the PDC’s concerns. Had Mann’s amended reports filed in September demonstrated simple oversights to which his responses to PDC follow up were transparent, the PDC could have accepted his explanations, issued a brief report and promptly closed the case without continued inquiry. Instead, late this past week, PDC Director of Compliance Philip Stutzman confirmed the PDC’s investigation of Mann remains open.

Mann has stated in comments posted to WE, “I would be happy to meet with anybody from the WE or any publication or any citizen to provide copies of all of the documentation.”…and “We are in constant communication with the PDC and will finish the updates once we have everything accurately accounted (this takes three months??) and can upload fresh documents. Sorry for the inconvenience. As I have stated multiple times, I would be happy to sit down with you all or with Mr. Crawford or anyone to review my accounting spreadsheets.”

The problem with his suggestion is that any such meeting would take place in private, outside the public’s view.

Candidate Mann can resolve this issue for the voting public by promptly providing all the documents that support his assertions of simple oversights, errors and omissions directly to the Whatcom Excavator and by asking WE’s editors to make his documents publically available.

The public’s business needs to be out in the open, transparent and public where it belongs. This applies to candidate Ken Mann, currently serving as Chair of the Whatcom County Council’s Finance committee and seeking re-election, and to his campaign finances.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Whatcom County Councilman Under PDC Investigation for Campaign Finance Violations

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