Ethics commission finds Seattle mayor guilty of violating election rules

Mayor Greg Nickels violated city election rules when he spent taxpayer funds to mail out a flier touting his accomplishments, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission ruled last night.

In a 4-3 vote, the panel of ethics watchdogs decided the eight-page flier violated a city ban on using public facilities for campaigning. The commission ordered Nickels to reimburse the city treasury $2,205 for the cost of printing and distributing the document.

"It appears the document is primarily promotional," said Commission Chairman Bruce Heller, noting that the panel had warned Nickels in an earlier decision that such documents "published in an election year would be subject to additional scrutiny."

Commissioners voted 4-3 not to fine Nickels, saying the case was too murky to warrant a strong penalty against the mayor.

A Nickels spokeswoman said the ruling did not clarify what kind of mailings elected officials are permitted to send out. "I want to stress that this continues the confusion about what elected officials can and cannot do," said Marianne Bichsel.

Nickels has not decided whether to appeal the decision to King County Superior Court, Bichsel added.

Nickels, up for a second term, is facing former professor Al Runte in the Nov. 8 election. In February, his office sent the flier titled "Mayor Greg Nickels, Three Years of Accomplishments" to 3,100 people who had expressed interest in neighborhood issues.

Nickels' lawyers and staff argued that the flier was meant to augment the mayor's annual "state of the city" speech, which is required by the city charter. The flier was part of the mayor's duty to communicate to citizens, they contended.

Nickels' flier contains 74 bullet points that stress his work on city projects such as "increasing emergency preparedness" and "moving forward on South Lake Union streetcar." It includes six photographs of Nickels and mentions no other city officials.

Nickels' lawyers maintained the document was similar to those sent out by previous mayors and current City Council members. In particular, the mayor's lawyers pointed to a newsletter mailed by Councilman Nick Licata. They said Licata's 10-page "Nick's Notes" was essentially the same as the mayor's flier.

But Wayne Barnett, executive director of the ethics commission, said Licata's newsletter was "fundamentally different" from Nickels' flier because it emphasized current issues and listed Licata's failures, as well as successes.

The seven lawyers who are unpaid commissioners struggled with the Nickels case. They heard legal arguments for two hours, met in secret session to deliberate for an hour, and then each stated his or her opinion without knowing how the others might vote.

Heller, Paul Dayton, Bob Mahon and Nancy Miller voted that the flier assisted Nickels' campaign and violated city rules. Commissioners Gregg Hirakawa, Mel Kang and Michelle Radosevich disagreed, with Kang calling the flier a "dry recitation of city accomplishments" that wasn't "terribly promotional."

The lack of a penalty "reflected how tough this call was," Barnett said. He recommended that Nickels should reimburse the staff cost of creating the flier, in addition to printing and mailing costs. That would have totaled about $6,500.

But commissioners unanimously agreed to limit reimbursement to printing and mailing, reasoning that staff would have compiled the mayor's accomplishments even if he were not seeking re-election this year.

Heller, Dayton and Miller said Nickels should be hit with an additional penalty of $1,000, partly to send a message aimed at deterring future violations. But they were outvoted by Hirakawa, Kang, Mahon and Radosevich.

The commission warned the mayor's office last year after receiving a complaint about Nickels' 2004 list of accomplishments.

Harley Anders, then the panel's acting director, said such a list was lawful as long as it "does not occur during the mayor's election year."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com